Former Grey pupil achieves Olympic dream

FORMER Grey High School pupil Christopher Reid realised his dream when he earned a berth in the national swimming team for the Rio Olympic Games later this year.

Reid, 20, who is from Port Elizabeth but studying in the US, also smashed two records last week.

He is the first Grey old boy to be chosen for the national Olympics swim team since the 1940s.

“Qualifying for the Olympics [in Brazil from August 5 to 21] is the biggest achievement of my career to date,” the University of Alabama student said at Grey High yesterday. “This has been a life-long dream.” Reid, whose family lives in Woodlands, returned to South Africa earlier this month to participate in the South African swimming trials in Durban.

He broke the national and Africa 100m backstroke record of 53.75sec, clocking a time of 53.12, and qualified for the 100m backstroke and 4x100m medley relay events.

“It’s been such an amazing feeling coming back here [Grey High], because the school has been instrumental in the development of my [swimming and academic] career,” the Tuscaloosa student said.

“But I also have to thank my previous coach, Brian Elliot, for getting me past the barrier of school competition into the real world of competitive swimming.”

Reid’s mother, Ronel, said they were proud of his achievements.

“He has worked extremely hard to achieve these goals, and he can only go from strength to strength from here,” she said.

Reid, who matriculated from Grey in 2014, joined the Alabama University swimming team after his move to the US.

He is studying for a degree in quantitative finance, a field of applied mathematics, concerned with financial markets.

Asked how he found living in the US, Reid said the days tended to be “much longer”.

“I need to keep my mind active because as soon as I have nothing to do or think about, I tend to get lazy – that’s why I am not complaining too much about the long days,” he said.

Reid often trained six to seven days week.

He said he would never have achieved so much without the help of his late father and the support of his family.

“Great performances require great sacrifices, and there have been a number of great sacrifices made by people other than me,” Reid said.

“I am really thankful for all the help from everyone who has contributed to my success thus far, and I just want to carry on making all of them proud in all I do.”