--- description: The 15-year-old swimmer has set five individual national age-group records title: Reece Whitley Is Sports Illustrated Kids' 'SportsKid of the Year' image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt166e0705a3bce761/6988730c0a4a2256ed9c73e6/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Sports](/section/sports/) ## Sports Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [swimming](/tag/swimming/) ## swimming Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Swimmer Reece Whitley Is _Sports Illustrated Kids_' 'SportsKid of the Year'  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 30, 2015 7:04 PM CUT  Reece Whitley at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Charlotte, N.C., on May 15, 2015. Reece Whitley at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Charlotte, N.C., on May 15, 2015.Nell Redmond—AP  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Nov 30, 2015 7:04 PM CUT Reece Whitley, a 15-year-old swimmer who has set five individual national age-group records, is _Sports Illustrated Kids_‘ [SportsKid of the Year](http://www.sikids.com/blogs/2015/11/30/sportskid-of-the-year-2015-reece-whitley "undefined"), the magazine announced Monday. The 6-ft.-8-in. athlete started playing basketball at age 7 and could easily dunk a hoop by the time he turned 13\. Now a swimmer, the William Penn Charter School sophomore qualified to compete in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Neb. with his 100- and 200-meter breaststroke times from last year. “Making an impact on a young swimmer at a meet is probably more important than the times that you swim,” Whitley told the magazine. “All these records are meant to be broken, but if you change a kid’s life or if you put a smile on a kid’s face because you took a picture with them, that never dies.” \[[_SI_](http://www.sikids.com/blogs/2015/11/30/sportskid-of-the-year-2015-reece-whitley "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4129467/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4129467/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids/"},"headline":"Swimmer Reece Whitley Is Sports Illustrated Kids' 'SportsKid of the Year'","datePublished":"2015-11-30T19:04:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:57:59.640Z","description":"The 15-year-old has set five individual national age-group records","url":"https://time.com/4129467/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids/","keywords":["swimming"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt166e0705a3bce761/6988730c0a4a2256ed9c73e6/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Sports","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt166e0705a3bce761/6988730c0a4a2256ed9c73e6/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Reece Whitley","caption":"Reece Whitley","creditText":"Nell Redmond—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/sports/","name":"Sports"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/swimming/","name":"swimming"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4129467/reece-whitley-sportskid-of-the-year-sports-illustrated-kids/","name":"Swimmer Reece Whitley Is Sports Illustrated Kids' 'SportsKid of the Year'"}}]}] ```