Q&A
F
elicia Lee had two goals from a young
age — to be a swimmer in college and
to try out for the U.S. Olympic Team.
Lee, now 26, has realized both objec-
tives, and though she didn’t make it
on to the 2016 Olympic Team, she’s
distinguished herself as an athlete in ways she
might not have anticipated — setting a record
at a Pac-12 meet, competing at the FINA World
Cup, swimming between Catalina Island and Los
Angeles and hiking the Inca Trail in Peru.
Lee, who grew up in Wayne, credits swimming
with shaping who she is today. “Swimming has
given me so many great things in my life,” she
says, noting that the sport gave her the opportu-
nity to swim for the prestigious team at Stanford
University and a chance to travel around the world.
At 13, Lee moved from Wayne to North
Baltimore, Maryland, with her father to pursue the
sport on a more competitive level, while her moth-
er, older brother Emmerson, and younger sister
Cassandra stayed behind in Wayne. (Cassandra Lee
swam for Wayne Hills’
swim team and gradu-
ated from the school
in 2018.) During her
time in Maryland, Lee
trained with coaches
Paul Yetter and Bob
Bowman and met U.S.
Olympic star Katie
Hoff. She attended
Towson High School,
graduating in 2010.
Now Lee lives in
San Francisco and
balances her time
between work, spend-
ing time with her
roommates, and other activities such as hiking,
biking and channel swimming.
HOW DID YOU BECOME INTERESTED IN SWIMMING?
I started swimming at a young age. My mom
didn’t know how to swim very well, so she wanted
us to be water-safe. She threw us in these Mommy
and Me classes when I was really young, about 2
years old. Some of my earliest memories of the pool
were that I did not like it. I would go in and come
out purple and shivering.
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