From Asphalt Green to the Olympics: UES Swimmer Represents Kosovo in Paris

Upper East Side native and Princeton swimmer Adell Sabovic, 22, is representing his family’s home country of Kosovo in swimming the 100-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics this week. He is also unofficially representing New York, where he grew up swimming on Asphalt Green’s competitive team AGUA.

His coach, David Rodriguez, discovered him a decade ago at Asphalt Green’s free community swim meet. From there, Sabovic tried out for the competitive program as an adolescent and was recruited to the same team that produced two-time Olympian Lia Neal and sent over 18 athletes to Olympic trials.

He then became a collegiate swimmer at Princeton and is now representing Kosovo at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

“I was lucky enough to coach him for eight years,” said Rodriguez, head coach of AGUA.

“Between his time in school, I’ve watched him grow up and develop into a great leader and great ambassador for our program. To see him in the opening ceremony was a very proud and joyful moment for me.”

When asked what the most important quality in priming a future Olympian is, Rodriguez said resilience.

“It’s about their ability to bounce back from setbacks, failures, or falling short of expectations.”

“Even at the age of eight or nine, if their reaction to failure manifests as inspiration to do better next time instead of dejection, that’s usually a pretty good sign that they have a chance to make it far in the sport. Learning from success and failures at the same time is huge,” he continued.

Rodriguez revealed that Sabovic started the process of reaching the Olympics three years ago. The fact that he’s representing his father’s home country of Kosovo, despite not living there, complicates the process, but he really zeroed in on the lofty goal about eighteen months ago.

“The process of preparing an athlete to compete at the highest level is a multi-year, multi-faceted process over the course of their whole career,” said Rodriguez.

“We help the athletes understand that as you’re progressing in the sport, the failures happen a lot more than the successes. Obviously, the Olympics comes with its own aura that poses its own challenges. Nerves are gonna be there, I’m not the coach that tells you not to be nervous.”

“I just tell them that the pool is 50 meters long, like any pool. It has water in it, and lanes and blocks, like any pool. You’re here because you belong here,” he said.

Sabovic competed in the 100-meter freestyle on July 30 (at 5:00 a.m. ET!), the semifinals that afternoon at 3:30 p.m., and the final the following day on July 31 at 4:15 p.m. The events took place at the Paris La Défense Arena of Nanterre. According to Princeton’s athletic website, Sabovic competed in the third of ten heats and placed second in his heat with a time of 51.77 seconds. He finished 58th overall.