Eva Fabian: World champion swimmer, Olympic hopeful and top violinist

Eva Fabian, 22, has been dominating the World Championship circuit in open water distance swimming since she was fourteen years old.

The Pierson senior, who majors in Music, is a gold medallist in her event – and she’s also a violin expert.

We sat down with the sports champ to talk about her unique swimming talent, her life on campus and her goals after graduation.

Eva after competing in the 10k at Nationals in 2013

Tell me about your sport. What exactly is open water swimming?
Swimming didn’t have a real distance event – running has the marathon, and for swimming, the longest race for men is only 15-16 minutes and for women it’s eight minutes. We wanted to have a distance event in the Olympics. So open water swimming had been around as a World Championship event for a while, but it wasn’t included in the Olympics until 2008. Essentially, it’s the marathon of swimming.

At the World Championships, we have the 5k, the 10k, and the 25k, which is one hour, two hours, and five hours of swimming, respectively. At the Olympic level, we only have the 10k.

What is your event specifically?
My best and favorite event is the 10k, but I have also swum the 5k and 25k at World Championships. I won Gold in the 5k in 2010 in Canada, and won Bronze in the 25k in Barcelona in 2013. This past year, I just won Gold at Pan-Americans in Toronto in the 10k.

Eva at the Golden Goggle awards in 2013

How did you get into open-water swimming?
I was always a distance swimmer when I was little. And when you’re little, bear in mind that’s like the 100-freestyle when you’re eight years old. I was at pool Nationals on my fourteenth birthday, and my coach told me to swim the 10k at the Grand Prix the next day. So I did it, and I didn’t think about how long that is. Like, it’s 10,000 meters. I didn’t connect that. And I absolutely hated it the first time.

But in that Grand Prix, I qualified for Nationals, so I figured I’d try it again. The second time, still not the best thing ever, but much more enjoyable.

I made my first National team (I got sixth) and because I immediately took the sport so fast, and because I really liked the strategic part of it, I decided that this was clearly the best event for me.

No one ever chooses it. It kind of chooses you. I just ended up happening, I had a few great races and loved it, and then I decided to focus on it.

Eva Fabian with her brother, Max Fabian at a swim meet in New Hampshire

What is your training schedule like?
Swimming is a very training-intensive sport to begin with. And because I do long distance, I have to have a couple extra training sessions a week. So I swim two hours in the morning and two hours at night, Monday through Friday, and about an hour of various strength and conditioning Monday through Friday. I swim two-and a half to three hours on Saturday with about forty minutes of dry-land conditioning, and Sunday I can take it easy.

You compete for Yale. How does pool swimming differ from open-water swimming?
You train very similarly for both of them, but they are two entirely different kinds of racing. Pool swimming is really cool at the collegiate level because it’s all about a team result. You really want to get on autopilot so you just jump in, you don’t think, you just go.

Open water is all about thinking. It’s like a chess match while racing. You have to be constantly aware of not only who you’re racing and their strategic moves, but how you are racing that day, what you want to do, and your end game. You have to set up your finish for the entire race. You have to make sure that you aren’t just reacting to people, but you are initiating your own moves.

There’s a lot of tactics, a lot of focus required. It all comes down to mental toughness and your mental playlist – it’s make or break it that day, so you better have a good song stuck in your head!

Eva competing at a Yale swimming event

Do you have a favorite race memory or story?
Oh man, I have so many. But one of them, last year, I tied to win the mile, this was college swimming, with Cailley Silbert, a sophomore here [at Yale]. And that was hilarious and fun because you rarely tie in a mile. We’d been training together all year, and it was actually very fun.

But my favorite open water swimming memory was wining Bronze in the 25k in Barcelona because that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I was very close to last for a solid portion of the race, and then I made a gigantic comeback and was very close to winning gold. I was about 0.5 seconds out from gold. But seeing that American flag holding it on as they were screaming and running down the course, I knew in that moment I could defend myself and win a medal, which was incredibly rewarding after five hours of racing.

Then I ate an entire pizza.

Eva Fabian after winning Gold at the Pan American Championships in Toronto on July 11th, 2015

You’re also a Music major on campus and an incredible violinist. What do you in the few hours of your day you’re not in the pool?
I play violin, so I play in the Chamber class and take lessons for credit. I love playing music and learning about music. I actually really enjoy playing Beyoncé on violin – “If I Were A Boy” sounds great on violin!

What are your goals for swimming in the future after Yale?
As a team [at Yale], we want to win Ivies this year. That would be a great way to round off senior year. I’ll keep swimming open water after school, and I’m hoping to make the 2020 Olympic team, and in the meantime, just keep representing the US National Team in as many events as I can!

Eva hugging Yale teammate Paulina Kaminsky