Trophy Swims

Swim teacher Sharon Minasian Skowron is proud to announce that 23 students recently received their trophies for completing their long distance freestyle swims.

Breaking the pool record with a distance of three and one-half miles was Vaughn Sloan, who topped the previous mark of 3 1/3 miles set in 2019 by Alix Kosinski.

Morrison Sloan swam 2 2/3 miles, Hannah Takiguchi swam 2 1/8 miles and sister Emma Takiguchi swam two miles.

Swimming one and a half miles were Archie Sloan, Bella Achen-Ford, Olivia Parvizyar and Beau Curran; swimming enough laps to cover 1 1/3 miles were Spencer Lyon, Lucas Long and Sienna Takiguchi; swimming one mile was Nova Sloan and swimming  three-fourths of a mile was Charlie Liu. Olivia Mayorkas swam two-thirds of a mile; Ella Nguyen and Henry Janneck swam one-fourth of a mile; Diana Siroky, Gia Nguyen and Gage Jennison each swam one-fifth of a mile. Swimming one-eighth of a mile were Lakshmi Das, Violet Montgomery-Sanford, Leo Kabaei and Isaac Mayorkas.

Minasian Skowron’s mother, Diane, began offering private lessons in the Palisades six decades ago and Sharon started teaching more than 40 years ago and since then several generations of local children have graduated.

Last weekend, Sharon invited her latest long distance swimmers over to her house one by one for photos with their trophies. It has become a family tradition based on tried and true methods. Diane gave private lessons for 46 years in her 52-foot pool in the backyard of her upper Bienveneda home, retiring in 2010, but her daughter has continued what she started.

All of Minasian Skowron’s students come to her through referrals. She primarily teaches at her house a few blocks from her mom’s and believes it is never too early to start learning how to blow bubbles along with floating and turning over techniques. She is proud of her Class of 2020.

“Once you’ve learned efficient strokes, it’s all about breathing,” Minasian Skowron said. “As with all physical activities, you don’t hold your breath. If you inhale and exhale with a controlled stream of bubbles it becomes like walking not running and one can go longer. I teach adults too. It’s less about age and strength and more about practice, strokes and breathing.”    

Her new “pool school” graduates range from 4 to 11 years old.