14-year-old swimmer from Fishers makes waves at national level

By OLIVIA RAY
WISH-TV
JoJo Ramey recalls the weekend trip she took to Georgia this winter for the Short Course Junior Championships, a swim meet that she thought assumed would be similar to the dozens of other races she’s competed in throughout her career.
She said, “I was doing homework all the way up until when I left to swim that race.”
As a freshman at Fishers High School, her biggest concern was her first round of final exams. So, Ramey was hitting the books in between heats but apparently wasn’t too preoccupied to put up a lifetime best performance in the pool.
Ramey said, “I saw my time, and that was what surprised me the most because I dropped almost 2 seconds off my best time before that and I ended up getting the cut by like a second and a half.”
She had qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials in the 200 backstroke event on her very first try. She may act like it’s no big deal, but at 14 years old, JoJo became one of the youngest swimmers to punch their ticket to Omaha.
Joe Keller, head swim coach at Fishers, said, “JoJo has brought a culture changing type attitude. I don’t know if I’ve ever been around an athlete like her in over 29 years of coaching. I’ve been around a lot of athletes but never one that has the type of day-in, day-out, great attitude, one of the hardest-working athletes I’ve ever coached.”
Now that this summer’s event has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ramey says, she will have more of an edge. Her time will hold, and she will still qualify for the 2021 Olympic Trials come next summer.
“I don’t want to just go to the Olympic Trials to go. I mean, the experience will be really cool, but I want to go there and actually do something.”
Ramey’s main focus for the season ahead is making the U.S. Junior National Team and making additional cuts in other events. She said, “When I’m older, yeah, I want to make it to the Olympics but I need to focus on high school.”
So, for now, no plans for Tokyo 2021, but this teenager from Fishers has already caught the attention of the sport’s biggest stars.
“I like just got done changing after I got my cut and I was standing there waiting for my coaches and I get a call, and I saw ‘Colorado Springs’ and was like this might be the Olympic Training Center, I don’t even know. And she was like, ‘Hi! This is Missy Franklin,’ and I was just like, ‘Oh, my!’” Ramey said. “She definitely gave me advice. She was just, like, keep on working hard, have dreams.”
Ramey’s dream is on pause for the time being, but this isn’t the last big splash we’ll see JoJo make.