Senior swimmer Petra Plaminkova, who was born and raised in Prague in the Czech Republic, said it was an interesting journey to Ames.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I ended up here,” Plaminkova said. “The coach showed some interest in me, and all the girls were really nice to me even though I spoke little English.”

Head coach Duane Sorenson said he found Plaminkova through a former coach.

“She had sent her information to the former coach, and when I took over, he passed that info onto me,” Sorenson said. “From there I started to recruit her.”

Although she ended up in Iowa, Plaminkova said she would still like to go back to Prague, and said the differences between the Czech Republic and Iowa are extreme.

“Moving here, I was just kind of like, ‘Whoa’, it’s a big difference,” Plaminkova said. “First off, it’s a capitalist country, so that’s different from [Prague]. Also, everything in Prague is far apart so you have to walk all over the place.”

Czechoslovakia’s communist government ended in November 1989 after a week of demonstrations known as the Velvet Revolution.

At the end of 1992, Czechoslovakia split into Czech Republic and Slovak Republic.

Plaminkova said her passion for swimming started in third grade when she was told she looked good in the water. After that, year by year, she continued to get better. By the seventh grade, Plaminkova was on the national swim team.

“School there is very different than how it is in America,” Plaminkova said. “I went to a sport high school where everyone in my class was either swimmers or basketball players.”

Plaminkova said the school’s main purpose was for sports, so it would make adjustments for the students.

“When at school, they knew what we were there for, so they would adjust the schedule for the sport,” Plaminkova said. “Usually, we would swim in the morning, go to school in the afternoon and then swim again after school.”

Plaminkova said she met most of her friends in school through swimming.

“The whole education was just to swim, so that’s where I met most of my friends,” Plaminkova said.

“Only two friends kept swimming after school, so I think most of them were just getting sick of it.”

Although Plaminkova attended a sport high school, she didn’t swim for the school itself.

“They don’t have school teams there,” Plaminkova said. “We swim for clubs, and I did that for a while and then I came here.”

Sorenson, who has recruited international swimmers from many different places including Germany, Australia, South Africa and Canada, said he saw great things in Plaminkova while recruiting.

“No. 1, she is a very fast swimmer, and we knew that would be good,” Sorenson said. “We knew that her times would make her very successful here, and she also had experience internationally, which is good.”

Sorenson said she has greatly exceeded his expectations.

“She has done a wonderful job here, and we knew as an athlete that she would be successful,” Sorenson said.

“She is very dedicated, and she is a fierce competitor. At every practice, she trains hard. She just hates to lose. I like to say she would swim through a brick wall just to win.”

After finishing her career at Iowa State, Plaminkova, a Russian studies major, said she would certainly like to return to her hometown of Prague.

“I’d like to go back to Prague and try out for the Olympic team,” Plaminkova said.

“I want to try in the Olympic trials and stay with swimming. If that doesn’t happen for me, I just want to get a good job.”