Team: Men’s swim and dive
Hometown:
Northampton, Mass.
Major: Chemistry
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ben Niewoehner (BN): Why did you begin swimming and how did you end up here at the College?
Oliver Schalet (OS): I got into it the way that kids get into most sports. My friends were doing it, so I ended up doing it too. I remember the very first time I was visiting my friend’s grandmother’s house on a lake in Canada. Her mom and sister were swimming to the island in the middle of the lake. It was freezing cold — so cold that I was in the canoe with my mom on the way back because I couldn’t stay in the water. But it was fun, so I decided to join the swim team with them and stuck with it. I swam with my local YMCA for six years and with my high school team. Junior year, as the idea of swimming in college became more real, I switched to a bigger club team. I dropped enough time to get recruited by Williams, and here I am.
BN: How has this season been for you and the team?
OS: It’s been great. We’re a fun group with a bunch of different personalities, but we mesh really well and also push each other. It’s been a year of fast swimming so far, but we’re looking forward to the NESCAC Championships this weekend. The women just won NESCACs: It was a really close meet, but they pulled it off, and that was inspiring.
BN: What are your individual and team goals for the remainder of the season?
OS: Winning NESCACs is always our number-one goal. We’ve won for six consecutive years now. We haven’t lost since 2018, and that’s something we take a lot of pride in. I would also love to see a big cohort of us qualify for nationals, so that means fast swimming, which a lot of people are capable of. I would also love to continue individual success at NESCACs. Winning a national championship would be pretty cool, individually or in a relay. Last year we won the 800 freestyle relay, and three-quarters of that team is coming back this year, so that would be cool to repeat. Lots of exciting stuff on the horizon.
BN: You personally had a really good year last year. Where do you think that success came from?
OS: Honestly, I’m not exactly sure. I think the little day-to-day habits add up and you just trust the work you do every day in the pool, in the weight room, and believe in yourself when it comes time to race. I was also injured last year. I broke my thumb in the fall, which was definitely a setback, but retrospectively, it forced me to be in the moment. When you’re injured, you can only focus on what you can do right then and there. I think that was really helpful because I was doing the best I could every day, no matter what that looked like.
BN: What is your favorite swim and dive team tradition?
OS: My first instinct is to say Fun Fridays. In the fall, instead of having practice on Fridays, we’ll do some fun outdoor activity. It’s just a great way for the team to get to know each other in another context, and be competitive in a different way. The translation from water to land isn’t always there, so some people are really great runners and really coordinated, but most of us aren’t that good. It’s kind of fun when you throw a bunch of swimmers onto a frisbee pitch.
BN: You’re entering your last semester. What will you look back on most fondly from your time at the College?
OS: It’s cliche to say that it’s the people and the team, but that really is true. For one, the coaches are really incredible people and coaches. I love being around them every day, and I’ve learned so much from them. The culture that they foster and the standards that they hold themselves — and thus the team — to are admirable. That makes the team an incredible group of people to be around. We spend a lot of time with each other because of how much time we devote to training. That could get pretty rough if you didn’t like the people you were around. But we care about character above all else, and that makes for a fun team environment.
