Martina Moravcova - Five Time Olympian in Swimming

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How I Started Swimming

My hometown Pieštany is situated in the southwestern part of Slovakia on the banks of the river Váh. Pieštany is known for its spas - sulfurous, green-black mud and fragrant waters. People from around the world come here for a special mud treatment. The town is surrounded by splendid parks and beautiful forests.

I was born 2 months premature in the local hospital on a cold day of January 16, 1976. My mom does not like to talk about my terrifying birth. In spite of being a very strong and resolute woman, even now, she cannot think about my earliest days without crying. At birth, my weight was not quite 4 1/2 pounds. Had I weighed 2 ounces less, the doctors would not have tried to save me. Instead, I was taken to a special pediatric hospital in a neighboring town and placed in an incubator. During my second week in the incubator, I contracted pneumonia. The doctors had to give me a strong course of treatment and told my parents: "Either it will work or it will kill her." As my parents stared at my tiny body through the glass wall of the incubator, they talked about their dreams. Both of my parents were competitive swimmers and they have stayed involved with swimming through the present time. They spent many nights there watching me fight for my life and my mom in her desperation kept saying, "she will live and, one day we will be watching her swim in the Olympics." Their dream came true 16 years later when I went on to represent Czechoslovakia in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona , Spain.

I started with regular training sessions at the age of six, 4 times a week for an hour. I was playing in the water and learning the proper stroke technique rather than training. As a little girl, I was very hyper. I just could never sit still. Every night before I went to bed, I ran 10 times up and down the hallway in our apartment. Swimming helped me to burn the excess of energy.

As a 10 year - old I won my first swimming medal. In Slovakia, children can start competing officially at the age of 10. When I was just learning how to swim my parents were giving me their medals in order to award me for my trying and improvements. I used to hang the medals on a door handle of my room. My dad and my mom were state and national swimming champions. As a child I did not really recognize the value of the medals. I did not care whether it was a silver or a gold medal or whether it was a medal from a state meet or the National championships. I just wanted to get better and better so I could keep getting more and more medals because they made me feel so happy and excited about swimming. The feeling of having a medal around my neck was just very satisfying. I seem to never forget the great feeling of pride and satisfaction. I still have the same great feelings whenever I step up on the award stand and receive a medal. When I won my first own medal I took all the medals that my parents had given me and handed all of the medals back to them with a great pride.

At the age of 12, I swam about 20-25km a week. I trained only once a day for 1.5 hour six times a week. Twice or three times a week we did running, dry land and stretching for about 30 minutes which left us only with an hour in the water on those days. Consequently, I did not have much of aerobic base and strength for longer distances. I made my first Junior National team the same year. I went to a couple of training camps with kids a year older than me. I remember my first two-week camp until these days. I did 60km a week and a ton of running and dry land as well. It was a shock therapy for my body. I was crying the whole way on the way back home because I was so happy that the torture was finally over.

In 1990, I made my first European Junior Championships in Danquerqe, France. I was a year younger than most of my opponents. I took the 8th place in the 100m Backstroke. I also anchored the 400m Medley Relay. It was a really close race for the 3-5th place. I touched at the 4th place. The relay in the second place was DQ and we moved to the third place for about two seconds. Then the board went blank for a second and when the official results came back there was a big DQ next to our relay team as well. I was the one who false-started. I cried the whole day.

A year later, at the European Junior Championships I picked up a silver medal in the 100m Free with a new Czechoslovakian Senior Record of 56.90 and a bronze medal in the 400m Freestyle relay. No false start this time. The same year, I was voted the Junior Swimmer of the Year by the Czechoslovakian Swimming Federation and I started to dream the Olympic dream.

Thanks to my sponsors for their support and working with me.

Škoda Auto Slovensko

Zapadoslovenská Energetika

TYR Sport