Metamora grad Anna Peplowski ready to fulfill Olympic dream this week

METAMORA, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — The Summer Olympics are finally here.

It’s been a long wait for Anna Peplowski. The Metamora High School grad made the U.S. Olympic team in mid-June and has waited nearly six weeks to get to Paris.

After a training camp in North Carolina in early July and one in Croatia last week, Peplowski and her U.S. teammates arrived at the Olympic village on Monday. She’s been thinking about the Olympics since she was a young girl in central Illinois watching the games.

“I think every young swimmer’s dream is to make the Olympics. When they’re 8-years-old, when they’re 15-years-old, if they stick with it through college,” said Peplowski. “It’s everybody’s dream to go to the Olympics.”

She’ll live out that dream now. Although she’s been thinking about the Olympics since she was a for years, Peplowski says making Team USA didn’t become a goal until her Indiana University coach Ray Looze challenged her to make the national team when she was a college freshman.

“Having this opportunity only come once is truly amazing. Since then, I’ve always thought about that meeting I had (with Looze). I’ve had it tucked in the back of my mind,” Peplowski said. “Just thinking about the opportunities that might come from it. “

Peplowski will swim with the U.S. 4×200 relay team. She was a member of the American 4×200 relay team last summer when it took the silver medal at the World Championships in Japan.

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