Swimming has taken Natalia Kuipers ’24 from St. Croix to Rhode Island, and to two Olympic Games – Tokyo in 2021 and Paris in 2024. Having reached the pinnacle of her sport, Kuipers recently retired but remains deeply involved in developing and promoting other athletes: At age 22, she’s now the youngest member of the U.S. Virgin Islands Olympic Committee.
Kuipers was born in St. Croix and has spent most of her life on the island. “I grew up with all the same people from first grade up until high school,” she says. “My class was about 20 or 25 people so it's a very tight-knit community, which is why I went to Bryant because it also has a small community vibe.”
Swimming is a big part of St. Croix culture, and Kuipers first swam competitively at age 8. “Being surrounded by water, it made sense to become a swimmer,” she remembers. “I tried sailing, running, and ballet, but swimming is what stuck.”
Kuipers first made her mark in the pool with a local swim club called the St. Croix Dolphins. She had plenty of role models to look up to.
“The Caribbean has been producing some excellent swimmers within my generation, which is super exciting because we're such a small place with very limited resources. It’s very inspiring for future generations,” she says.
When it came time to look at colleges, Kuipers was fortunate to connect with the Bryant swim team when they came to St. Croix on a training trip.
“They met one of my teammates, Matthew Mays ’21, ’22MBA, who was a bit older than me, and recruited him,” she recalls. “When I was thinking about where I wanted to go to college, I knew he’d had a really good experience at Bryant. I started talking to the coaches and visited the campus in late summer when all the flowers were blooming, and I was like, ‘This place is magical.’ ”
New England winters turned out to be an adjustment, but Kuipers enjoyed spending time in Newport and Providence during her four years at Bryant. She also kept busy, majoring in Data Science and serving as president of the Women in Technology Club, a member of the Data Science Association and the Bryant Senior Advisory Council, and working as a master peer tutor at the Academic Center for Excellence, among other activities.
"Being surrounded by water, it made sense to become a swimmer.”
“It was really important to me to be part of the Bryant community, not just athletically but academically, and have a full circle of friends and acquaintances: not just athletes, but people in my major and people with similar interests,” she says. “That's the Bryant experience. They produce well-rounded people.”
Kuipers also enjoyed both personal and team success in the pool.
“I improved a lot when I was at Bryant,” she says. “My freshman and sophomore year we won the Northeast Conference championship. And then my junior and senior year I was the captain of the team.”
Competing at the college level and racing almost every weekend during the season “really helped prepare me to compete internationally,” she adds. “I tried to think of a meet as a meet, whether it was for school or the Olympics, and be confident because I’ve done this a hundred times before.”
The U.S. Virgin Islands, although a territory of the United States, sends its own team of athletes to the Olympics. Both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics took place after the collegiate swim season ended, but “the coaches at Bryant were really kind to let me continue training with the team even after finishing off my senior season,” she says.
Restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic made the Tokyo games a bit of a “stunted” experience, but Paris was a whole other level, says Kuipers.
“I was really taking it all in, and I was so appreciative to have my family there and have fans in the crowd, which is what was missing in Tokyo,” she remembers. “It was raining during the opening ceremony, and sailing down the Seine was everything you can imagine. It felt like being in a movie.”
"Sailing down the Seine [in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony] was everything you can imagine. It felt like being in a movie.”
When it came time for her event, the 400-meter freestyle, the presence of fans took on a different aspect.
“That was definitely the loudest crowd I have ever heard in my life,” remembers Kuipers. “The pressure was on. Leading up to the Olympics, I had a personal best that had been my goal time for a couple of years. Unfortunately, I did not have my best time at the Olympics, but I'm still happy with how I did.”
Competing in Paris turned out to be the last race of Kuipers’ swim career. Now back living and working in St. Croix, Kuipers is putting her Bryant degree to work as a data scientist for Bloom Analytics, part of the management consulting firm Cane Bay Partners.
“I build machine-learning models,” she explains. “I did a lot of that when I was at Bryant. [Chair of the Information Systems and Analytics department] Suhong Li, Ph.D., prepared me for what I'm doing today.”
Kuipers still swims occasionally and volunteers as a coach at her local pool. A lot of her energy away from work also goes into the U.S. Virgin Islands Olympic Committee.
"It's so special to me to have the opportunity to give back to the Virgin Islands,” she says. “I'm the athlete representative; it’s the first time they’ve had someone on the committee to give athletes a voice. It’s been really exciting, and I'm grateful for how they've embraced me and value my perspective even though I’m the youngest person on the committee.”
Kuipers also enjoys playing the role of informal ambassador for Bryant.
“I’m going to keep sending people to Bryant."
“A younger teammate of mine from the St. Croix Dolphins is going to Bryant this coming year. His name is Kaeden Gleason, so keep an eye out for him,” she says. “It’s really special that I followed one of my Dolphin teammates to Bryant and now Kaeden is coming after me.
“I’m going to keep sending people to Bryant,” she promises.
