Senior Elena Amos raced the 50 and 100 freestyle events at the 2025 Asunción Junior Pan American Games this summer, where she represented El Salvador. She placed 31st in the 50 freestyle and 32nd in the 100 freestyle.

Amos traveled to Paraguay for the meet, which the natatorium was specifically built for. 

“It’s probably one of the nicest pools I’ve ever swam at, and we live in Texas,” Amos said. “There’s a lot of nice pools here.”

Amos was especially impressed with the international feel of the event, which had 37 countries competing in the swimming events and over 4,000 athletes across all the sports. Aside from her Latin American competitions, Amos has medalled several times in UIL 5A State Swimming and Diving and currently holds six out of 11 records for the Kingwood Park swim team. 

“There’s a camera on the side of the pool that follows the swimmers as they’re swimming,” Amos said. “And then after, it’s how they do it in the Olympics, in the A final…the top three people go in and they get interviewed in this little area.

 “It was like a whole real deal. I was like, where am I? This is so weird. I was getting interviewed by the press for El Salvador, and all this stuff, it was crazy.”

Amos has been representing El Salvador in international competition since 2023 when she found the team on Instagram. However, because of scheduling difficulties in traveling to meets, it was hard to make her plans. For her first competition, she had to make her plans in less than two weeks. 

“They were very last minute in telling us things, so we couldn’t just drop everything and book a flight,” Amos said. 

She qualified for the Asunción Junior Pan American Games during May at the Pan American Championships in Columbia, when she placed second in the 50 freestyle. 

“I feel like for me it’s more just like being able to travel to the places. I’ve gone to Colombia. I’ve gone to Paraguay now and I’m going to Guatemala,” Amos said. “Obviously I’ve gone back to my home country, so it’s cool because I just get to travel.”