Saskya Byerly

Bio:
The moment she gets in the water, the first thought in Saskya's mind is, "How can I win?" followed shortly by, "Who is this %$#*@ coming at me and what does she think she's doing?" Saskya is fierce. She's loves to play, and she hates to lose, whatever that contest. Born under the sign of the zero-sum-game, she has been known to wake up early in the morning for training runs, and stay up late in to the night practicing board games tactics, all to hone her blood-thirsty competitive edge.

Saskya's been swimming forever, and playing water polo almost as long. In high school, she was All-CIF and Pacific League MVP. While an undergraduate at Caltech, she started on both the women's and men's teams (tells you a little something about the men at Caltech, but that's a while other story).

Besides playing water polo, Saskya has been riding horses since she was but a wee lass. She's won ribbons and she's worn those funny little pants. In the year before starting graduate school, she decided to try playing the more traditional equestrian variety of polo and practiced with the team at USC. She knows how to handle a riding crop, and is plenty comfortable astride a stallion.

When not on top of a horse, Saskya enjoys eating like one. Raw fish, raw meat, you name it... if it's got a heartbeat, she'll eat it, and then follow it up with chocolate. Perhaps her appetite stems from her long hours in the pool, or from the need to store calories for those long hard California winters. Whatever the case, she knows what she likes, and is not afraid to demand it.

Never one to give up on finding new and better ways to express her exhibitionist flare and love of the spotlight, Saskya developed an avid interest in karaoke this last summer, attacking it with her characteristic compulsive energy. She pressured friends to generate practice CDs, reviewed countless hours of music, and scheduled rigorous sessions to rehearse her favorite songs.

Many have asked Saskya if she has any Eskimo heritage. While she does not, it should be noted that the Inuit name "Nerretunerk Okradlakpok" fits her well, translating loosely to "gluttony, talks much."

At the core of Saskya's psyche is the fundamental belief that she can... whatever it is she can. Without making excuses or compromises, without rationalizing why maybe, just maybe something might be beyond her realm of possibility, Saskya believes that if someone else can do it, then she can do it too, and probably even do it better.

written by Dylan Neiman

Back to Roster