By Titus Mohler
Correspondent

Seventeen-year-old Gabrielle Bishop started swimming lessons at the age of two. Her athletic older sisters helped bring that about.

“I just saw them swimming and wanted to try it,” Gabrielle said.

Later on, when she began attending Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, her future swim coach there, Karen Norman, remembered seeing her in the pool very early on.

“She always wanted to jump in the pool with us when she was like, second, third, fourth grade,” Norman recalled. “And she always wanted to race anybody and everybody when she was little. I mean, she just had that competitive spirit from the word ‘go’ and just loved swimming, and you could just tell it.”

Though swimmers are not eligible for school competition until the eighth grade, Norman said Gabrielle’s ability was so great that she could have benefited the team when she was in fifth grade.

At the age of 12, Gabrielle made a decision that would have a profound impact on her life.

“Then, I cut out soccer and basketball and just focused everything on swimming,” she said.

The results speak for themselves.

For the 13-14 year old age group, she set the state record in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.66 and still holds it today.

She is the state record holder for the 200-yard freestyle (1:49.25), the 100-yard freestyle (51.06), and the 100-yard backstroke (57.13).

She has been the MVP of the NSA swim team each year since she joined the team as an eighth-grader, and holds eight school records.

Twice Gabrielle has been named Most Outstanding Female Swimmer of the Meet at the Virginia Division II Championship meets, and she garnered the title again this past weekend at the VISAA State Swimming and Diving Championships.

She has even met and trained with Olympians Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin.

“She was determined,” her father, Trenton Bishop, said. “She’s got a good work ethic, she’s got a good level head on her shoulders and understands that where there’s hard work, there’s rewards. She has an athletic gift, but at this level, it comes down to motivation and drive.”

High-level swimmers must make enormous personal sacrifices to attend persistent practices and weekend meets.

“They don’t get to go to the movies on Friday nights with their friends,” Trenton said. “And they miss dances and all kinds of things to dedicate themselves to what they love.”

“It’s gotten to the point where it doesn’t really bother me anymore,” Gabrielle said. “I remember when I first started it would just really kill me.”

But she has big goals to go with the big sacrifices.

“If [it] were to happen to me, I would love to go to the Olympics,” she said. “But if that were not to happen, it wouldn’t be the end of the world for me.”

As college approaches, she has let her parents know that her goals are not as focused on swimming as they have been in high school.

“It’s more on getting an education and setting myself up for a job in life and getting a steady income.”

She is starting to prepare for life after swimming. Still, though, her love for the sport is clear.

“Swimming means the world to me,” she said. “I feel like it’s shaped me as a person. It’s taught me time-management, responsibility, determination, how to believe in myself, how to rely on myself as well as on a team. It’s honestly the greatest thing that could have happened to me ‘cause I feel like it’s set me up for so many things in life that nothing else could have prepared me for.”