For the month of October, we celebrated our members and enjoyed 31 days of member appreciation. POW! Gym and Parisi Speed School Chicago featured our members who own small businesses, have trained with us for years upon years, offered product samples, and invited friendly challenges and competitions. To focus on the latter, our Parisi Athlete of the month was focused, driven and absolutely ran away with the attendance challenge by training in 20 classes.
Meet Maya Arroyo:
Now in the books, is Maya’s first full month of Parisi Training. Maya and her little sister Mariposa came to us as referrals from our Homeschool Martial Arts community. After stepping through our doors and seeing the unique training environment, Maya and her family recognized just how much she could benefit from the speed school training. With that being said, Maya, at just 10 years old, has already made her mark as a highly competitive swimmer in the Mid-west. Take a look into our Q&A session from this week and get to our young athlete.
Q- What programs do you swim for and when did you start swimming competitively?
A- Proudly says, “I swim for CWAC, the Chicago Wolfpack Aquatic Club our of UIC.”
Maya Started swimming at 6 years old, just 4 short years ago.
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Swimming is one of the most challenging individual sports out there. There’s nothing but you, the water, and extensive technique keeping you going. As an athlete with prior ambition to compete in triathlons, I know how difficult it is to swim let alone swim competitively. In 4 short years, Maya has soaked up so much knowledge, training, and instruction that takes us right into question #2.
Q- What is your favorite or proudest moment during your athletic career thus far?
A- Well, most recently my team and I took first place for the state of Illinois in the 200 LC Meter Freestyle Relay. 16 other states were in the meet too. I would have to say though, I really enjoy the fact that my times are faster than the boys on my team right now.
See Maya and Her team at the top of the list:
https://www.iunat.iupui.edu/content/Other-Information/LiveResults/index.htm
What I love about training with Maya, is the fact that all of her successes hasn’t changed her personality one bit. She is a gracious, humble and extremely positive young athlete. Maya comes in to the gym everyday with an ear to ear smile. She falls down, stumbles or fumbles during a drill, and pops right back up without fail. Her tireless work ethic is an inspiration to the other athletes in class. Along with a few of her training partners, the girls in Parisi Jumpstart classes have really made the boys hustle since they are beating the boys in 75% of the races and challenges.
Outside of athletics, Maya is very active as she participates in a book club, plays violin, and travels with her family. Maya plays violin for the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute and will be performing this season. She loves adventure books and has read all the books in the Percy Jackson and Mrs. Peregrin series’. Maya’s favorite vacation may surprise some of you since she has been to other countries and a few adventurous destinations. Her absolute favorite trip is her annual Swim Meet, in Indianapolis of all places.
“I love that trip because it happens every year over my birthday. I get to eat at my favorite chinese restaurant with my best friends and its just a great weekend every year,” Maya says.
After hearing her love for the Chinese cuisine, I had to ask what the most adventurous or weird food she’s ever tasted. She said, she’s not too keen on trying weird foods, but she was at a fish market while in Mexico and said “NO WAY”! The smell was so bad, its definitely scared her away from branching out on the wild side, although she will stick to her favorites of Tuna and Salmon for now.
To round out a great interview, Maya plans on earning both academic and athletic scholarships for her collegiate endeavors. Her aspirations will hopefully take her to the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), Northwestern University, or California at Berkley where her mother Cecily is Alumni. You can see Maya this weekend at the St. Charles, IL swim meet. Wish her luck as she continues to chase perfection.
Thank you for reading Parisi Nation. and p.s. Maya finds musical inspiration from the late, great, artist formerly known as PRINCE! 🙂
Brennan Cox
Program Director
Parisi Speed School Chicago