As part of the build-up to the annual Staffs-Keele Varsity, we’ve been talking to some of the talented sporting students who call our university home.
This week it’s the turn of Ryan Clay, who has represented the swimming team since his arrival at Staffs. On top of that he’s swam for the City of Stoke team and competed for us in BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) on two occasions.
Ryan first learnt to swim, as many of us do, when he was very young, being taken to local swimming pools and wearing inflatable arm bands. It wasn’t until he around 10 years old that he started to compete.
He explained how he developed from then on: “I realised that I had a talent for swimming when I started performing better around the age of 13.
“I watched YouTube videos and developed my technique from there and I’ve been increasing in ability ever since.
“I would say that my passion stems from my competitive nature, I want to race for the win and therefore training becomes more worthwhile.”
Ryan revealed that joining the university team was an easy decision, as to continue his ‘swimming career’. It’s no surprise he immediately signed up as a fresher.
He hasn’t looked back at the decision since:
“I've made good friends in the university team,” he said. “And the trips to Sheffield for BUCS make for a good break from my studies to enjoy a weekend or two of swimming.”
However he can’t expect to find himself relaxing that much next month as he’ll be facing an impressive Keele team with a sizeable audience to impress at Varsity.
“My first experience of Varsity was last year when unfortunately we lost to Keele, but we have good spirit within our team and we hope to change that this year.
“Varsity is what university swimming is for, it's like a rivalry in football, everyone wants to win and it attracts a lot of support and the atmosphere is great!
“Keele have a strong squad, their strength is in depth, they have a lot of good swimmers but I hope that my team and I can overcome them one day, everyone fancies the underdog.”