Like many her age, Bahraini teenager Ritaj Amin, 13, likes listening to American pop idol Charlie Puth on her phone, reading books, and wearing nail polish.
This week, though, as the youngest competitor at the World aquatics Championships in Budapest, Amin has been rubbing shoulders with swimming greats like US superstar Katie Ledecky and South Africa’s Chad le Clos.
Benefiting from the Bahraini federation’s policy of putting young swimmers on the world stage, Amin has followed closely in the slipstream of Alzain Tareq who was 10 when she competed at the last Worlds in Kazan in 2015.
Currently Bahrain’s fastest female swimmer, Amin posted a personal best in her 50m butterfly heat on Friday, although she fell well short of reaching the semifinal, over 10 seconds behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom.
“I’m proud, though, of what I achieved today and before,” said the youngster, who began the sport when she was just six.
With her mother and brother watching from the stand, she said she kept her eyes firmly focused on getting her dive right.
“I was shaking with nerves before I got on the start block, if I had looked up and seen my mum I would have started crying.” Training two hours before and after school every day, her dream is to take part in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Budapest is her second major meet after she attended a World Cup event in Dubai last year.
