Julimar Avila - The Making of an Olympian
July 21, 2021 | Women's Swimming & Diving
by Meg Kelly, Athletic Communications
Julimar Avila is a unique 24-year old. She still holds over 14 school records at Weston High School, was a three-time All-Patriot League selection, holds 13 national records for Honduras, and will be Honduras' lone female swimmer at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
More relatable, she doesn't have Instagram, which played a unique role in her life on June 10.
Avila, who has been training in Florida with a host family and living with fellow Olympic hopefuls, was in the house when one of her roommates saw a post on Instagram announcing that she was officially an Olympian. She ran to Avila, and as she was showing her phone to Avila, another friend texted Avila a screenshot of the Instagram post, and all of a sudden she was instantaneously looking at two phones confirming her Olympic status. They shared a moment of awe; a dream 19 years in the making had just becoming a reality.
Moments later, she got the call from Honduras. You're going to be our representative at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“I’ve always had the dream of representing Honduras at the Olympics,” reflected Avila. “When you’re little, I feel like every single athlete’s like "I want to go to the big stage. I want to do something. I want to put my name out there and represent my country the best that I can.”
The Hyde Park native, who owns dual citizenship in the United States and Honduras, carries a poise, humility, focus and confidence that has guided her throughout her life. Those characteristics have served as the undercurrent to her career, and to further understand the driving force behind each stroke is to understand the start.
Avila first dipped her toes in the water when she was seven months old, learning to swim alongside her mother, Marta. Both her parents, Marta and Julio, were born in Honduras, and the family visits every summer. Avila, whose name is a combination of her parents' names, got her start in competitive swimming early, entering competitions at the local YMCA and Hyde Park community pool at the age of five.
Looking for a club team to compete with while in Honduras, Julio connected her with Delfines Sampedranos, a club team she would train and compete with while she was in the Caribbean, and by the age of 11 she started representing Honduras internationally at the bigger meets.
As high school begun, Avila started to make a name for herself at Weston, where she competed as a freshman and senior, spending most of that era focusing on club swimming. She jumped back onto the Weston team for her senior season in 2015, where she guided the Wildcats to their first-ever state title. Additionally, she is the only female athlete in school history to own both an individual state record and a team championship title.
When it came time to look for a new home for her collegiate career, Avila was exploring places that valued both academics and athletics. Though BU was on her list, it wasn’t necessarily at the top until a visit to campus swayed her opinion.
“As soon as I came on my recruiting trip and I walked the campus and met the team I was like, this is it, this is the school I’m going to.” Avila reminisced.
Stepping onto campus in the fall of 2015, the local product made an immediate impact as she grabbed All-Patriot League Second Team honors and repeated the feat as a junior. Her senior year was one to remember as she added an All-PL First Team nod to her accolades and helped the 400 free relay team break the school record in her final race as a Terrier.
In between her collegiate career, Avila was also making a name for herself with Honduras, making every international meet she could throughout each year, adding to her FINA point total in hopes of qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.
“What I really loved was that Bill Smyth and Jen Strasburger were really accepting and always helped me with my international meets," Avila said. "If I had to go somewhere in the summer, I could keep training at BU, and they’d help prepare me for those meets. They continued helping me train post-grad, they were like, ‘Yes, absolutely we’ll help train you for the Olympics. Whatever you need, we’ll be there to help guide you.’”
Avila went all-in on the Olympic dream following graduation, attending several training camps, and remained in Boston to train at BU.
All was going to plan, then March 12, 2020 came. Avila and her training partners were working out when they saw the news that the NCAA had cancelled its swimming & diving championships. Initially they thought that the Olympics would still be on, though the COVID-19 pandemic began to sweep throughout the globe. The games were officially postponed exactly one month later.
“Obviously it was a big blip because it not only put a small obstacle for the Olympics, but also kinda my whole future plan,” stated Avila. “I was planning for the Olympics to happen, then was thinking of either working or going to school. Thinking oh my gosh to push this all a year, it was a bit of a doozie, but I didn't want to look back and think what if.”
“I wanted to keep working hard, give it my all, and if it happens it happens, and if it doesn't it doesn't. At least I know I went for it.”
With pools and facilities closed, Avila had to get creative, and shifted her training regime to maintain an exceptionally high level of fitness. She took to Walden Pond for swims, overcoming her fear of open-water swimming, and picked up running and dry land workouts.
Once restrictions lifted and the pools opened back up, Avila moved to Florida to live and train with fellow Olympians, living with a host family and structuring her life around eating, sleeping and swimming.
In one of the final tune-ups before the games, Avila swam a personal-best 2:18.38 in the 200 fly, and shortly after was named to the official roster for Honduras.
Swimming has taken Avila all over the world, and the journey that began when she was seven months old will end this month in Tokyo. As she dives in for the 200 fly prelims, everyone who has supported her at every step of the journey will be the guiding forces for the final laps of her career. For those memories made through swimming will be last forever, and the title of Olympian will as well.
"I'm still in shock when people ask about it," Avila affirmed. “I've been swimming for 19 years, which is a long time. This has been at the top of my list of my biggest goals. I really want to enjoy the experience, represent my country the best that I can, and swim the best that I can.”
