Ladycat shines internationally

The first time Victoria Crews traveled to Italy, it was on a cruise with her family in 2019 and she spent much of her time on a ship ON the water.

This time she spent much of her time IN the water, and the experience was golden with a bit of exciting bronze.

The Aledo High School swimmer traveled to Fort Worth's Sister City of Reggio Emilia, Italy the final week of July to compete in the seventh Giochi del Tricolore Games. Fashioned in the style of the Olympics, they occur every four years, beginning in 1997, and are an international celebration created to inspire unity and peace among athletes from around the world.

The competition featured 26 cities from 19 countries.

Crews, who will be a junior this school year at AHS, was competing for her club team, Sigma Swimming-Metroplex Athletics. She was in five events, finishing in the top 10 in each and in the top five in four.

This included winning a gold medal the 200-meter backstroke, clocking a time of 2 minutes, 48.02 seconds.

"I think I did pretty good, especially considering the week before I had season-ending competition with Sigma," Crews said. "It was very rewarding, to say the least.

"I got a taste of what could potentially be my future if I swim professionally."

Though she won a gold medal, Crews said that perhaps the most exciting part of the competition was when she set a personal-record time of 1:10.96 in the 100 butterfly. She captured a gold medal as a result.

"I don't think I was ever so happy to get third in my life," she said with a smile. "And to do it in Italy, of all places."

Crews, the only AHS swimmer at the event, also had a PR of 29.25 seconds in the 50 freestyle despite taking seventh, her lowest finish of the event. Her other finishes were fourth in the 50 backstroke and fifth in the 50 butterfly.

Swimming wasn't the only thing Crews and her fellow swimmers did in Italy. The organizers hosted cultural and educational events to educate the athletes of the importance of using sport as a cross-cultural connection to establish meaningful relationships. For example, Crews became friends with some swimmers from Tunisia.

"They got close to our team and it was great getting to know them throughout our trip," she said.

This year, the theme of the games is “Sports can change people; People can change the world.” 

Crews said she and her friends also found some time to take in some of the countryside. This included a quick trip to Florence, which is only a couple hours away.

"We got there early and were able to take some pics of touristy places before they got too busy," she said.

Now Crews is back home and preparing for the coming Aledo High swim season and what she hopes will be a third consecutive trip to state. She while her team is already close, she believes her experience in Italy will help them all.

"We're tight and like family, and I think I share what I did and saw to help us become an even more connected team," she said.