Regional Swimmer Sets Her Sights on Olympics

Leah Shackley’s typical day begins at 5 a.m.

It’s not so the 17-year-old Olympic swimming hopeful can get into the pool and work out before her virtual classes begin.

No, she’s up the crack of dawn so she can make breakfast and take care of the horses for a 93-year-old neighbor in Bedford and her Parkinson’s-afflicted daughter in her 70s.

Only later in the day is Shackley driving 45 minutes or so up Interstate 99 to the Blair Regional YMCA for 12 to 18 hours of training each week in addition to serving as a life guard and being a social maven.

“Every single older lady that’s in exercise classes will come up and want to talk to her, and she’ll talk to them. She’s the friendliest kid you’ll ever meet,” said her coach, Tom Grassadonia. “That’s what people don’t know about her.”

What does that have to do with becoming a world-class athlete? Maybe nothing. Or maybe it’s just an example that discipline and commitment and making time for a variety of important little things can be the wellspring of success.

Shackley’s certainly had a lot of success.

Already in possession of a personal trophy haul that would be the envy of a lot of high school programs, Shackley will be at Bucknell University this weekend for the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships hoping to add a few more.

“I have an opportunity to win my fifth and sixth championship,” Shackley said. “But maybe the biggest goal, and while it will be tough, I am shooting for the national high school record in the 100 back. So I’m pretty excited.”

A phenom

The Morrisons Cove area has reason to share in the pride of her accomplishments. A big part of her development is directly attributable to moving to train at the Blair Regional (formerly Hollidaysburg) YMCA six years ago.

“Blair Regional Y offering a USA and YMCA program was huge for me,” Shackley said. “Early on, I had really good coaches to help me achieve my goals, and when Tom said, ‘You can make US Olympic Trials at 14’ and we put together a plan and achieved it in 2021, it was amazing. I’d also recognize the people at the Y, not only the staff, but the other members who just show me so much support. It is pretty cool.”

The daughter of Tom and Jessica Shackley of Bedford turned up at the Blair Regional YMCA in 2018 not only as a swimmer but a gymnast. She had been going to the YMCA in Cumberland, Md., for four years by then.

Shackley already was outpacing her competition at that point. The YMCA in Hollidaysburg had one big advantage over its counterpart: an affiliation with USA Swimming that opened the door for her to go to bigger and more challenging meets.

“She became a phenom pretty quickly,” said Grassadonia, who brought the program to the Blair Regional Y when it still was the Hollidaysburg YMCA in 2010 as the aquatics director and head swim coach there. “I think the good Lord gave her a lot of talent and she’s definitely used it right. We could see it. We could see who she was and what she was about. When COVID hit, she was 14 years old and she was literally just a couple of seconds off of qualifying for the Olympic Trials.”

Which is unheard of.

Pool time

Although still a member of the Blair Regional YMCA’s swimming staff, Grassadonia eventually gave up a couple of his top positions there to work for Allegheny Mountain Swimming and focus his coaching on Shackley.

During COVID, they traveled anywhere they could in the Mid-Atlantic region that she could get pool time.

Now, they go anywhere that Shackley can get competition.

Last week, it was at Westmont, Ill., where Shackley got to go up against her idol, 22-year-old former Stanford star Regan Smith, at a TYR Pro Series event.

Shackley actually beat Smith in a preliminary heat in the long-course 200-meter backstroke, her favorite event and one where Smith holds the women’s junior world record.

Smith came back to win in the finals and take the gold.

“It was pretty cool,” Shackley said.

Shackley herself won a gold medal at the Junior World Championships in Israel last year.

“Representing your country and then standing on the medal podium while the National Anthem is played is pretty awesome,” Shackley said.

It’s just the tip of the iceberg on the long list of Shackley’s achievements so far.

Achievements

In addition to four PIAA titles already, and with a shot at two more this weekend, Shackley holds the state records in the 100-yard butterfly and 100-yard backstroke. She has 10 YMCA national titles and seven records there.

That doesn’t include all her zone and sectional championships and records.

At last month’s District 6 championships, Shackley broke her own records with a 50.43-second backstroke and a 51.16 butterfly. The backstroke time is about eight-tenths of a second off the national high school record.

“I know I have been provided a great talent, but I have to work really hard,” Shackley said. “I will usually lift three days a week and then depending on what course we are training for the distance and intensity will vary, swim about two to two-and-a-half hours each day. Because we don’t have unlimited pool time and we don’t have a long-course pool, my coach can get pretty creative, but we hit the water pretty hard. I also work really hard at what I eat and rest.”

Her plans: Olympics?

Originally planning to swim collegiately at Indiana, Shackley since has flipped her commitment to North Carolina State.

“The process for a high school athlete is crazy,” Shackley said. “I guess ultimately it came down to a complete staff that got to know me, the other athletes that were heading there, a family feel, and the location.”

It’s pretty heady stuff for someone who in a lot of ways still is an average teenage girl. Shackley has two younger siblings, 14-year-old Eva and 12-year-old Evan, and she works three part-time jobs, including one at Hollister at the Pleasant Valley Mall in Altoona. She likes studying history in school and her perfect way to knock out an hour of free time is lying in the sun reading a book.

“My parents, they balance me,” Shackley said. “My friend Daniel Diehl pushes me when we train together and helps me believe in me. And my coach, Tom Grassadonia, he has never doubted my potential and always coaches me to be my best.”

Shackley’s ultimate goal, though, is the Olympics.

“I’m pretty realistic about my chances this year. I would love to make the team, but I truly hope you’ll see me in the finals at trials in three of my events. After that we will see how it plays out,” Shackley said. “The U.S. has some really incredible swimmers that will all be working as hard as me, so the opportunity to be on that stage to compete as a 17-year-old is very exciting.”

Even with everything she has done, Shackley still is looking forward to this weekend’s PIAA meet.

“The national backstroke record is the big reason, but I love being on deck with so many swimmers that I have come to know and I’m really proud to represent my hometown and share my successes,” Shackley said.

“We know where I am ranked and the work I have to put in is crazy. I don’t spend too much time dreaming. I take things day-to-day and work as hard as I can.”

Even if it’s making breakfast for her neighbors and taking care of their horses. Quality, as Aristotle said, is not an act, it’s a habit.

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