Jen Porenta is raising a lot of eyebrows. The second-year physical education student Porenta was named swimmer of the meet after the Blues won their fifth consecutive Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women’s swimming championship in February. She came home with four gold medals. And this is just the beginning.
Porenta’s story begins at the tender age of eight.
“I tried many sports-like gymnastics, jazz dance, and skating-but I didn’t enjoy them,” says Porenta.
Luckily, it was swimming that caught her eye. She began taking swimming lessons and found that she had a natural talent in it. These lessons eventually led to competitive swimming, which, Porenta admits, was “something I didn’t like at first.”
After she lost a competition in grade nine, Porenta actually doubted whether swimming was for her. But she couldn’t go a week before getting back in the pool.
“I just couldn’t forget about swimming,” she fondly remembers.
She was only able to swim during two of her years in high school because there was not a swimming program at her school the rest of the time. Despite this, the gifted athlete quickly began dominating the sport at the junior level. In 2001 she was awarded the Victor Davis memorial award for her excellence.
That same year at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) finals she won a gold medal in the 50m freestyle.
Porenta was a key member of the swim team during her first year at U of T. She qualified for and participated in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) championships, and was named rookie of the year. In the same year she was also named the OUA swimmer of the year. All these achievements came after a lot of practice and hard work.
For the past couple years Porenta’s training routine has been quite intense. She wakes up at six in the morning on weekdays. Practice then follows for two hours, which is followed by a two-hour swim in the afternoon.
The swimmer feels that these practices will help her “keep in shape as I older.” Porenta finds the mental aspect of the workout is hardest- she is extremely fatigued by the end of practice.
Porenta estimates that each day she swims at least six kilometres during practice.
Apart from training, Porenta feels her success stems from the support she gets from the people around her: “Everyone motivates me, especially this year, since the whole team came together.” She also cites that coaches Linda Kiefer and Byron MacDonald teach each swimmer on an individual level.
In addition to this, her mom has been a huge fan during her career. In fact, her mom follows her to meets all over the country and follows her daughter’s results through the phone or the internet when she can’t be there in person.
“My mom loves swimming more than me,” she says jokingly.
Jen Porenta has an eventful summer planned. In July she hopes to swim at the world championships in Montreal. The World University Games in Turkey in August will follow this. Porenta will also be traveling to California to train with experienced swimming coach David Salom this summer.
There are a lot of goals that the second-year student still wants to achieve. Porenta wants to qualify for the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Her greatest aspirition, however, is to represent Canada at the 2008 Olympics.
Down the road she would love to get a job that allows her to stay near the pool. Being coach of the U of T swimming program is one such job that Porenta would welcome with open arms.
Jen Porenta will continue to make headlines at U of T and around the country. Her excellent swim record is a result of natural talent and of the hard work and determination she exerts in the swimming pool.
“Every award and success motivates me”, she says. “But I will never be satisfied until I am the best in the world.”
