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Olympian Tessa Giele of the Netherlands has signed with Alabama and will join the team next month in January 2026.
Giele most recently competed at the 2025 European Championships in Poland and was highlighted by a silver medal in the 100 butterfly as she touched in a season best 55.55. She also helped the Netherlands to two gold medals at the relay level as the team swam to gold in the 200 free and 200 medley relays.
Back in December 2024, Giele won silver in the 100 fly at the 2024 SCM World Championships finishing in a 54.66 to touch behind Gretchen Walsh of the US. That time sits at Giele’s personal best.
She represented the Netherlands at the 2024 Paris Olympics where she finished 15th in the 100 fly in a 57.91. She also swam on three relays during prelims.
Giele’s Best SCM Times (With SCY Conversions) Are:
- 100 fly: 54.66 (49.24)
- 50 free: 23.96 (21.58)
- 100 free: 54.26 (48.88)
The Alabama women finished 6th out of 13 teams at the 2025 SEC Championships and went on to finish 15th at the 2025 NCAA Championships. Cadence Vincent led the team with 18 individual points at NCAAs, including an 8th place finish in the 50 free (21.83) and 10th place finish in the 100 free (47.78).
Based on her best converted times, Giele is a huge addition to the team as her 100 fly converted time would have been 3rd at 2025 NCAAs, only behind Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske. Walsh has since graduated while Huske is currently in her final season with Stanford. In addition to her 100 fly time, Giele’s 50 free time would also have made the NCAA ‘A’ final as it would have been 5th overall.
Vincent, a current junior, currently leads the team’s sprint group with best times of a 21.79 50 free and 47.85 100 free this season. Vincent and Giele will overlap for this spring as well as all of next season.
Although the women’s team does not currently have anyone from the Netherlands, the men’s team is already home to two swimmers from the Netherlands as senior Tim Korstanje is from Nijmegen and freshman Steijn Louter is from Roosendaal.
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Niewold is going too
What school? He is 23-24 years old?
As a non American I’m confused as to how a 23 year old can compete in NCAA. Can someone please explain?
On the surface, international students are typically older than Americans in the NCAA. International students often don’t meet the education requirements to enroll, so they have to do a little extra to be eligible. In most cases they’re enrolling at 19 or 20 when the typically freshman is 18.
I’m not sure there’s actually a maximum age you can compete in the NCAA. I remember former NBA player JR Smith enrolled at a school in Texas in his 30s after his time in the league and played for the golf team. NCAA football players sometimes get into the mid-20s with injuries and redshirts allowing them technically be on the team past four years.
I agree it’s a little weird. I… Read more »
I reached out to the Alabama recruiting coordinator this morning (aka before publishing) and have not heard back yet. I inquired on how many years they expect to have her and will update if I end up hearing back
this is crazy lol shes 23. @SwimSwam should do a roundup/checkin of all the expected internationals arriving next semester. quite a few will be major scorers … hirai, gorbenko, masiuk, bailey, now giele & niewold
It’s on the list! Once we get through Winter Juniors 🙂
De Groot from Netherlands also going to Florida next semester.