Zoe Skirboll was certainly no longer in Fox Chapel as she paced the pool deck at this past June’s Olympic Trials.
Omaha, Neb., was where Zoe journeyed for arguably the most important series of races in her young career. Despite being committed to swim for the powerhouse Virginia program following her senior year at Fox Chapel High School, a swim meet of this magnitude was still an entirely different experience for Skirboll.
“Going into it, I was really nervous,” Skirboll said. “I was so scared, and even at the meet, I remember stepping out into the bright lights and seeing the pool for the first time and my heart was beating out of my chest.”
Despite being thrust into the limelight, Skirboll performed well enough to be one of 43 athletes chosen to represent the United States at the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup in October. Skirboll will swim in Berlin and Budapest for the third and fourth legs, respectively, of the world cup.
For somebody who dreams of one day swimming in the Olympics, qualifying for the FINA Swimming World Cup was a significant milestone for Skirboll.
“This is something that I’ve wanted for as long as I can remember,” Skirboll said. “I have a reminder on my phone that I’ve had for a year and a half that pops up at a certain time every day that before practice would remind me ‘Do you want to make the junior national team?’ I really wanted to make that team and now making it, and being able to represent Team USA, that’s the biggest dream of all.”
A well-rounded swimmer who qualified at the Olympic Trials in the 100 breaststroke, 50 freestyle, 200 freestyle and 200 individual medley events, Skirboll has frequented competitive meets since she was 8 years old. Her father, Jim, who swam at Ohio University, doubles as Zoe’s coach and got her into the sport at a younger age than the girls she used to compete against.
The 5-year-old girl who once tagged along for her dad’s practices would swim alongside teenagers just three years later.
“That was the greatest experience ever for me because I was the youngest person on the team,” Skirboll said. “I remember being surrounded by all these older kids that I had looked up to my whole life. That was my first kind of taste of competition and traveling with a team. Ever since then, I fell in love with the sport.”
To develop into a Division I swimmer who is capable of competing at the international level, Skirboll and her father have worked closely with one another for roughly a decade. Jim credits Zoe’s stroke technique, competitive spirit and willingness to race for her success as she has continued with her youth career.
The future Cavalier is the “whole package” as a swimmer in her father’s eyes, and perhaps more important, a daughter he is “very proud” of.
“To be at that level, you have to be coachable, you have to be dedicated, you have to work hard and you have to have talent,” Jim said. “Talent can only take you so far. She’s talented, but if she didn’t work hard, if she didn’t listen to be coachable and if she wasn’t dedicated, she couldn’t go on the path that she’s on.”
Considering Zoe and Jim’s relationship encompasses both father-daughter and coach-swimmer dynamics, the two have laid ground rules to ensure they maintain a positive rapport. For instance, on car rides home from practice and away from the pool, the two won’t talk about swimming.
Unless, of course, if Zoe brings it up; then, Jim will oblige.
“I feel like we worked it out really well that we can keep those two worlds kind of apart, but it’s also I feel in a way almost brought us closer because we have a really special bond with swimming,” Zoe said. “It’s gotten me where I am today, so I think it’s really something special that we have.”
Zoe’s ascent to the greatest heights swimming has to offer have come with sacrifices, however. She hasn’t swam for her high school team since freshman year and is undecided whether she’ll rejoin the Foxes since she’ll frequently travel with the junior national team during the school year.
Still, her longing to swim within a team concept as she did early on in high school is nearly over as she’ll be preparing to enroll at her dream school within a year’s time. Coupled with being named to the national team, the opportunity to train alongside elite swimmers is one Zoe will not easily pass up.
“I rise in competition,” she said. “I always want to be the best that I can be, and no matter what I do, I’m always wanting to better myself. I always want more.”
But like any athlete, she was also impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The World Junior Championships, an important event for amateur swimmers, were canceled in 2021, which made Zoe “a little disappointed.”
As such, USA Swimming changed course and decided to pursue competition in the FINA Swimming World Cup, which is hardly a consolation prize. She has still earned the chance to work with coaches like Chuck Batchelor and Kate Lundsten, whom Skirboll “trusts” will help her improve as a swimmer.
Meanwhile, Jim will cut his duties in half and revert to solely a parental role rather than keep coaching when Zoe goes overseas for the FINA Swimming World Cup.
And based on how excited Zoe is to have achieved one of her proudest accomplishments in making the junior national team, one has to believe Jim will make that tradeoff after the “dream” it’s been coaching his daughter throughout her childhood.
“It’s been the biggest goal of mine, and I just can’t wait,” Zoe said about joining the junior national team. “It’s really exciting, and I’ve had a bunch of my friends previously make the team and tell me about the things they got to experience. Being at an international competition, I can’t wait for that.”
Andrew Destin: adestin@post-gazette.com and Twitter @AndrewDestin1.
First Published: August 4, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
Updated: August 4, 2021, 10:02 a.m.