Sean Ryan is in the Chattanooga Olympics Zone

Pursuing an Olympic dream is a selfish endeavor. Finding your best performance on the international stage takes focus, determination, passion, innovation, luck and many other attributes as well. Add in an elite and fierce field of competitors pushing you to absolute limits, you quickly see there’s little time for much else. But, you do this because you want to and because the pursuit matters to you.

When Chattanooga’s Sean Ryan steps up on to the starting block at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials this month in Omaha, Nebraska, he’ll be sharing the stage with Olympic stars Michael Phelps and Aaron Piersol. This event is the premiere Olympic Trials for all Olympic sports and the ultimate display of depth in the U.S. Swimming program. While his job as a youth swim instructor at McCallie might not be a conventional part of a traditional Olympic training regimen, this work is an important part of Sean’s typical day over and above his twice daily personal workouts. What makes this story more interesting is that Sean is a kid himself – at 15 years-old, this McCallie junior-to-be has a purposeful sense of giving back and being a part of a larger community which is as much refreshing as it is inspiring.

Watch Sean in the "Chattanooga Olympic Zone" on Tuesday, June 17th, on WRCB's "Eyewitness News at 6" or tune in back here at the Chattanooga Olympic Zone blog after the broadcast.