It’s easy to put professional athletes on a pedestal and explain their success as natural talent but Erika Ackerlund will be the first person to tell you that, despite racing professional triathlon, she is “playing catch up” when it comes to swimming.

There wasn’t a consistent person in the past to teach me the foundations.” Through the national team, Ackerlund has been working with a swim coach in Arizona for the past years, which, she says, “Has helped a lot.”