Gabriel Cresta first got interested in swimming when he was 2 years old and started to swim with his mother in the pool. As he grew up he started to practice more and more, his early life was spent in ELO a swimming school where many learn how to swim. As he progressed his interest grew more, to the point where he decided to become a high performance athlete in the sport. This led to him joining the team in the Tênis Clube Campinas when he was 10 years old, which was a place where he would get to improve all his abilities and have more visibility in general, he was part of Tenis clube until his 16 years. At 16 he joined a club in Minas gerais which is one of the most renowned swimming clubs in the whole country where he left at 18 years old. In 2020 he returned to Tenis clube where he got to improve even more. Gabriel today is soon going to have his applications where he will be able to actually see the results of his hard work.
Gabriel had a tough time in school while having to balance his academic life with a high performance athlete life, where in the beginning he would practice 6 days a week 3 hours a day, and later on in 9th grade where he had to practice 12 times a week before and after school having a total of 4 hours daily. He mentions that it was extremely exhausting since he had a hard time staying up at night to do his homework but affirming that it was something achievable.
When talking about how sports changed his life he mentions that he will be able to get the results of his hard work once his applications are done since he expects that swimming has some impact on his background. But this is not the only way swimming changed his life, he says that because of this harsh life of a high performance athlete he was able to create great determination and discipline, since it was something he needed to have to be able to get results in the sport he loved.
When asked if people should follow the same path as him of a high performance athlete that is after becoming a professional he says that it isn’t a definite yes or no, for a person to follow this path they need to love what they are doing, they need to truly enjoy it since you can’t go through it without the hunger for it. He recommends that those who really enjoy it go for it. When asked about sports in general his advice is that everyone does practice some kind of sport since they are good for you physically and mentally and that it is necessary for life that a person practices something at least.
He was questioned about his diet and if it was achievable with what the school had available he said that it was completely viable to eat the school’s food. The school had everything he needed since they had carbohydrates, proteins and other elements which his diet consisted of, and most importantly it was available in large quantities which was what he looked for. So when considering becoming a high performance athlete, at least swimming wise, the food won’t be a problem at school since it has everything needed available, saying he never needed to bring any food from home during lunch time.
Lastly he was asked if his stress levels were high when dealing with the school and with swimming to which he responded with his priorities. He says he would be stressed many times but that he could deal with it, but to be a professional athlete he would need to learn how to deal with stress. To balance both lives and to soften the stress he set his priorities between academic and athlete life, where he would give priority to tests when they were coming and priority to swimming when competitions were coming, and in the events of these to converging he would talk to the teachers that were comprehensible of the situation and always allowed him to reschedule the test to a few days earlier. But like everything in life it wasn’t easy and sacrifices had to be made, such as sleeping later and having a higher exhaustion.
In conclusion Gabriel Cresta is a high performance athlete that was able to go through school, and balance both lives, dealing with stress tests, competitions and other challenges he faced, but was able to surpass it all and is now waiting to get the fruits of his hard work when having his applications and moving forward to a new phase of his life.
EAC PRESS 