July 23, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina rising senior swimmer Sharntelle McLean is set to represent her home country of Trinidad & Tobago at the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy. The swimming portion of the meet gets underway Saturday and runs through Aug. 2.

“One of our goals as a program is to compete at the absolute highest level in swimming,” South Carolina head coach McGee Moody said. “Sharntelle has accomplished that. She’s been an Olympian, now she’s representing our university and the state of South Carolina. I think she’s going to be great, and we’re proud of the way she represents our university.”

McLean will be swimming in three events at the championships. She begins with the 100-meter freestyle on July 30, followed by the 50-meter butterfly July 31. She wraps things up with her signature event, the 50 freestyle, on Aug. 1.

Assistant coach Steve Steketee has been helping McLean train throughout the summer, and he is excited about her prospects at the championships.

“Her training has been very good all summer,” Steketee said. “She’s done a really good job concentrating on what’s important in the moment. We’ve really worked on stroke technique and her strength on land, and she’s in a good place going into the meet.”

This will not be McLean’s first time on the international stage. Last summer, the native of Morvant, Trinidad, represented her country at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 50-meter freestyle, becoming the 16th different Gamecock to compete in swimming or diving at the Olympic Games. She also swam in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, as well as the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.

McLean is the school-record holder in the 50-yard freestyle (short-course yards) after breaking the mark at last year’s Gamecock Invitational. She swam a time of 22.65 seconds, earning an NCAA `B’ cut and snapping a 20-year old South Carolina mark.

Full coverage of the FINA World Championships is available through www.roma09.it.