Since the age of three, Madeline Haller (12, HSU) has had a passion for swimming. She’s also a creative and crafty person, crocheting and sewing in her free time. She also loves the outdoors.
Despite all the other activities she participated in, her love for swimming would lead Haller to join the Triton Swim Team in middle school. And although she didn’t take it as seriously her freshman year, Haller joined the Manual swim and dive team from the very beginning of her high school years.
Swim wasn’t all happiness and positivity to her, though, and the thought of quitting crossed her mind during her time on Triton.
“It was like a very judgy environment And you always felt like you weren’t good enough. And it was just really hard mentally to, like, be in a sport where everyone was telling you [that you] weren’t fast enough or you weren’t skinny and like it was just crazy,” Haller said
This team toxicity and consistent feeling like she wasn’t good enough lead her to make the decision to quit the Triton Swim Team. Luckily, her mother reminded her that she had too much natural talent to let go to waste.
“My mom was like, ‘Well, Madeline, you were, like, so good at swim you really need to, like, keep doing it. I really think you should keep being on a swim team,’” Haller said.
Motivated by her mothers wise words, Haller took being a member of Manual’s swim team more seriously.
“They were just so kind over there and I had no regrets about staying in swim and it’s amazing now. My best friends are on the swim” Haller said.
Haller has now proven how good of a choice she made to continue to swim. She helped Manual win various events in the Region Four Girls Swim and Dive Tournament, including the individual 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle, This worked out perfectly as the freestyle happens to be Haller’s favorite stroke.
“Freestyle is my best stroke. For this past year at Regionals and state first round, I swam in the 200-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle. And then both freestyle relays,” Haller mentioned.
Haller’s time was 57.95 seconds during the 100-meter freestyle, and during the 200-meter freestyle, she swam a time of 2:13:22.
Even though Haller still has a strong passion for swimming, she has decided to not move on to the collegiate level. She will instead be focusing her time on another passion–the environment.
“Sports in college are like a huge time commitment and I would totally rather just go and focus on my academics. I’ll definitely swim in my free time at college. I plan on being an environmental scientist and then specifically [an] environmental lawyer,” Haller said.
Haller’s success in both her high school academics and swimming have allowed her to recently be titled the 2025 Midway University/KHSAA Girls’ Swimming and Diving Student-Athlete of the Year.
“Don’t be a downer about everything, don’t complain, just enjoy the time you have in a good environment and try and make it a better place,” Haller said.
