By Kelsey Lynch, Swimming World College Intern
Imagine this: You are German Tanja Kirmse. You’re just 16 years old, and you decide that you want to spend your time as a college student-athlete in a country across the Atlantic Ocean. Then you begin this chapter a few months later, and earning a spot on an Atlantic 10 Championship podium a few months after that.
There are a small handful of international student-swimmers in the Atlantic 10 Swimming Conference, and Kirmse, a 17-year-old sophomore from Burghausen, Germany, is one of these daring few. The daughter of Barbara and Uwe Kirmse, she is a Finance and Accounting double-major at Saint Bonaventure University who has proven to be one of the fastest swimmers in the A-10.
At 16 years old, Kirmse began to make plans to travel to the U.S. just months before her graduation. She’d visited the U.S. before, and she wasn’t too worried about becoming accustomed to life in another country for the next few years. But place yourself in her flippers…many questions most likely jog in your head.
What if you realize the school isn’t the right fit for you upon moving there? What if your teammates aren’t welcoming to an international student? And what about homesickness?
Kirmse handled all of this.
As a butterflyer and freestyler Kirmse has had incredible success swimming for the Bonnies, and with just one A-10 Championship under her belt, she has plenty of time to still shine. Last year at A-10s, Kirmse placed third in both the 200-yard freestyle (1:50.59) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:53.15). She also helped her team place fifth in the 800-yard freestyle relay.
Kirmse has already beat her personal best time from last year in 500-yard-freestyle, swimming 4:52.30 at the Pittsburg Invitational in November, confirming she’s ready for some competitive A-10 racing in February.
“I think that was the best race I’ve had so far. It was a personal best and a school record that I did not expect at all,” she says.
Her mid-season time for this event ranks her second behind Davidson’s Elise Lankiewicz. Her 200-yard butterfly (2:02.65) is currently third in the conference, which she also earned at the Pittsburg Invitational. She was also named Atlantic 10 Women’s Performer of the Week in November.
What’s most notable is how Kirmse has been able to grow accustomed to swimming in the U.S. She says she didn’t experience much of a “culture shock,” just some minor adjusting to be made.
Training in Germany was not the same for her. You may think that swimming is equivalent in every country, similar types of pool training with cardio and lifting out of the pool. Racing may be the same, but training comes in all forms.
She says that on her team in Germany, she did much more yardage with less intensity, but at St. Bonaventure, they swim fewer yards but the intensity level is much higher. She had also never lifted weights for training before, and she admits this is one of the struggles she dealt with at the beginning.
As far as a 17-year-old living so far away from home, Kirmse is tough. She only returns home to Burghausen twice per year where she lives with her parents, her 16-year-old brother, Roman, and 8-year-old sister, Anna. She says she misses her siblings a lot, but it’s hard to dwell upon being homesick because she keeps busy. She receives support from some of her teammates who are also far from home.
“They understand and cheer me up,” she says. “However, I don’t usually have a lot of time to miss home, and I’m really happy at St. Bonaventure so that’s not a problem.”
She credits a lot of her happiness to the fact that her team is exceptional and they’re all very close.
“My team is amazing. They always support and motivate each other, but they also made it so easy for me to adjust to the differences in America,” Kirmse says. “I felt welcome from the very first practice, I never felt alone.”
In Germany, there are companies that create and send out a profile for you when you’re seeking to get noticed and recruited by college coaches. Kirmse got many scholarship offers from coaches, but she chose St. Bonaventure because along with liking the school’s programs herself, there was another German swimmer who also really liked the team, and this gave Kirmse confidence in her choice.
Kirmse wisely takes advantage of her time abroad, and she says tries her best to learn as much as she can while living in the U.S.
“I want to know, experience, and learn as much as possible…by traveling through the U.S. and seeing other cities,” she says. For athletic goals, along with improving her times, she says, “I want to contribute to the effort and success of the whole team, especially at A-10s, but also throughout the whole season.”
For the short term, Kirmse will be traveling to Florida with her team. She looks forward to the training trip where she can enjoy the sun while bonding with her teammates who have made her experience as an international student-athlete so valuable.
Photo Courtesy: St. Bonaventure
Photo Courtesy: St. Bonaventure
Photo Courtesy: St. Bonaventure
Photo Courtesy: St. Bonaventure