My story
Five chapters, no filler
How a kid in a Ukrainian pool ended up teaching adults in Tampa how to breathe. The short, honest version.
It started in a Ukrainian pool
I grew up racing in Ukraine, where swimming is a discipline, not a hobby. Early mornings, long sets, and coaches who cared about every centimeter of a stroke. That is where I learned the thing I still teach today: speed is not about strength. It is about how you move through the water.
Then a world record
Racing in deaf swimming, I set the world record in the 50m breaststroke and won European and World championship titles. The 50 is the purest race in the pool. There is nowhere to hide a flaw. Every part of the stroke has to be right, and that habit of getting every part right never left me.
College in the United States
I moved to the United States to swim in the NCAA and earned All-American honors twice. Out of the water I studied Exercise Science and Sports Business Management. That is when I finally understood the why behind what my body had been doing for years: why one catch grabs the water and another slips, and why breathing is a timing problem, not a lung problem.
Turning pro, then turning around
After college I turned professional. Along the way I noticed something: most great swimmers cannot explain what they do. I could, because I had lived it as an athlete and studied it as a student. I started teaching a few people on the side, and the moment a stroke clicks for someone turned out to be my favorite feeling in the sport.
Fast Swim Academy, Tampa
Today I coach one-on-one at a pool on N Dale Mabry in Tampa, and online anywhere through the OnPace app. I get in the water beside you, not on a chair on the deck. Nervous beginners, Ironman athletes, kids on swim teams, masters swimmers. Different goals, same method: find what is slowing you down, fix it, make it stick.