One of the biggest rising stars in Jamaica’s youth swimming is Immaculate Conception High School student Zaneta Alvaranga, and not surprisingly, she draws a lot of inspiration from Jamaica’s queen in the pool, Alia Atkinson.

Alvaranga, who recently returned from Trinidad and Tobago where she was once again the star of the show, missed the swimming clinic put on by Jamaica’s Olympic star, but was able to catch up with her hero at the end of the final session last Thursday.

The shy 13-year-old expressed just how much of an inspiration Atkinson has been to her in a quick chat with the Jamaica Observer.

“She is a big inspiration to me because she is the first black woman to have broken a (world) record and she is also one of the few Jamaican swimmers to represent us in the Olympics. She has gone there more than once, so I really look up to her for that. She has been consistent and I hope to emulate that,” said Alvaranga.

Though still young, Alvaranga already has her priorities straight as far as swimming and her education goes. She stated clearly that school is priority one, despite her own dreams of representing Jamaica at the Olympic Games some time in the future.

“I have to focus on school, so I would try for when I am 20 years old to represent Jamaica, but if I can get it before and still be able to on top of my schoolwork, then that would be nice,” she explained.

Alvaranga is also happy with the effort made by Atkinson to stay in touch with the younger Jamaican swimmers.

“I know that she tries to be in touch with the youth swimmers in Jamaica, and I like that she tries to give back to the younger swimmers of the country to become more like her,” she noted.

Already a star in her own right, Alvaranga returned to Jamaica with a bounty as she stamped her class on the ASATT Invitational, which was put on by the Amatuer Swimming Association of Trinidad and Tobago last week.

“The championship was good because I won the 11-12 girls high points trophy again. I won it last year and this year I got more medals and higher places in my other events. I won the 50m butterfly, the 100m butterfly, the 800m medley, the 50m freestyle, and the 100m freestyle and I got silver in three and bronze in two other races,” she outlined.

Alvaranga also described the championship as being better than last year as far as she was concerned.

“This year was better because I got more points.last year I had between 85 and 89 points, but this year I had 101. Last year I had more competition from a Trinidadian that moved up to 13-14 this year. She was there last year so it was a battle between her and I for points, but this year I had another tough competitor, but it wasn’t as hard as last year’s,” she said.

While Alvaranga has been racking up her own successes in the pool, Atkinson has spent the time keeping tabs on her progress.

“Especially with social media and how you can access anything, you can always find out how the young ones are doing. Zaneta and Nathaniel Thomas are fantastic; they are at the place where they need to be right now, which is what everybody is looking at because they have possibilities.

“It’s really cool to see where they are at right now, because we haven’t had that way in a while. We have had one or two here and there but, in general, they are pushing themselves up every single time [they perform] and it will be really cool to see what the future holds for them,” Atkinson expressed.

But while she has been looking on at the new generation of swimming stars, the 29-year-old has a major complaint.

“Nobody talks to me, I try very hard to be approachable because when I was growing up you didn’t have that approachability with our seniors. It was really hard to look at somebody and know who they were and know what they stood for, so I try really hard to do that with all the ranges, from the littlest one to the big ones; I try to be as approachable as possible, so because of that it kind of hurts.

“I try to be approachable and nobody is talking to me.I try and poke fun at them to make them smile, to make them comfortable around me, but hopefully they will become more comfortable around me and I can find out how they are doing, how they are feeling, how they are looking at the future, so please talk to me,” Atkinson appealed to the young swimmers.

The evergreen swimmer left the island on the weekend to return to training, while Alvaranga’s training resumes as soon as the Christmas Holidays are over, even before the new year begins.