![]() ![]() And I fell in love with the team and the school, and the environment, and I’m super excited to go to Austin.”ĭuring all of this swimming flux, Sullivan has also continued the process of accepting who she is and what her role is within the LGBTQ+ family. ![]() “And lucky enough, Mitch Dalton was at UT and Carol Capitani was at UT, and there’s just such a good staff behind me there. It wasn’t the same school that it was when I committed. “I am just such a different person now than when I was 16 (and committed to USC),” Sullivan said. In the meantime, while she continues to prepare for Trials next summer, Sullivan has decided to attend the University of Texas once the Olympics are complete. While all of this craziness was happening throughout the world, Sullivan was just coming out on the positive end of some difficult decisions and emotional transitions that continue to shape her as a person and swimmer.ĭespite having been committed to USC for a few years, she ultimately decided, due to her own personal growth and some changes in personnel at USC, that this was no longer the best route for her educational and swimming careers. But, at the end of the day, everyone’s struggling and it’s just a different date to push back on our calendars. “But believe it or not, this extra year has been tough. ![]() When it was canceled, we were all like, ‘ok, yeah this is happening.’ “And it was a 'will they, won’t they' kind of thing. “I think we all saw it coming because they were waiting for so long,” she said. Olympic team and hold the Games in Japan didn’t come as a surprise. Sullivan said the ultimate decision to wait until 2021 to select the U.S. So, we’ve been lucky.”Īfter the shutdown, the conversations about the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, and almost simultaneously, U.S. And even though it’s one to a lane, we’re definitely making due with what we have. “We’re starting to train in some pools again. ![]() But things are starting to get back to normal. “(When pools closed), I was swimming in my family friend’s backyard. “It’s been hard,” Sullivan said of her post-COVID training experience. Like everyone else, she was forced to adapt to the world’s new normal – and she’s convinced the experience made her a better swimmer and competitor. Nationals and qualified for 2019 Open Water World Championships and crept her way into the top-5 in the United States in both the 8 freestyle events in the pool.īefore COVID-19 shut down pools and the world at large this past March, Sullivan was well on her way to being a force at Olympic Trials this past summer and possibly earning a spot on her first Olympic team – particularly with her best event, the 1500 free, being a new Olympic event in 2020. Like, ‘hey, look what I did.’ I’d like to think he’d be proud of me where I am right now.”Īmidst dealing with the death of her father along with gaining confidence in her sexuality, Sullivan, who committed to swim for the University of Southern California (USC) as a 16-year-old, was finding herself as one of the top distance freestylers and open water swimmers in the world.īetween 20, she swam her way into a National Championship in the 5K at Open Water U.S. And I made the National Team for the first time four weeks after he passed. I know he wanted me to keep training through a lot of it. “After he passed, it was hard for a really long time. “Growing up, I’d go to Japan to visit family. “He was diagnosed in April 2017, and he passed in July 2017,” Sullivan said of her father, John, who swam for the University of Wisconsin. Her mental health suffered, but she remained true to herself throughout, persevered and discovered that, just like swimming, life is tough, unpredictable and not always fun – but hard work and commitment ultimately pay off. Shortly after that, she came out as being gay, and the combination of her dad’s death, being outed and swimming at a highly stressful level was overwhelming for her. He had been her mentor, her friend, her biggest cheerleader for her entire career, and within three months of being diagnosed with esophageal cancer, he was gone. It began when her father passed away in 2017. Erica Sullivan has experienced her fair share of growing pains over the past few years. ![]()
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