Art and Design student Keanna MacInnes is hoping her brush strokes will inspire her best butterfly strokes at this summer’s Paris Olympics, after being selected for the Great Britain Swimming team.
The 22 year-old BA Art and Design student, who lives in Tillicoultry, is in her second year of the popular Forth Valley College BA Art and Design course, based at the Stirling Campus, and she has loved tapping into her creative side while training hard to reach the top of her sport.
Keanna – originally from Edinburgh – completed a BSc degree in Psychology at the University of Stirling while training as an elite swimmer at the National Swimming Academy, and qualifying for the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games to represent Scotland.
Since then, with continued help from the UK Sport Lottery Fund, she was delighted to apply and be accepted for the BA Art and Design course, while continuing to develop her swimming skills and successfully qualify for this year’s Olympic Games.
And she finds the creativity offered through the course to be the perfect psychological diversion and inspiration, to switch off from the hectic demands of her training schedule, which includes four hours a day, 10 sessions a week, including two in the gym, at the University of Stirling National Swimming Academy.
She now hopes her brush strokes – Keanna likes to paint swimming scenes as she loves the way light reacts on top of and underneath the water – will help to inspire her Butterfly swimming strokes in Paris, as she aims to reach the final of the 200 and possibly the 100 metre races, as well as a relay or two, between 27 July and 4 August.
Keanna, said: “At the moment it feels a bit unusual making the team. I have been dreaming of it my whole life and now I have been selected, it does feel a little overwhelming, but exciting at the same time. It probably won’t feel real until I am out at the games themselves.”
A competitive swimmer since the age of 13, Keanna started with the Grove Swimming Club, moved on to the Heart of Midlothian Swimming Club, before moving on to the elite National Swimming Academy at the University of Stirling.
There she completed her degree in Psychology, which she hopes to return to in the future to take a Masters in Relationship Therapy. But for now art and design is helping her to be the best that she can in and out of the pool.
She went on: “I enjoy the Art and Design course very much as it helps me switch off from swimming. I would recommend it as it is a very practical course and allows creative people to try new things like glasswork and printing, things that I would never have had the resources to try myself.
“The course allows me to be creative and have fun and helps me to relax and take my mind off swimming and competition. I quite like the distortion that water makes when someone is swimming and I also like the way the light comes off the water on top and below the surface, that inspires me in my artwork.
“Forth Valley College have been so flexible with me around my training schedule which has been going really well recently. That has allowed me to express myself in my artwork and in the pool and I am looking forward to competing in Paris and focussing to getting as close to a medal as possible and at least aiming to make the final of the 200 and maybe the 100 metres Butterfly races. I am going to give it my best shot.”
“I just missed out on qualifying for Tokyo in 2020, but the good thing about this year’s games being in Paris is that it will be easier for my family to travel over to support me.”
Everyone at Forth Valley College will no doubt also be supporting Keanna on her Olympic journey in Paris. She will join up with the 29 other members of the GB swim team on 17 July for a pre-games training camp before the heats begin in earnest at the Olympic pool Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/venues/paris-la-defense-arena
Linda Paterson, Curriculum Manager in FVC’s Department of Creative, Digital and Leisure Industries, said: “Keanna is a self-motivated student who works very well independently and has been able to keep up with her studies and perform very well on her course while undergoing her extensive training schedule. All of the BA Art & Design Team are very excited and proud to be able to cheer Keanna on this summer with her Olympic dream. We hope that all of her hard work and dedication results in medal winning performances.”
Kenny MacInnes (no relation), Principal of Forth Valley College, said: “I would like to wish Keanna all the best at the Olympic Games and let her know that everyone at the College will be cheering for her in Paris. Just being selected for the team is an amazing achievement, she will be an Olympian and a Forth Valley College student forever and we are very proud of her.”
For more information on FVC’s Art and Design courses visit https://www.forthvalley.ac.uk/courses/art-and-design
