Ian Diefenbach is a junior at Andover High School and loves pushing himself to the limit and competing in endurance sports. Currently Diefenbach is a member of  the swim, track, and cross country teams at Andover High. In addition to his high school teams Diefenbach also competes for the Wichita Swim Club and works as a lifeguard at the Wichita Country Club. Diefenbach’s swimming career began at the age of five and he quickly realized that he had a deep appreciation for endurance competition. 

“My family introduced me to swimming and I became fascinated with how competitive it was and how the water let me feel,” Diefenbach said. “I have a love for endurance sports. Anything where I am pushed to the max interests me.  I have been running for the cross country team since seventh grade. I joined high school cross country as a freshman and have been running varsity since.”

While Diefenbach trains and swims all strokes in the pool he said that the 200m freestyle is his favorite and probably best event.

“I like the difficulty and challenge that the event gives me,” Diefenbach said. “Since it has a middle distance you have to sprint the whole race and be able to maintain pace the entire time.”

Over the years Diefenbach has learned many valuable lessons through swimming and long distance running, but the most important of which he said is learning to overcome failure and use those let downs as an opportunity for growth.

“I learned that though failure, success is on the other side. You need to suffer through failure to reach your goals,” Diefenbach said. “When I was younger I would not be happy with how I swam because I didn’t always reach my goals. Now I have learned that from my ups and downs I can benefit from what I did wrong. That gives me the motivation to keep working toward my goals so that I am able to say that I have succeeded.”

Diefenbach has had success already in his young career. One moment that Diefenbach remembers fondly occurred his freshman year when his brother was a senior. The brothers were members of Andover’s 400m relay team and earned a podium at the state championship. Now as a junior Diefenbach hopes to make another trip to state.

“This year we have a well rounded team and it would be awesome to bring home a state championship for Andover High and hopefully become state champion in an individual event,” Diefenbach said.

At the moment Diefenbach isn’t one hundred percent decided on what he wants to do after high school, but would like to continue his education and athletic career at the next level in college -whether swimming or running. He still has time to decide and wants to enjoy his remaining time in high school before deciding on a school and path of study. 

For now, he will remember the advice of his late grandmother who told him “Be like a duck… above the surface look calm and unruffled and below the surface paddle like heck.”