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Olivia Bray in a recent competition.

USA Swimming, the national governing body for the sport of swimming has Olivia Bray of Daleville ranked number 1 in her 7 year old age group in 50 Yard and 100 Yard Butterfly.  Bray who is a student at Troutville Elementary School, began swimming competitively with the Ashley Plantation Swim Club this summer and has taken to the sport! USA Swimming administers competitive swimming in accordance with the Amateur Sports Act and is committed to excellence and the improvement of the sport of swimming so this is a major honor for the youngster.

Olivia Bray  is the daughter  of James and Kimberly Bray of Daleville, VA and they are very proud of her achievement. She is ranked number 1in both the 50 Yard and 100 Yard Butterfly for 7 year old girls. when asked a bout what she likes about swimming olivia replied, "I like to swim in swim meets to try to win ribbons." and becuase she swims so fast she explained that, too! "Kicking with my legs which are my strongest muscles."

She had a successful summer swimming season and because she did so well,  her parents decided to put her in year round swimming with the Virginia Gators Swim Team (www.virginiagators.com), located in Roanoke. Her coach is Marsha Barry they have worked hard teaching Olivia fundamentally sound swimming techniques.

In her first swim meet with the Virginia Gators , the Halloween Meet: Oct 23-25, she entered 9 individual events and was on 2 relay teams. She won first place blue ribbons in all 11 events.  Bray qualified for the prestigious Christmas Meet Invitational in December in Pittsburgh in 6 of the individual events.

Her next meet was on the Virginia Tech campus pool for the Hokie Thanksgiving Invitational on Nov 13-15. She entered 9 individual events and was swimming against 8-12 year olds in each of her events. She actually won 2 of her heats in 50 Y butterfly and 50 Y backstroke against only 11 and 12 year old girls. It was in this meet at Virginia Tech that she set the times to become the number 1 ranked seven year old in both the 50 Yard and 100 Yard Butterfly. In addition, she is ranked number 2 in the 200 Yard IM and is also the number 4 and 3 ranked seven year old in the 50 Yard and 100 Yard Backstroke respectively. She also qualified for the Pittsburgh Invitational in 3 more events for a total of 9 individual events.

Olivia is currently preparing for the December Invitational Meet Dec. 5-6 here in Roanoke and the Pittsburgh Christmas Meet follows on December 18-20.

Photo by Brad Hopkins