Oscar Arzamendia's biggest fear going into his first international swimming competition was not the other competitors. It was a false start.
At the Croatian World Games in 2023, Arzamendia — a Senior Data Engineer at X-Team who joined in January 2022 — was nervous about jumping before the starting shot, or making a wrong turn in the water, and getting disqualified on a technicality. He had trained hard for the meet. He was also representing Paraguay at an international event for the first time. Third place, he says, was a great outcome. "I was pretty satisfied."
In this story, Arzamendia traces his path back to competitive swimming after years away from it, describes the training routine he fits around a full-time engineering career and shares the mindset — forged in both the pool and the code editor — that he'd pass on to any engineer juggling a demanding side pursuit.
Back in the Water
Arzamendia's relationship with swimming began early. He took his first lesson at a summer camp around age six or seven and competed for the first time around age 10. Then, as he puts it, life got in the way and he stopped.
For a long stretch of his youth he swam casually and seasonally — summer only, when the conditions made it easy. The full return came in 2022, when he started swimming regularly throughout the year for the first time.
The Croatian World Games, which drew him back into competition at the international level, is not a professional event. Arzamendia is clear on that point. The competition attracts professional swimmers, but its primary purpose is to bring the Croatian diaspora together — to reconnect and have fun. It is open to everyone with Croatian ancestry, which includes Arzamendia. "My main motivation is to have fun while staying healthy," he says. "Swimming allows for both."
His pre-race mental preparation is pragmatic: if anxiety catches him at home before the event, he numbs it with YouTube or TikTok. Once he's at the venue, he talks to friends and other swimmers. There is no elaborate ritual, just movement from one moment to the next.
Training 3 Times a Week
Arzamendia's current training schedule is built around consistency rather than volume. He swims three times a week, training in the mornings for one to one and a half hours per session. Depending on what his coach has prescribed, that means covering between two and a half and three kilometers per session.
Balancing training with his work as a Senior Data Engineer has never been a point of friction. He is practical about the hierarchy: he loves swimming, but he is not a professional swimmer, so his job takes priority. Competition scheduling helps — most races in Paraguay take place on weekends, so direct conflicts with work are rare. His coach is flexible with scheduling, and his X-Team role gives him some flexibility with his work hours as well. "I appreciate that a lot," he says.
The overlap between the two pursuits is real but uncomplicated. Setting goals and working systematically toward them is a skill that transfers across both. The discipline that gets him to the pool at 6 a.m. is the same discipline that keeps him focused on a long engineering project.
The Advice He'd Give His Younger Self
The piece of guidance Arzamendia offers to software engineers with demanding hobbies outside of work is not about optimization or time management. It is about permission.
"Don't wait until you have time to do it all perfectly," he says. "Start small. Learn to be happy with what you can achieve in the moment. There will be times where you'll only be able to train once a week. That's fine. Next week, perhaps you'll catch up. Doing something is infinitely better than doing nothing."
It is the kind of advice that sounds simple and proves harder to act on than it sounds. Behind it is a competitive swimmer who once stopped entirely, returned to the water years later and eventually stood on a podium at an international event — not because the conditions were perfect, but because he showed up anyway.
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