Kenya Perez Duran, a swimmer at Maywood Academy High School provides insights on her swimming journey. She recently competed at the Eastern League championships where she won multiple events. 

Kenya started swimming at the age of five in El Salvador. She went to a facility that had a pool, where a coach started teaching her. 

“It was because of my health, I just did it to keep myself in shape, because I was gaining weight. It was this person, his name is Josue, I hope he’s doing well, I mean that was when I was in El Salvador,” Kenya said. 

Swimming means a lot to Kenya. She has been swimming for a long time and how it benefited her in a positive way. 

“I think it’s because it’s a huge part of my life. I’ve been doing it for like a lot of years now, it’s just a part of my life now and it has helped me a lot with my mental health,” Perez Duran said . 

Things changed when the world went into quarantine, her swim life changed. She struggled with swimming and it has affected her greatly. 

“I think that during quarantine when I just stop swimming, that definitely stopped me from like, just being in shape, and that affected me a lot and right now like I started swimming back again like last year during July and just that swimming for like 3 or 4 months affected me a lot”, Kenya said. 

Once school was back on after quarantine Kenya was happy about joining the swim team at Maywood Academy High school. As Kenya prepares for playoffs, she lets us know what’s going through her mind and reflects on how she feels about it. 

“It made me feel good participating in the playoffs because it was the last competition of the season before the CIF.”