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After a harsh year through the pandemic, the 2020 Tokyo Olympic trials have finally come. Representing her college of San Jose State, 18 year old distance swimmer Alice Ciaubano eagerly jumps in the pool in hopes to accomplish her one life goal, attending the olympics for her country. The gunshot fires initiating the start. Ciaubano begins her set gliding through the water. As she gets to her last lap, pain fills her shoulder and she slows down. Cautiously pulling her out of the pool, the trainers look at her torn rotator cuff with saddened eyes. She quickly looks at the scoreboard with tear filled eyes. Final time, 4.52.

Ciaubano first began practicing her craft at the age of six. Every day, she would walk to her community pool and swim laps whilst the kids her age played games like Marco Polo. Alice loved games too, her favorite was just simply racing. Parents noticed Ciaubano’s ambitions even as a little girl and began informing her parents to put Alice in lessons. Being from Stockton CA, a small city filled with growing violence, her parents worried about the safety of their daughter. Unfortunately the only pool to do swim lessons was at the heart of this crime leaving Ciaubano to continue swimming at her community pool. Max Evans, Ciaubano’s highschool coach, saw her talents and began training Alice. “I have never seen a girl with so much ambition like Alice, she wakes up everyday and chooses to become better. She has the true heart of an Olympian,” Evan’s stated. 

Ciaubano is still at San Jose State, recovering from her shoulder injury. With the 2024 Olympics sneaking up, Alice has been practicing three times a day on top of classes to prepare. Her shoulder injury has influenced her hopes to become a sports rehabilitation therapist. “I have faced the struggles of recovering from injuries mentally and physically which is why I want to go into sports rehab therapy. My only goal in life is to help those who become better at what they love like others do for me,” said Ciaubano.