Sometimes people are just born with talent. In the Weiss family, that talent is swimming.

Hannah Weiss and her brother, who she calls younger — despite the fact that they are twins — are swimmers. Lifelong, in fact.

While both siblings enjoy time in the pool, it’s Hannah who recently hit a new height. She qualified in December for the Olympic trials this summer.

Karl Weiss, the family’s patriarch, led the swimming charge, himself a two-time trials swimmer.

“We do (like swimming as a family). Her dad went to the Olympic trials twice,” said Tamara, Hannah’s mom.

Now Hannah is headed to the trials, which take place this summer in Omaha, Neb.

“Just being there. One of my best friends on the team is going too,” said Weiss of what she’s looking forward to this summer.

Weiss, as many swimmers of this caliber, starting swimming at an early age.

“I started when I was little in summer league around when I was 6, I think, and then I did ballet until I was 11,” said the swimmer. “I sprained my ankle (doing ballet), so I quit ballet and went back to swimming.” And it’s all she has been doing since.

As a member of King Aquatics, a club team in the area, Weiss trains with the national group.  Her brother, Andrew, also used to swim with King, but has now focused his efforts on the high school team. This season he’s already qualified for February’s state 3A meet.

“It’s broken up into different levels, like the senior group, but I’m in the national group. That’s the fastest of the fast. There are 26 of us in there,” said Hannah.

While most swimmers can and do compete in all of the strokes, they all have favorites. For Weiss, both of her favorites are family traits.

“Mostly, I swim fly and back. I’m terrible at breast stroke,” she said, laughing. “For the free relays I’m OK, but it’s not my best. My dad was a flier, so I guess it’s just in my genes. My aunt, my dad’s sister, did back.”

The swimmer qualified for the trials in the 100 backstroke, but is still hoping to make the cut in the 200 backstroke and 100 butterfly.

“In the 100 back, I made that cut in December. But I’m trying to go for the 200 back and the 100 fly,” she said. “I’m less than a second on the fly and close on the back. The 200 back I just dropped in short course, so I should be able to drop in the long course. We have three or four opportunities on long course before trials to make it.”

Weiss knows that making the Olympic team is extremely difficult. To make Team USA, only top two swimmers in their events are basically guaranteed to the make the team, or a top six finish in the 100-meter freestyle or 200-meter freestyle earns a spot.

“I’m taking it goal by goal, so I’m trying to figure out after trials what I want to do. Maybe in four years I’ll be able to place higher,” said Weiss.

But don’t think for a minute that means Weiss thinks the trials are just another meet. Just getting there was difficult. During meets that the King Aquatic team competes in, swimmers use the short course, typically used for youth teams. Pool lengths for short course swims are 25 yards, while long course races, the ones used in the Olympics, are 50 meters. It works out to just more than double the short course length.

“It was a short course meet, which means it was in the shorter pool, so I couldn’t use it because to make the Olympic trials you have to do the long course,” she said. “The last day of the meet they converted the pool to the long course, so we could make our cut. It was weird because we had to go from short course to long course — and long course you miss out on some of the turns, so it was hard transitioning.”

Weiss said King Aquatics will have more meets this spring and summer before she heads to the trials. Training, for the moment, continues as usual — three hours, seven days a week in Federal Way at the King County Aquatic Center or at a pool in Des Moines.

Luckily for her parents, Weiss has her driver’s license.