Jefferson Girl Makes Junior Olympic Swim Team

Most people don’t think of swimming in the winter. But 10-year-old Lake Hopatcong resident Amy Segond thinks about it 12 months a year. She is about to go to the Junior Olympics at Rutgers University after qualifying with her time in the 200-meter freestyle. Which, not coincidentally, is Segond’s favorite stroke.

Amy’s father, Tommy Segond, and mother, Jennifer Adams, took her to swim classes starting when she was about nine months old. Then, Tommy continued her lessons on his own for a short while.

“I live right by the lake, so I had to do something to make sure she stayed safe,” he said.

Amy’s parents started her on swimming at the Lakeland Hills YMCA when she was six. She switched to the Randolph YMCA a short while later, and that’s where she’s been ever since.

Amy swims for 90 minutes a day, five days a week. Her goal is to make the Olympic team, which she will be eligible for at the age of 14.

“The competition is hard sometimes, but I love to swim. I made the Junior Olympic team, so I hope that I can make the Olympic team someday.”

When she’s not swimming the fourth grade student at Stanlick School likes to hang out with her friends and family.

“She’s a typical girl, so she loves to socialize with her friends,” said Adams. “But right now, swimming is her life. We’re all very active in it, and we just try to encourage her as much as we can.”