MACEY STEWART

Tallassee High School champion swimmer sets sights on the Olympics

STORY BY LYNN COX PHOTOS BY JAKE ARTHUR, LYNN COX & COURTESY OF JOE STEWART

What does it take to grow a champion in any sport? Dedication? Commitment? Consistency? And hard work.

Yes, it takes all these attributes along with a love of the sport. Tallassee High School has such an athlete, who is racking up championships in swimming year after year. Swimming is a sport that doesn’t receive a lot of attention in this football-rich state.

While looking for a story to start a new series about star athletes from the area, Lake Martin Living magazine came upon a young lady who encompasses all the attributes of a champion. Macey Stewart, a 10th grade student at Tallassee High School, has been swimming since the age of 4.

“In swimming, the level of competition continues to get higher and pushes me to be better in the water and in my day to day life.” Stewart said. “I was about 10 years old when I realized that God had given me a gift in swimming, and I wanted to use that gift to bring others to him.”

Her older brother, Lanier, was a swimmer in the Tallassee Summer League and her mother, Joely took Stewart along and put her in the water at his meets.

“We just put her on the team and the coach said she’ll learn to swim better being on the team,” Joey said. “She just took to swimming pretty quick.”

By the time she was 5, Stewart was on the relay team as the backstroke leg of the relay in the 8 and under group.

“She was always taller for her age,” Joely said. “And you can get across the water when you are taller. Macey is 5-foot-8 now. There are others taller, but she still swims fast.”

Just keep swimming

Previous Page: Stewart working on her butterfly stroke at Auburn Aquatics Center; Left: Macey with her parents, Joely and Joe Stewart; Below: Stewart holds the state record for the 100-yard backstroke in the 2021 Alabama High School Athletic Association; Right: Stewart holds the resolution presented to her Jan. 24, 2022, by the Elmore County Commission for her outstanding achievements in swimming.

“Lot of friends commented to us that she looked like a natural as she was swimming. The strokes came a lot easier for her,” said her dad, Joe.

Stewart swam on the Tallassee Tiger Sharks, part of the Tallassee Summer League until she was 11 when her parents began taking her to the Auburn Aquatics Center. She still goes and participates with the Tallassee Summer League, but she does not compete with them since her swimming level has surpassed the league. She goes back and helps with the younger swimmers and gives private lessons at her sister’s pool.

Swimming is a way of life for Stewart. Since training at Auburn Aquatics year-round, her times have steadily increased.

“We knew she was a really good rec league swimmer, but we didn’t know she would be competing at the level she is now,” Joely said. “And she just kept getting faster.

Stewart qualified during her first year, as a sixth grader, to compete in the Southeastern Swimming, Inc., a division of USA Swimming.

The next year, she and one other swimmer were on the high school team at Tallassee High. She was the only one with qualifying times to make it to state competitions in both the seventh and eighth grades.

Competing with older swimmers doesn’t intimidate Stewart. Her dad, Joe, said she is very competitive. “When she goes to the bigger meets, there are kids from all over the Southeast and even beyond,” he said. “She gets in the pool with the rest of them, and we’re impressed. It doesn’t intimidate her at all.”

The Stewarts have raised their children to be committed to what they are doing - to be all in. Macey practices five days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday afternoons. She goes to church on Wednesday nights and is very active with her friends.

Her mother said Stewart has been committed to participating in the sport she loves. She has never been too tired to go. She always wants to go to practice.

Tallassee pool is open only at certain times of the year. Other high school teams start earlier. As a result, Stewart and her team practice five mornings and three evenings a week during the season. Stewart is cosistently up early and ready to go.

Her mom is the one that gets tired, but like Stewart, she is committed to helping her succeed.

“In any sport you have to put the time in to practice,” Joely said. “Swimming especially. Macey does it. She stays conditioned.”

Looking ahead, Macey wants to swim and compete at the college level. To date, there have been no scholarship offers because colleges cannot send them until after June 1. "I would like to attend a division 1 university, preferably

It Takes Commitment

Stewart practices five afternoons a week at the Auburn Aquatics Center.

in the Southeast."

Competing in the Olympics is on Stewart's radar as well and is working toward that goal. The next Olympics will be in 2024. She will graduate from high school that spring. She very well could become eligible to compete then if her times keep improving. Every meet she participates in can be a qualifier for the Olympics from now on.

Stewart and her dad watch a lot of the college meets, and compares her times to those competing.

“Her times are very good for her age,” Joe said. “To be at that level, she still needs to cut four or five seconds off. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but in swimming it is.”

Stewart has the state record in 100yard backstroke with a time of 55.75 seconds. Her times in the 2021 Alabama High School Athletic Association state swim meet were the fastest in all divisions, 1A to 7A.

Setting goals and working to get to the next level is important to her.

“Swimming in Southeastern, you have to hit qualifying times, or you do not even get to go,” her mother said. “The next level is Junior Nationals. She has hit all her levels in Southeastern. She is now trying to get to the Junior Nationals and on to the Olympics.”

You would think with all that training and practice,

Stewart might not have time for studies and socializing. Her physical talents and swimming skills are not the only way she is succeeding. She is competing to be the honor valedictorian of her class, and to keep her gradepoint average up. Although, she did admit she has never struggled with her academics. “Academics has always come easy for me. I haven’t had to spend long hours of studying to be good at it.” As far as a social life, she hangs with her friends at school and church. And, she has developed new ones through swimming in Auburn. She and her mom are close. They get to spend the extra time traveling back and forth to Auburn to connect. “Macey is a remarkable girl. And, Sports Performance Is In The Family she has been such a Above: Stewart's father, Joe, and brother, Lanier, have also received championship rings for outstanding performance in sports; Below: Awards and ribbons line the Stewart family dining room table for Macey's achievements. blessing to raise, Joely said. Stewart is currently training for the Southeastern Swimming meet that takes place later this month and working to get to Junior Nationals this summer with her qualifying times. It’s all just another leg of her journey to the Olympics. Lake Martin Living magazine wishes her the best.