PENNSYLVANIA, United States— Keanan Dols will be heading to the Tokyo Olympics to represent Jamaica, and in so doing has found himself in the record books of both his island and university. 

Dols booked his ticket to Japan in April when he clocked 2:02.15 in the 200-metre individual medley event at the 2021 Pro Swim Series in Mission Viejo, California. The time was a Jamaican national record, lowering the previous mark he set in 2018.

“When I swam that time, it was just extreme elation and relief that I’d accomplished what I’d set out to do and [had] worked hard on for the last five years of this Olympic cycle,” Dols, who has been representing Jamaica the last seven years, reportedly told The Daily Pennsylvanian, the independent daily student newspaper of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where the 22-year-old attends school.

What’s more, by qualifying for the Olympics, Dols became the first swimmer at UPenn to do so since 1976, when Robert Lewis Cragg Jr competed for the United States during the Montreal Games, according to the newspaper.

After Dols’ record-breaking swim in April, he immediately returned to training for six to eight weeks, but is currently resting before heading to Tokyo where training camp begins on July 13. 

Dols explained that he is excited for the competition in Tokyo, and plans to compete while enjoying the moment as well,

“I think it’s more excitement and anticipation than nerves because I’ve swam at two World Championships [and] at decently large meets, so I’ve swam against world-level competition before,” he said. “But the Olympics is obviously the pinnacle of sports for something like swimming, but I mean there’s no expectations. It’s just go out there, compete, and enjoy the moment.”

Being the first Olympic swimmer at UPenn in decades, Dols hopes to return with knowledge that could help the programme to grow.

“So I mean, coming [into] next year, I will be one of the leaders on the team, and I hope that some of the younger people can learn something from me, and I can be a good example of how to work and how to be successful in this sport,” he reportedly told The Daily Pennsylvanian.

Dols will be joining champion swimmer Alia Atkinson and diving flag-bearer Yona Knight-Wisdom in the pool at the Games, set for July 23 to August 8. He explained that his aim for the Olympics is to lower his national record in the 200-metre individual medley.