Original Story Published by: Staff Writer for Team USA
Photo Source: ©Team USA
(Above) Jake Johnson takes a breather in the pool after the men’s 200m individual medley on Oct. 8, 2018 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - When U.S. swimmer Jake Johnson signed up to study Afrikaans at Harvard this autumn, he never expected to be testing his language skills so soon.
But the 18-year-old has been chatting away with his South Africa counterparts at the Youth Olympic Games, where he finished eighth in the 200m individual medley final at the Natatorium on Monday.
“I did my homework early for that class, and my teacher said, ‘While you’re (in Buenos Aires) I want you to have a conversation in Afrikaans every day.’ So during lunch I go and talk to the South Africa team,” he said.
“They were like, ‘Woah! An American is learning Afrikaans?’ I told them, ‘Yeah, it’s one of my favorite subjects.’ It’s really exciting and really fun. They think it’s so cool, too.”
Johnson was not sure how easy it would be to get excused for several weeks of study to compete at Buenos Aires 2018, but thrashed out a plan with his college swimming coach and teaching staff.
“To keep up with the academic prestige of a university such as Harvard, you can’t really take breaks on the academic side,” said Johnson, who plans to study electrical engineering. “But they made it super easy for me. I’ll have to do some homework between sessions, but other than that, I’m just really excited for the opportunity they allowed me to have.”
To read the full article, visit Team USA.
Related
