Saugus teen 1 step away from Olympics

SAUGUS, SANTA CLARITA (KABC) -- The summer Olympics are just over two months away, but for a 19-year-old from Saugus, a trip to the Olympics in Rio is just a win away.

Swimmer Abbey Weitzeil will be churning up the water at the Olympic trials next month in Omaha. Part of her success was not going all in at too young of an age.

She began swimming at age nine and eventually quit at age 12, but there was something about this sport that was calling her heart.

"I don't know what it was, but I just couldn't let swimming go," she said.

Sticking with it got her to the Olympic trials by age 15, and that's when she partnered with Coley Stickel, a former collegiate swimmer at University of Arizona. He instilled an unorthodox training routine.

"There's not a lot of science that indicates that you need a massive aerobic base to sprint, so we kind of focused on the technical aspects of the strokes first," he said.

The results speak for themselves. At the world championships last year, Weitzeil won a gold medal for the 50 meters and a silver in the 100.

"I took a year out of my life to simply train for it, so it would mean the world to me and I believe that I can," she explained.

The next chapter to Weitzeil's story hopes to be written in Rio.