South Meck swimmer who qualified for Olympic Trials aims for the ring, then UNC
South Mecklenburg High swimmer Katie Rauch has a problem that many of us would love to have.
She can’t eat enough.
“It’s not just like you can just walk into practice and focus on swimming,” Rauch said. “Everything in your life has to focus around it. What you eat, how much you sleep. ... You have to constantly eat. I know when I skip a meal or I don’t eat enough, I feel absolutely horrible when I’m in the pool.”
Rauch, a junior committed to North Carolina, eats somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500 calories a day — well over the Federal Food and Drug Administration recommendation of 1,800 to 2,400 — but her coach wants that number even higher.
But unlike most teenagers and adults, Rauch is burning off her calories at a very high rate. She is practicing six days a week — two hours in the pool — and she has 45 minutes of intense body-weight exercises three times a week, which is called “dry-land training.”
So all that constant eating is necessary.
Rauch will swim for South Mecklenburg in Friday’s N.C. 4A state championships in Cary. South Mecklenburg coach Leslie Berens said Rauch will swim two events she finished second in last season, the 200 and 500 freestyles, plus on two relay teams.
Berens thinks Rauch, whose brother Jacob swims at UNC, could have a big meet.
“Katie started swimming with me at my summer club years ago, and she’s always had a knack for the water,” Berens said. “She had double shoulder surgeries when she was 13. Swimmers sometimes have shoulder problems. But she overcame those and has continued to hang in and train, and I couldn’t be more proud of her.”
Rauch is an Olympic Trials qualifier in the 200 back. And here’s how good she is. She would’ve been the fastest 500-meter freestyler on UNC’s team last year, when Rauch was a sophomore in high school, according to SwimSwam Magazine, which closely follows the sport, and she would’ve been No. 2 in the 200 backstroke.
“These high-level swimmers,” Berens said, “just know how to race and put their heart into the entire race and just get their hand on the wall first. She trains hard. She pushes herself and that’s what it takes. I think Katie has really worked hard. Her mom was a swimmer at Chapel Hill. And Katie has had to fight hard to get where she is because of injuries. She’s got great character. She’s a superb teammate. She’s a gem.”
And Friday, Rauch wants a ring.
“I feel like the best accomplishment you can get through high school,” she said, “is a state championship.”
