Stanford swimmer Levenia Sim suffered a shoulder injury at the SEA Games that forced her last minute withdraw from the 400 medley relay, according to the StraitsTimes.
Sim, who represents Singapore internationally, was injured during warmups on December 15, leading to a ‘frantic scramble,’ ST reports. That forced 14-year-old Julia Yeo to scramble into her backstroke leg, splitting 1:04.79 to lead off the relay for a gold medal and new Games Record of 4:05.79.
Individually, Sim raced the 50 back, finishing 7th in 29.86, and the 100 back, finishing 5th in 1:02.97.
Raised in Alabama, Sim, whose older sister Letitia is also a Singapore international, has long been a member of the Singapore National Team. She was the #4-ranked domestic recruit in the high school class of 2024.
Sim is a key member of the Stanford team. At the mid-season Texas Hall of Fame Invitational, she swam season-bests of 52.25 in the 100 back and 52.80 in the 100 fly. She also swam the leadoff legs of Stanford’s “A” 200 medley and “B” 400 medley relay. The Cardinal finished 1st and 2nd, even ahead of Texas, in the 400 medley relay.
Torri Huske is the team’s best backstroker, but also the team’s best sprint freestyler and butterflier. If Sim were to miss any significant time, that would likely leave 200 medley relay duties likely to fall to talented freshman Alana Berlin, who has been faster than Sim in the 100 back (51.86) but was slower at the Texas Invite in the 50 back (24.44 vs. 24.06).
In her debut season with the Cardinal last year, Sim swam the backstroke leg on the team’s 200 medley relay and individually finished 15th in the 100 back, 22nd in the 200 back, and 32nd in the 200 IM at the ACC Championships. She was not on the team’s NCAA Championship roster. Her best time in the 100 yard back of 51.03 was done in 2021 she she was only 14.
SwimSwam has reached out to Stanford for more information about Sim’s injury status and availability for the spring semester.
Not quite the main point of this article but, are teams actually allowed to swap out relays swimmers if they are injured during warm up? Aren’t teams supposed to finalize their exact relay lineup right after prelims? Seems like something that teams can potentially abuse especially if the definition of “injury” is subjective
Here’s the relevant rules from World Aquatics for World Aquatics events, though SEA Games organizers can have their own rules:
and
… Read more »someone should do the math on if it makes more sense for torri to do back or fly/free legs. it feels kinda inelegant for her to do the back leg but that actually might math out. (or even gigi johnson on the back leg given her drops in her other events).
im guessing torri could go 23 low / 50 low but hard to say since hardly races it.
that’s not too wild considering she already has a 23.8 from like 3 years ago and she went 51.6 at a dual meet this season but she’s not particularly fast in dual meets
I’m sure the Stanford coaches never thought of that. Math is a tough subject to master.
who said anything abt the coaches? im just curious. you do the math then please.
I think Stanford and math go hand in hand
what ever happened to parkhe? she was on their medley relays last year so i’m curious
Good question. Hasn’t raced since NCAAs.
I’ll reach out to her and ask.
awesome thank you!
guessing she quit swimming which is kinda sad bc she was very versatile and could have had a big impact on the team. kinda reminds me of katie crom
So if Huske is the backstroker then I’d assume Bricker is fly and whoever at free
Gigi Johnson would swim fly.
They still have Berlin, who is as fast (or faster) than Sim this season. If she remains healthy throughout the season, Stanford shouldn’t really have to change their lineup from midseason.