Aminata (Amie) Nia-Maria Barrow (born 2 January 2004) is a Gambian competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. She qualified to represent

The Gambia The Gambia, officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. Geographically, The Gambia is the List of African countries by area, smallest country in continental Africa; it is surrounded by Senegal on all sides except for ...

at the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

. Amie holds current national records in the 50, 100, and 200 meter breaststroke, and 200 meter individual medley.

Biography

Barrow was born in the United Kingdom; her father is from

and her mother is from

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. Her family moved to the United States when she was age eight, settling in

Shorewood, Wisconsin Shorewood is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. A suburb of Milwaukee, it is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The population was 13,859 at the 2020 census. History In the early 19th century when the first white se ...

. She started swimming at age four and later began doing it competitively once she moved to the United States. She competed for Shorewood Swim Club under coach Dave Wesfahl and later at Shorewood High School. At Shorewood, she was a top student-athlete and competed on the swim team for four years, helping the high school's team be runner-up at the 2020 state championships while Barrow won an individual state high school championship in 2021, in the 100-yard breaststroke. In 2022, Barrow competed at the

USA Swimming USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overa ...

Wisconsin championships and won the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events. Barrow graduated from Shorewood in 2022. Barrow began swimming for the Brown Bears team in 2022. She made the Ivy Championship team and participated in eight meets during the 2022–23 season; she competed in the 100 and 200 breaststroke and 200

individual medley Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming strokes ( freestyle (usually front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly) into one race. This race is either swum by one swimmer as individual medley (IM) or by four swimmers as ...

events. She competed at the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

championships and placed 16th in the 100 breaststroke. In her

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

year, she competed in seven meets and set her personal bests in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes. She competed at the Ivy League championships and placed 13th in the 100 breaststroke and seventh in the 200 breaststroke. Barrow qualified for the

2023 World Aquatics Championships The 2023 World Aquatics Championships, the 20th edition of the World Aquatics Championships, were held in Fukuoka, Japan, from 14 to 30 July 2023. Originally scheduled to be held in 2021 as the 19th championships, the championships were postpo ...

representing The Gambia, becoming the first female swimmer to compete at the event for the nation. In her international debut, she managed to set the national records in the 100- and 200-meter breaststroke events. The following year, she was selected to represent The Gambia at the

, becoming The Gambia's first female Olympic swimmer.

References

External links

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Aminata Nia-Maria Barrow
at the

Paris 2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrow, Aminata 2004 births Living people Gambian swimmers Olympic swimmers for the Gambia Swimmers at the 2024 Summer Olympics Brown Bears women's swimmers American people of Gambian descent Gambian people of Finnish descent American people of Finnish descent People from Shorewood, Wisconsin Sportspeople from Milwaukee County, Wisconsin 21st-century Gambian people