Many parents in this day and age want to start training their children to excel in sports at a very young age.

But this road often forks, leading to resentment or success.

For redshirt sophomore swimmer Andrew Gemmell, it was the latter.

Gemmell’s father swam at Michigan and began taking him to pool lessons when he was just 2-years-old.

Georgia swimmer Andrew Gemmell narrowly missed the cut for an Olympic qualifier last year, but still aims to compete in this year's summer Olympics. SEAN TAYLOR/Staff

“He was very involved with my swimming and he’s always been such a good role model for me to be a good person and not just a swimmer,” Gemmell said.

A native of Wilmington, Del., Georgia wasn’t even on his radar until his junior year of high school, after the Bulldogs took home first and second place in the NCAA Championships in the mile.

Bulldogs assistant coach Harvey Humphries — whose main concentration is distance swimmers — had a national reputation that helped draw Gemmell to Athens.

“I talked to Harvey, looked at the school and fell in love with the place,” he said.

Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle said he recruited Gemmell because of his “work ethic.”

“Andrew’s almost a throwback in that he doesn’t need any coddling,” Bauerle said. “He just wants to swim, work as hard as he can and see how good he can get.”

While at Georgia, Gemmell has excelled in his academics, earning straight A’s thus far.

During his redshirt season, he took 18 hours in one semester and finished with a 3.9 GPA.

“I think swimming teaches you a lot about time management,” Gemmell said. “With just having so much on your plate, you learn to juggle things around and take care of things when you need to.”

“A guy like that is good for the team because he puts things in perspective for what work really is,” Bauerle said. “He’s a terrific role model not so much because of what he says, but because of what he does. And when you do what he does, you can say what you want.”

Gemmell excels in distance races, ranked No. 4 nationally in the 1000-meter freestyle and No. 7 in the 1650-meter freestyle.

But if you asked him what his favorite race was, he’d pick neither.

Instead, Gemmell prefers the mile.

“I think it’s a fun race to do and it gets pretty tactical,” he said.

Gemmell is no stranger to international waters, either.

He has competed in the Pan Pacific Championships as well as the World Championships multiple times.

“It’s always such an honor to represent the US for any sort of meet,” he said. “To put a USA flag on your cap, it’s a big honor and been something I’ve been fortunate enough to do multiple times. Every chance I get to do it is exciting and I try not to take it for granted.”

Last year, Gemmell won the gold medal in the 5-kilometer team race at the World Championships, but the medal itself was not enough to enter him to compete in the Olympic qualifiers.

He earned third overall at the event and just missed the cut.

But Gemmell is confident in his progress and hopes this season  he will finally achieve a lifelong dream.

“My ultimate goal is to make the Olympics this summer,” he said, “[I want] to make it to London and come away with a medal.”

And when Bauerle was asked if he thinks Gemmell is an Olympic-caliber athlete, he gave a simple two-word reply.

“Without question,” he said.