It can be a stressful time for college athletes when they graduate and are stripped of the support structure provided by their alma mater.

Olympian Emma Harvey, 23, has reached that stage of her swimming career and is about to take a prolonged spell out of the pool after accepting an internship at a management consulting company in San Francisco.

The transition to life after college sport is one Harvey has thought about a lot and while she was back on island and breaking records at the national championships last weekend, she outlined her plans for the future.

“This summer I’m taking a little step back as I have an internship in San Francisco, which I’m really excited about,” she said.

“I’m taking a three-month break from swimming and I’m really happy to get learning about different areas of life.

“Tomorrow is going to be my last day and I’ll still be training but just in a different way, cross training and getting stronger so that when I come back to the pool I can hopefully continue to get some big improvements.

“Going 100 per cent all in on swimming is definitely what I want to do but I’m giving my body a little break so that when I do go into 100 per cent training mode my body can handle it.”

The life of a professional athlete is tough, with swimmers in particular putting in more training hours than most other sportsmen and women, but the lure of a “normal” life in the workplace is not one that Harvey sees attracting her.

“I don’t think I’ve taken more than four weeks out of the pool since I was 10 or 11, so It’s really exciting,” Harvey said.

“But the one thing I’m not worried about is that three months off will lead to longer as I really love the sport. I think it’s going to be the opposite and after four weeks I’m going to really have to force myself to stay away, but I know in two years’ time I’m going to thank myself for it as my body is going to be healthier.

“I’ve been fortunate to have avoided major injuries but it’s harder to keep doing that as you get older. I’ve switched training routines and really got into bouldering, which helps my strength.

“A lot of swimmers have taken a year off and cross-trained and they have come back so much better and faster than they were before. I’m hoping by shifting focus and working on different aspects of my athleticism that it will help me.”

Harvey had an aura about her as she walked around the pool at the National Sports Centre, with Bermuda’s next generation of swimmers looking to her for inspiration and her position at the top of the island’s swimming tree is something she embraces.

“It always feels really special and heart-warming to be back in Bermuda and I try to speak to as many of the little children as I can as I hope to do what people did for me when I was younger,” Harvey said.

“I remember when I was their age and how amazing I felt to see Roy-Allan Burch come back. It’s nice to be able to come home and see the younger children coming up. They are doing an awesome job and it’s exciting to see the future of the sport. I want to be a part of that as much as I can.”

Harvey enters her three-month sabbatical in the form of her life after setting personal bests in the 50 and 100 metres butterfly at the national championships, but this sustained period of success has come after some tough times.

“I went through five years of not hitting a single personal best from the ages of 16 to 21,” she said.

“That’s normally when people go through their biggest improvement curves and for me it’s been the three years since then that I’ve seen the most improvement.

“There is a lot of science out there that suggests women don’t hit their peak strength until 26 or 27 and men even later in life, so the plan is to keep going as long as I have the motivation, health and financial backing.

“I’m excited for the future and feel I can definitely keep improving. My long-term goal is to shoot for an Olympic final and it’s exciting to feel that I’m on that trajectory.”

After a quiet time post-Paris, 2026 is shaping up to be a big year for Bermuda’s elite athletes with the Central American and Caribbean Games taking place in Dominican Republic and a slimline Commonwealth Games set for Glasgow.

Harvey expects to be back firing in at least one of those major events but scheduling conflicts means she will choose Scotland over Santo Domingo.

“Commonwealths and CAC Games happen at the same time next year,” Harvey said.

“There is a small chance we’ll be able to do both but I think the swimmers will have to make a choice. I have my high-level plans so I aim at the top two or three events every year.

“You know years out what the big events on the calendar are but your body and skill sets change so it’s difficult to predict where you are going to be in two years.”