She is one of the sports premier up-and-coming athletes. A young, hard-working swimmer with versatility that spans in both distance and stroke, Ariana Kukors is embracing her growing success while at the same time embarking on change.

Kukors is coming off a career-high experience at the 2009 World Aquatic Championships in Rome, Italy this past July. The 20-year-old represented the USA at the international meet in both the 200m individual medley, and as a part of the 4×200m freestyle relay. In the semi-finals of the 200m individual medley, she shattered the world record in an astounding 2:07:03. In the next evening’s finals, she dipped below her new record to finish with a gold medal victory of 2:06:15. She would also help the women’s relay team to capture a silver medal.

The excitement of the summer has been followed recently by Kukors leaving long-time club team KING Aquatics with coach Sean Hutchison to swim in Fullerton, CA. Joining Hutchison to train as part of an elite US Olympic committee high-performance team, she will be surrounded by some of the nation’s best talent.

Being a part of USA Swimming’s best athletes is not entirely new to Kukors. In addition to her place on the US national team this summer, she was on the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championship team for the US-earning her first medal at an international competition winning silver in the 400m individual medley. In 2007, she competed for Team USA at the World Championships in Melbourne. The year prior in 2006, she was a national champion in the 100m backstroke.

Although committing her training to the club level, she has a year of experience as an NCAA Division l athlete. In the 2007-08 collegiate season, she swam as a member of the University of Washington’s women team, breaking six individual records throughout the year. In addition, she became an NCAA All-American as a true freshman after achieving runner-up status in the 200y individual medley, placing third in the 400y individual medley, and 4th in the 200y breaststroke. She stayed enrolled in the university academically up until her recent move.

Now situated in Orange County, CA, Kukors will look to use her continued success as a platform for causes important to her. An advocate of supporting children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer after experiencing the impact first hand with her mother’s struggle with breast cancer, she hopes to develop her own charity as well as volunteer at local hospitals.