Swimmer Philip Cinpoe on his big ambitions
Philip Cinpoes’s alarm rings out at 4:55 in the morning every Tuesday. He is out the door within five minutes and arrives at the Malden Centre pool ready for a 20-minute stretch session. The 19-year-old swims over 4,000 metres in one practice session. Even up to 35,000 metres in one week. It is this dedication that prepares him for a gold medal swim.
Cinpoes is not an athlete who takes things easy. He holds citizenship for both Great Britain and Romania, allowing him to swim for both. As he works toward competing at the World Aquatics U23 Championships for Romania, the young athlete trains in the water every day. This requires a balancing act: Cinpoes works with both Kingston Royals and head coach Ross Douglas in England along with the University of Cluj and head coach Philgas in Romania.
Cinpoes commits a minimum of 18 hours a week to improve in his chosen sport that he has dedicated 16 years to.
“I just really love it,” Cinpoes said. “I can’t really imagine who I’d be without it, and I like where I’ve turned out. I think it taught me good discipline, taught me to work hard, taught me endurance, and I’ve made tons of friends.”
Cinpoes’s proudest accomplishment to date is taking the gold medal in the 200 metre freestyle final at British Nationals. A four-lap race, Cinpoes remained steadily in third until the final turn where he powered himself to the top of the podium by a millisecond.
In an indication of the swimmer’s dedication, Cinpoes travelled over 40,000 kilometres last year by plane for training and competition.
Cinpoes’s father, Dr Radu Cinpoes, has supported him since he started swimming as a three-year-old. Even from an early age, Cinpoes excelled and was encouraged to pursue the sport further. At age seven, he saw the Kingston Royals train at his local pool. From that day forward, he was hooked and never turned back.
“It’s normally very early mornings, and he’s never had an issue,” Cinpoes’s father says. “There were a handful of instances where, with school and everything, he was very, very tired and we had to try to convince him to take the morning off just so he’d get some more sleep in. A couple times we actually had proper arguments in trying to get him to miss training, opposed to trying to wake him up. So, it’s a genuine passion.”
Cinpoes trains in the water eight times a week in both short course and long course pools for about 12 hours. He also works on extra upper body strength in the gym three days a week when he is home in Kingston. During less intense training times at the Royals, Cinpoes heads to Romania for a rigorous long course session.
“Kingston is like training and then I go to Romania for a crash course,” Cinpoes says. “It’s tough training and really finite skills. It’s more about fine tuning things when I’m in Romania compared to here [Kingston].”
Back in England, Cinpoes’s coach Douglas agrees that dedication is the key to making his unique training schedule successful.
“Pip adapts very well between different training environments and arrives ready to work, which shows strong coachability and maturity,” Douglas says. “He takes ownership of his development and understands the purpose behind his training, making him an active partner in the process rather than a passive athlete.”
As the new year begins, Cinpoes looks forward to improving himself in any way he can to reach his peak athletic ability.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot more to give,” Cinpoes said. “And I’m looking forward to trying to get that out there. I don’t think I’m near where my best can go.”
