Athlete of the Week: Lindsay Wolter

JULIA TIERNAN/YH

Her swimming phobia, however, had little to do with water and more to do with competition. "In high school, they literally had to drag me across the tiles to the pool to swim for United States Swimming [USS]," Wolter said. "I thought it was going to be too hard and way too scary, but they just threw me in the pool." After her initial apprehension, Wolter found out she was a natural. "I never really considered swimming my sport when I was younger because there were so many other things I was involved in," Wolter said. "But when I swam for USS and I started improving my times in meets, it became really fun."

By continually improving her times since then, Wolter has become a top collegiate swimmer. At H-Y-Ps on Sat.,
Feb. 6, Wolter posted a time of 2:00.97 in the 200-meter backstroke, setting the Kiphuth Memorial Pool record. And on Sat., Feb. 24, she raised the bar at the Ivy League Championships (Easterns) in the same event by placing first with a 1:59.71. "Her time was a simply fantastic swim," Yale men's swimmer, Timothy Saunders, ES '01, said. "I always knew she was very talented, but I never expected her to drop that much time. She has suddenly become one of America's premiere swimmers." Wolter's victory injected her team with much needed points and team spirit. "No one last weekend was swimming particularly well," Wolter said. "But something clicked Saturday night. After I won the 200 and Meredith Bryerley [BR '01] won the 100 freestyle, there was so much energy that people's times started picking up. We won the 400 freestyle relay and set a pool record [3:34.04] as well as an Easterns meet record. We went out with a bang."

The swimming team is an especially close group, and Wolter is well-loved by her teammates. "She's an all-around champion," Shannon Mulcahy, SM '00, said. "Lindsay has an excellent work ethic. She's very supportive. She's a great teammate as well as a friend." Wolter knows it will be tough after next season to leave what has been a big part of life at Yale. "It's so sad to think about swimming being over," she said. "I just don't want it to end."

Still, she will spend her last months continuing to try to be the best. "I'd like to get the school record in the 100 and 200 backstroke," she said. "My goals are always to get best times." Such goals may not be out of reach. "Watching Lindsay swim is the most natural thing," roommate and fellow swimmer Laura Schned, BK '01, said. "Her stroke is just effortless."

As for her fear of competition, it seems that Wolter overcame it long ago. As her recent victories and record-breaking times show, when it comes to swimming in the Ivy League, Lindsay Wolter has no fear.

--Alison Morris

Back to Sports...