SC teen swimmer heads to the Olympic trials in Indianapolis. Here’s how she earned her spot

Meet Lilla Bognar.

She’s 17. Finishing her junior year at Eastside High. Lives on a farm with her parents and siblings on Paris Mountain in Greenville County, raising goats, turkeys and pigs and growing apples, blueberries and peaches.

And she’s an elite swimmer with 12 state championships and a member of the USA Swimming World Junior team last year that competed in Doha, Qatar. She’s also preparing for the Olympic trials to be held in Indianapolis later this month, in the stadium where the Colts play.

Heady stuff.

But by all accounts Bognar is a humble athlete, someone who is as likely to be as concerned about her teammates and their performance as her own.

“She’s special,” her coach at Team Greenville Karl Kozicki said. “And so super modest.”

Bognar comes from a family of five siblings, a middle child of Istvan and Kim Bognar. He is a nephrologist; Kim, a former nurse, now manages their large and active family. All the children once swam or swim now, among other activities.

In fact, Lilla remembers her mother taking them all to the Team Greenville pool when she was young. Lilla also was a gymnast from the time she was 5 until she decided to make swimming her main sport.

She said she likes the calmness she feels in the pool. And even as swimming is an individual sport, she feels a sense of family, especially at Team Greenville, where swimmers are of various ages.

At meets on the world stage, she has felt companionship with swimmers from all over the world as they are in the ready room waiting to swim.

“Once in the water, it’s every man for himself,” she said, and laughed.

During the school year she trains at Team Greenville from 5:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week. Seven miles, back and forth. When she’s not in school she sleeps in, she said. Training starts at 7.

“You know it’s going to hurt,” she said. Like your muscles are on fire. But she said that contributes to mental toughness.

Kozicki said her talent makes her stand out, but also that positive attitude and not taking herself so seriously is what makes her a winner. The family is particularly supportive, he said.

Lilla said her siblings are focused on seeing each other succeed, not necessarily in competition with each other.

Sister Cara swam for University of Illinois, where she studied bioengineering and now runs an internet business. Brother Nils, a business major at Georgia Tech, is a swimmer and diver. Her two younger brothers are swimmers and runners.

Swimming has taken her many places she ordinarily would not go such as in addition to Qatar — Israel and British Columbia. Doha was her favorite.

“It was futuristic,” she said. “The architecture.”

And as would be expected from her, meeting people from around the world was the highlight.

Lilla will swim in four events at the Olympic trials — 400 and 200 IMs, 200 back and 200 fly. Winners will join the U.S. junior team and compete in Australia in August.

Realistically, Lilla is a long shot.

“The U.S. is pretty stacked,” Kozicki said.

She has another year on her high school team and Team Greenville before going to the University of Florida to continue her swimming career.

Lilla wants to be a pediatrician, which she says matches her love of math and science and of children.

“I am more than a swimmer,” she said.