Leicester Tigers
AMANDA SWARTZ: FROM FIGURE SKATING TO LEICESTER TIGERS WOMEN
Although she grew up next to a rugby pitch, Amanda Swartz did not begin playing until she was 16, writes Joe Harvey.
Swartz's mother, Anna-Lena, was a star in the Sweden national team after picking up the sport in her 20s and represented the Scandinavian nation at the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Looking back, Swartz jokes that it was stubbornness that stopped her from picking up a rugby ball to begin with and instead turned her attention to figure skating.
"It was just really common in Sweden to get your kids to ice skate, just like you learn how to swim," Swartz said.
"I did that and just ended up really, really loving it. It was a little bit the fact my mum was playing rugby, I refused.
"I have grown up next to a rugby field, but refused to step foot on it. Then naturally I went as far away from it as I could and said I wanted to be a figure skater.
"My mum was like 'oh great', but being very supportive and she let me do what I wanted to do.
"I started doing it for fun, and then found I was quite good at it, so I kept on doing it."
Beginning to compete competitively at the age of nine, Swartz would go to the national championships, as well as attending practice before and after school.
It was in her mid-teens that she began picking up injuries.
Stress fractures in her feet meant that Swartz was spending increasingly more time away from the rink and away from competition.
"It was one of those things where I didn't want to do it just for fun," she explained. "I really wanted to be competitive and my body just wasn't really allowing me.
"At that point, my mum was saying 'come to rugby training' and I eventually caved and I said I would come to one training session.
"Then I figured out I really like it.
"I was like, damn. I didn't want to like it. I didn't want her to be right. I did really enjoy it."
All those years watching on the touchline meant that Swartz quickly became proficient out on the pitch and was soon one of the brightest young stars in Swedish rugby.
She managed to play several games with her mother prior to her retirement in 2017, with Anna-Lena now having turned her attentions to coaching and gaining experience across the globe.
In order to progress her own career, Swartz enroled at Loughborough University in 2020 to study psychology and criminology, while also turning out for Loughborough Lightning and in BUCS competition.
Arriving in the East Midlands, Swartz had already debuted for Sweden in sevens and is presently her country's co-captain in 15s.
Leaving Lightning in the summer, the 23-year-old back is relishing her new challenge with Leicester Tigers under Vicky Macqueen a little further south down the A6.
This weekend one of Allianz Premiership Women's Rugby newest sides will play their first league game after starting their season in the Allianz Cup.
Playing four games in the Cup, Swartz and her teammates were on the losing side on each occasion, ending their campaign with a 61-7 loss to Exeter Chiefs at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, the same team they open their league account against this Sunday.
"I think excitement has definitely been building for quite a while now," Swartz said.
"We were in quite early for preseason, working very, very hard and it has always been that the 19th of November has been kind of far away, working towards it.
"I think it is starting to really sink in now that we are closing in on it.
"I can just feel for each game we have played we have grown a lot as a team and the excitement to get into the proper Prem has been building and building."
In the weeks since their last outing, Leicester have welcomed a series of new and returning faces to the club.
This included England internationals Meg Jones and Amy Cokayne, along with a series of seasoned internationals from Scotland, the USA and South Africa, who have all recently returned after competing in World Rugby's WXV competition.
With the varied experienced of those seasoned Test match players only ever going to help the side as they look to ground themselves in PWR in these coming weeks.
After their dress rehearsal in the Cup, where some players got to experience a matchday at Mattioli Woods Welford Road for the first time, the wheels were set in motion for their debut campaign.
"This whole Cup run has been good for us as a squad, we really had to build that core squad in a way and it has been a good opportunity for us to get some experience and to get more being a new team," Swartz explained.
"I think all these people come back with all their experience and everything that they bring, it has given us a that little extra push.
"It is really exciting to see what we can string together now we are all back at one place."
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