NORWICH – Currently competing for two swim teams in the local area, the Norwich high school varsity team and the YMCA Dolphins team, Purple Tornado sophomore Margie Winter has won a number of awards representing both teams as 16 year old.

Recently, Winter has been offered a chance of a lifetime: swimming for the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in the 2018 Oceania Swimming Championships to be held in Port Moreby, Papua New Guinea.

Why would she be swimming for FSM and not the United States?

Winter was born in Chuuk State of the FSM, the country that her mother is a native of. Winter is one of many Micronesians that live far away from their island home.

FSM is a large group of countries/political entities as well as many smaller islands in the western Pacific Ocean.

The Federated State of Micronesia includes the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, and Guam. Chuuk, the state in which she was born, is one of the four states of the FSM.

Just recently, the FSM Swimming Association invited Winter to join their team and represent the country at the 2018 Oceania Swimming Championship. The swimming competition is to be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The meet will take place on June 25 to 29 and will serve as a qualifying event for the Youth Olympics later this year in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Winter has been training five to six days a week with hopes of representing FSM in the pool for the 50 and 100 meter freestyle races as well as 50 and 100 meter butterfly races.

Currently, her times are equivalent to a time of around 25-seconds; comparable to the time of the other female swimmers that have been selected to represent FSM in previous international meets.