Soni, a 25 year-old New Jersey native and two-year Manhattan Beach resident, emerged from the glassy surface with a strong stroke and kicked with all her strength until the final 50 meters, when she surged ahead of the other watery blurs to win the 200-meter breaststroke race with a time of 2:21.13, the fastest time in the world this year.
As she popped up from the water, she looked from the pool to the board and saw that she had made it onto the U.S Olympic swimming team for the second time in her life. She’d just earned her place at the Olympic trials, which took place in Omaha, Nebraska, during the last week of June.
She looked around at the other swimmers, smiled, and congratulated second place finisher Micah Lawrence on her spot on the team.
“It’s hard during something like trials when you’re definitely neck-and-neck with each other, fighting for the individual spots,” said Soni. “But once the team is selected we go quickly to being a unit.”
The 2012 London Olympics will be Soni’s second Olympic experience. She won a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke four years ago in Beijing, as well as silver medals in the 100-meter breaststroke and the 4 x 100 meter relay medley.
Soni will compete in the same events in London.
“There’s nothing like the first experience,” said Soni. “But no matter what happens this time, I still have my experience from 2008, and no one can take that away from me. I’m excited to take this trip again, it’s going to be a lot of fun and team USA is going to do great.”
Soni, a former USC swimmer who competes for the Trojan Swim Club, moved to Manhattan Beach two years ago because of the energetic South Bay lifestyle.
“It’s an active place all around,” said Soni. “Whether I’m walking my dog, going for a run or even playing beach volleyball, that’s definitely one of the reasons I moved here.”
On a normal day, Soni swims in the morning, and often jumps in the pool again for another round of practice in the afternoon. She also does pilates at RockIt Body in Manhattan Beach and yoga at YogaWorks in El Segundo.
She also works with a trainer at Friendship Park in Hermosa Beach. She relishes the opportunity to exercise out-of-doors that life in the Beach Cities affords her.
“It’s a little tedious to do the same thing everyday, which is why I like that I’m able to pick things that I like instead of doing things that were told to me,” Soni said. “It’s a lot more fun than being in a gym, plus it’s great to be outside.”
For Soni, being an Olympian is a life-long title, one she takes seriously as a role model. After the tension of surviving – and thriving – through another round of Olympic trials, she is extremely excited to compete again in the Olympics this month.
“It’s great to be going a second time,” said Soni. “It would be great to win a gold, but I’m not really putting that pressure on myself yet; I already have a lot of that from the outside. For me, I don’t like to focus on that. I want to focus on having a good time and feeling well in my races as opposed to having certain times. I know I’ll do better that way.”
During her first Olympics in Beijing in 2008, Soni’s parents watched her races from home. This year they will be making the journey to watch their daughter compete in the 100- and 200-meter long-courses and potentially the 4 x 100 meter medley relay, depending on her coaches’ choices.
“My parents are not the waving-signs kind of people,” said Soni. “They’re the ones looking like they’re going to pass out because they’re so nervous. I just hope they have a good time.”
Her parents, along with some friends, were in Omaha over the weekend to watch the trials.
“I think I was more nervous for the trials, hopefully, than I will be at the games,” said Soni. “There was so much pressure to make the time and get to that point… next time at the Olympics, hopefully, it will be ‘this is what I tried for — no more roadblocks, just have fun with it.’”
Soni’s finals in the 100 meter will be on July 30, the 200 meter on Aug. 2 and the 4 x 100 relay race will be on Aug. 4.B
