When swimmer Natalia Kuipers ’24 hits the water, it’s like an explosion goes off. “I tend to take off pretty fast and then do my best to stay ahead and let the adrenaline keep me going to the finish. Some of my coaches might say that I just fly and die,” she chuckles, a familiar sound to anyone who spends time with her.
That passion has made Kuipers a superlative competitor, and she’s been swimming on behalf of her home, the U.S. Virgin Islands, since she was 11 — making appearances at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, the 2019 and 2023 Pan American Games, and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. This July, she'll take part in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. “I like pushing myself, and I like doing things that I thought I couldn't do,” she says.
But sometimes that same level of devotion can get you in trouble. “I tried sailing competitively for a little bit when I was a kid, except I wasn't very good,” she recalls. “I would always capsize my boat on purpose just to go for a swim, and the coach would come over and be like, ‘What the heck! There wasn’t even any wind!’”
“When the people around you do things that you don't think are possible, you start to think, ‘I can do that too.’”
Kuipers’ swimming career has taken her all over the world, helped her make connections with people she never would have otherwise met, and created indelible memories. Carrying her country’s flag at the Tokyo Olympics, she says, is one of her favorites. “My phone was in my pocket, and it was buzzing the whole time because all my friends from around the world saw me on television and were texting me,” she says with a laugh.
At Bryant, Kuipers, who studied Data Science and now works as a data scientist at Bloom Analytics, was part of a women’s team that won back-to-back Northeast Conference Championships. Her favorite wins are the tough ones, she says, the come-from-behind victories where she and her team aren't supposed to prevail.
Those are the moments, she says, where your faith in your teammates pays off. “When the people around you do things that you don't think are possible, you start to think, ‘I can do that too,’” she reflects.
