Emma Weyant has been busy.
In the span of one week, the 2020 Olympic Games silver medalist in the 400 IM will have released a collaboration with Sporti and swum in her first meet as a Florida Gator.
“This has been a long-awaited process but I’m really excited I get to join the Gators in the second semester and I’ll be racing at the FAU dual meet this weekend,” she told Mel Stewart on this week’s “Gold Medal Minute” podcast. She added, “After having some time to really just think and reflect on the past couple of seasons, coming off of some big seasons –highs and lows– I really put in a good training block and I’m just excited to be able to compete with my team again, and [going] into a new season open-minded and just excited again.”
Weyant, who graduated from Sarasota’s Riverview High School in 2020 and had to navigate the “double cycle” of the 2020 Olympic Games being moved to 2021 –with the concomitant complications of managing her training and taper– spent her freshman year at the University of Virginia in 2021-22 but transferred to the University of Florida in July 2022. At UVA, Weyant was a two-time All-American, placing second in the 500 free and fourth in the 400 IM at the 2022 NCAA Division I Championships.
Weyant explained her decision to transfer from the NCAA-champions UVA to Florida: “That was obviously a really difficult decision. I loved my time at Virginia, and I’m forever grateful for my coaches and teammates. I have so many great experiences there that I’m definitely carrying with me but I made the decision that was best for me and the future of my career. I’m really happy to be closer to home and I’m in a really great training environment right now with some of the best in the world, obviously, and I’m being pushed every day and it’s just been a lot of fun.”
Weyant has enjoyed being back in her home state as a member of the University of Florida’s swimming and diving team. She noted, “We just got out of our big block of winter training. Definitely some of the most challenging training weeks that I’ve been through in a while. And getting to swim with all these high-level athletes really pushes me to be my best every day and try to be as consistent as possible because all of these athletes – Katie especially is the most consistent and hard-working person that I’ve ever seen, and being next to her really makes me focus.”
Weyant has focused on her mental health and has been inspired by other female athletes, such as Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka, who are “really putting a priority on their mental health and taking that into their competition and training, and that’s something that I’ve really tried to incorporate into my own routine over the past year, coming off a season that we might not think is the most successful, I think that is the best time to do it, and really carry that through seasons good and bad.”
Florida will host the FAU Owls on Friday, January 13 in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center. Diving begins at 11:45 am, while swimming starts at 2:00 pm. The Gators will honor their 18 seniors before the meet, at 1:30 pm.
Riverview* High School. Go Gators!
Welcome home and let’s go Emma!
“Florida will host the FAU Owls on Friday, January 13 in the Exactech Arena at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center”
If I’m reading this correctly, does this mean Florida sold the naming rights to their pool?
Sort of. The indoor pool is built into the basketball arena.
The gymnastics/basketball/indoor track/swimming facilities are all under one roof (and the swim team also has an outdoor 50m pool directly outside of the indoor 50m pool with movable bulkheads).
No one will ever call it the Exactech Arena though; it will be known as the O’Dome forever.
Finally!
Excited to see her representing the Gators, huge boost to the rooster along with Izey.
I know she has mentioned potentially deferring her start but if Bella Sims overlaps with Emma that roster is getting legit! Still hard to compete with Stanford and UVA but definitely starts to give them a ‘punchers chance’.
Go Gata!