Melton Swimming Club captain Manar Mahfouz has been awarded Young Leader of the Year by Swimming Victoria.
The 21-year-old Melton local was “honoured” but shocked to win and did not even mention it to her teammates.
“I wasn’t expecting this … I’ve never been nominated for anything like it before,” Ms Mahfouz said.
“I didn’t say anything to anyone and at first I didn’t even know what it was about.”
But the recognition should come as no surprise.
The five-time captain has been swimming competitively at Melton for 11 years and serves as an inspiration to others at the club.
“Everyone was saying how proud they were and how great of a mentor I was for the junior and senior swimmers,” she said.
Ms Mahfouz said the award renewed her confidence in herself and inspired her.
“It’s really motivated me to push even more … if there are other opportunities regarding leadership now, I’ll go for it,” she said.
“They spoke about women in sport on the night and I am really interested in that.”
While swimming was not the family legacy growing up, Ms Mahfouz found she quickly excelled in the pool and joined Melton Swimming Club.
“Mum thought it would be good for myself and younger siblings to be involved in a team sport as well as for our health,” Ms Mahfouz said.
Since she was 13 years old, Ms Mahfouz has been on every national swim team and her main goal is to go to the Olympics.
She was milliseconds short of qualifying for Paris this year but said it was a “really good opportunity” to go up against such quality athletes.
Eddie Russell
