Wind swims for a scholarship

By Maikeli Seru | The Fiji Times

-

WHEN the 2019 Fiji Tattslotto Sportswoman of the Year was announced at the recent Fiji Sports Awards, aside from the huge applause from Fiji Swimming officials and close friends and family in attendance, very little was known about who exactly Moana Wind was.

Such is the challenge faced by minor sports like swimming and lone athletes like Moana, compared with the more heavily resourced and funded mainstream sports such as rugby or football.

For the young 18-year-old who hails from the Hidden Paradise of Savusavu, it’s been a long slog starting as a tender two-year-old already swimming unassisted.

“She has been swimming all her life, as a baby she was always fearless in the water,” says mother Kaye Lepper, who received Moana’s award on her behalf.

At her first Pacific Games last year, the former Saint Joseph’s Secondary sixth former scooped two gold medals in the 50 metres and 100 metre breaststroke events. In doing so, she ended a drought for the sport, long dominated by neighbours New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Tahiti in the pool.

Moana barely missed out on selection for the 2015 Pacific Games, despite being Fiji Swimming’s second fastest breaststroker behind Olympian Matelita Buadromo.

Elder, sister Mikayla also represented the country in the sport but had to quit because of injury, a fate that almost befell Moana when she also had to stop swimming for six months after a strong outing during the 2015 Oceania Championships.

Moana’s mother Kaye also attributes her daughter’s success to her early interest in swimming while attending Nadi Airport School and to coaches such as Elenoa Osbourne, who taught her all four strokes, later harnessed by her Nadi-based Barracuda Club coach Rosemary Rova and more recently, her Suva Orca Club coach Esther Malani and family and friends along the way.

“In Year 2, she was already in the school team. By Year 8, Moana was made school swim team captain, the year they also won the girls title in schools swimming,” Kaye recalls.

Moana helped repeat that feat during third and fourth form at Swami Vivekananda College in Nadi and again as a sixth former at SJSS when they won the girls division in secondary schools swimming. But success in the pool also comes at huge personal cost.

As part of her preparations for the Tokyo Olympics in July, she has had to sacrifice a gap year from education to train in Dunedin, New Zealand, the longest she has been away from family and friends.

“I am hoping she can hang on, because it’s not easy seeing friends and cousins having a life, while she trains full time.

“Sometimes it can also be a very lonely individual sport, and without a scholarship it will be very hard for her to continue,” says Kaye who is also setting up a Facebook fundraising page called ‘Dare to Dream.’

No easy feat for an 18-year-old now sacrificing her best teenage years, in her quest to make her family, sport and country proud.