Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 14 No. 3 | December 2021

inside.hokiesports.com 29 Q: What has been your most memorable moment at Virginia Tech? YR After qualifying for the Olympics on my 9th attempt, when I arrived home my teammates waited and made a surprise for me, baked a cake, and decorated the house with some nice stuff. I really appreciate them, and I was already so happy and thankful, they just made everything better. Q: You were a part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. What was it like representing Egypt and Virginia Tech on the world’s biggest stage? YR I was so happy and honored to wear the Egyptian flag and represent Egypt at the Olympics. I am thankful and words cannot describe the love I have for the VT team and coaches for supporting me and getting me into the Olympics. The hype was real and I competed against the best with no fear. Q: What expectations and goals do you have for your sophomore season? YR I want to do exactly what I did last season, but better. Improve in everything. Smash everybody. Q: What are your strengths as a swimmer? YR I would say my mental strength is the best thing about me. I have insane ability to get motivated and get hyped but at the same time be calm and not nervous before my races. This allows me to swim faster than my fastest I’ve got. I see my goals every day of my life. This helps me to train and wake up every day at 5:30 a.m. and swim in the pool. Q: What’s your favorite hobby outside of swimming? YR I love chilling with the boys. I always like spending time with my team and doing stuff with them. Favorite American food: YR Waffles Q: What has been your most memorable moment at VT? CK Definitely beating No. 2 NC State in overtime at home. We had played them the game before and we lost a tough game and getting to play them literally three days later was a big thing because it’s kind of tough to play a team twice, especially back-to-back. So, beating them at home was definitely one of my most memorable moments. It turned the season around for us too and led us to a run so that was also a big deal. Q: What was the experience of the Foreign Tour in 2019 when the team went to France and Italy like? CK In 2019, my first summer here we went to France and Italy and I had never been out of the country so it was a huge thing for me. I got to see the architecture which was absolutely amazing. Each city we went to; Paris, Rome, Florence and Venice were all completely different, they had different styles and I definitely would say I think I loved the Florence the most. It was probably the most unique place that I’ve been. Rome was beautiful, there was so much history behind it, the gladiators, all of that. Venice was also one of a kind because there’s no cars, everyone gets around by boat so that was an experience. Q: What expectations and goals do you have for yourself in your junior season? CK I need to be more confident and do anything I can to help this team win. I would love to help this team get an ACC Championship. Q: What’s your favorite hobby outside of basketball? CK My favorite things are random things that have to do with art. I like to paint every now and then, I draw and sketch in a book. I haven’t done it in a little bit, but I have plenty of canvases and paint in my apartment and I do that when I am bored. I also bought a piano keyboard and I would love to be able to learn how to play that. Q: What are three words you would use to describe Coach Brooks? CK I’ll have to give three phrases, the first one is family oriented. He’s big on that, he makes us all feel like we are involved in his family and a part of it especially if we are away from home. Tough love, he acts like we’re his own kids and even though he can be harsh on us sometimes, it’s all out of love. The last thing is high expectations. He wants the best for all of us and he expects a lot out of every one of us. Basketball-wise if we shoot it, he expects that it’s going to go in. Even outside of basketball, he expects us to do the best in school and in any career we want to pursue, so those are the three things about Coach Brooks; tough love, high expectations and family-oriented. INSIDE THE HUDDLE Featuring Cayla King and Youssef Ramadan cayla king • WOMEN’S BASKETBALL Youssef Ramadan • Men’s swimming & diving king Ramadan