the community newspaper for east oahu since 1987

Champion Swimmer from China Dedicated to East Oahu Kids

by KEONI SUBIONO
Sun Correspondent
Archived January 2007 article
Hawaii Kai resident Jialin Sun better known as "Sunny" started her swim career at the age of 5 in Shanghai, China. Over the course of her life she's been crowned champion many times and just barely missed the 1996 Olympics by two tenths of a second. She was recruited by the University of Nevada Reno where she still holds national records in the 50- and 100-meter breaststroke. Later she made her way to the University of Hawaii for a Masters degree and found herself coaching the swim team as graduate assistant. Eventually she became a full time coach.

Sunny's passion for coaching quickly evolved into "Sun-shine Aquatics," a program for kids age 4 to 14 who want to learn how to swim safely and effectively without the pressure of swimming in competitions. This is very different from the way that Sunny grew up. "When I grew up athletics was like business, if you wanted to get into it, you had to be the best one or you're not going to do it. As a kid we sacrificed everything a normal child would have for our sport. We'd practice twice a day and when the normal kids were outside playing we'd be in the pool. Sun-shine Aquatics is the complete opposite," says Sunny of her programming.

"I just want this program to be a little star in the community to benefit as many kids as possible. We are there to help them and the most important part of the mission is to let the kids know that they have a lot of choices in their lives and they don't have to be good in certain things to value themselves. A lot of times we see kids that are put into let's say, basketball camps and they're really not interested. But they carry some kind of guilty feeling if they are not good; their parents won't be happy. Or if they go to swim club, they want to try out and the coach will tell them that they have to swim across the pool or we won't take you."

The Sun-shine Aquatic coaches are very welcoming and they are some of the best around. They are all volunteers, Tom Lileikis, Stephanie Regucera, Tammy Lewis and Rui Wang. They are all there for the benefit of the kids and are dedicated to teaching proper and efficient technique in such a way that even a 4 year old could understand.

Sunny emphasizes the quality of coaching: "Our goal is to teach them the correct technique and to make sure that when our swimmers go out, people are impressed by their technique. They are not only learning to be healthy, to be safe and to have fun, but they are also learning to be the most efficient swimmers in the water. So they are well educated and safe. They will have fun and again, there is no pressure to compete because you don't have to be a fast swimmer to be happy."

For more information go to sunshinesportsllc.com