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Inside Hokie Sports
Tech’s
staff found
out about Nazieblo,
thus starting the recruiting
process. She became interested
after seeing a lot of her friends leave to
swim collegiately in the United States and also
because Polish colleges—or most European
ones, for that matter—do not provide
opportunities to participate in collegiate sports.
She eventually made up her mind to switch
continents and attempt to swim collegiately in
the United States—and at Virginia Tech
“Here [in the U.S.], I can do both things [get
an education and swim collegiately], and that’s
what I like,” she said. “So I decided that I would
try the first year, and if I didn’t like it, I could
always come back. I’m not losing anything.”
In the summer of 2014, Nazieblo made a
life-altering decision. She applied for a job that
would bring her to the U.S., and she wound
up getting it. She ended up at a YMCA camp
in Maine, of all places, and she worked as a
lifeguard at the lake that was part of the camp.
She also worked as a counselor to the young
children who attended the camp.
She said they stayed in “wood shacks
somewhere in the woods next to the lake.”
Despite the spartan conditions, she enjoyed the
work, and more importantly, it provided her
with the opportunity to improve her English
and to travel during breaks.
She made trips to Boston, Philadelphia and
Washington, D.C.—and then came a little
farther south, to Virginia Tech.
“I came here to see how it looked, and I
really liked it, but I also didn’t have any other
place to compare it to just because I didn’t go
on any recruiting trips,” Nazieblo said. “But
because of the connections I had with the
coaches, it convinced me that they had an
interest in me, and they helped me through
the process.”
She later added, “For me, it was just the
size of the facility [the Christiansburg Aquatic
Center] was impressive, but also people were
very nice and very friendly. To be honest, I
didn’t have much to compare, but I just liked it.”
She found a surprise waiting for her when
she arrived on campus. She had lost touch with
Paluszek and Szuba, both a year older than her,
and yet learned that both actually swam for the
Hokies. They helped convince her to come to
Blacksburg.
They also helped her with the transition
to the culture. Most international athletes
struggle with things like the language, the food,
banking and the bus transit system. Also, most
come from big cities—Wroclaw has more than
600,000 people—and Blacksburg, with the
students in town, holds roughly 70,000.
Yet
Nazieblo
adapted—pardon
the
pun—swimmingly.
“Most of the stuff, they were explaining it
to me,” she said. “So that really helped with
the transition. From what I heard, there were
stories about how they had to adjust to a new
environment. It was completely different. They
just explained it, and that helped with the
transition.”
Nazieblo certainly made a splash in the
pool. As a freshman, she came in third in two
individual events at the ACC Championships
and earned honorable mention All-America
honors in the 200-yard butterfly at the NCAA
Championships.
However, she wasn’t exactly satisfied.
Like most swimmers, she places more of an
emphasis on her times than her finishes, and
she wanted to swim even faster.
Continued from page 40