Swimswam comment sections and Swmiming Twitter have been buzzing for several months now with the hashtag #letbellasprint. From articles on her individual swims, to Twitter stans changing their bios, to commenters expressing their support of Bella’s move to sprinting, It’s hard to pin down when exactly the swimming community wanted Bella to ditch the mile and move to sprint events, but between her two World Junior Records in 12 minutes in SCM and an impressive Winter Junior meet, it’s clear she’s got the times to fuel the excitement.
So, is Bella Sims a sprinter now? Based on her entries in the upcoming US National Championships, she is certainly *more of a sprinter* than she used to be. She’s entered in the 50, 100, 200, and 400 freestyles, the 400 IM, 100 fly, and 200 IM. Given her event lineup, it’s clear Bella has turned towards shorter races.
Normally, the 400 IM and 400 free are not considered “sprint events.” But Bella comes from a distance background. Her club team, the Sandpipers of Nevada, are well known for their grueling practices which feature an emphasis on doing quite a lot of yardage, or meterage.
And at most championship-level meets, Bella’s entries were on the longer end of the spectrum.
She’s been a consistent threat to make international teams in the 200 through 1500 freestyles, making the Tokyo Olympic team and 2022 World’s team in the 800 free relay. At last year’s International Team Trials, Bella was 3rd in the 800 and 1500 freestyles, races she has now dropped from her program. Bella’s coach, Ron Aitken, doesn’t think this decision will hurt her, “In the end by taking her out of the 800 and 1500. I don’t think we took anything away and probably gave her more opportunities to develop her race plans for the 100.200.400 freestyles.”
Aitken describes her move towards the sprint events as just a part of her overall continued development, “Which I think is great to have someone not afraid of a 800-1500 or OW being able to scale down to the 100 and 200 free.”
Her move towards the shorter events makes sense, considering her improvement in the sprint stuff recently. She set two world junior records in the 100 back and 200 free in short course meters back in November 2022. Taken together with her stellar Winter Junior meet it’s clear, “she has become a master at short course.” Aitken explains that her event choices are building off of her year of improvement: “This year we are trying to capitalize on last year’s relay performance and most recent short course meters (world jr records) and short course yards success.” But Aitken has seen this switch for a long time now, well before twitter figured out Bella was a more than capable sprinter, “It’s obvious to many of us she has tremendous speed but not too many people have seen her development from 2015-2022 like myself and our coaching staff.”
Additionally, in the long course pool she’s reset her personal bests in the 50, 100, and 400 freestyles, and the 200 IM in the past three months, and her season best in the 200 free, her bread and butter event, is a tenth off her all time best from the 2021 Olympic trials.
Bella will have to navigate a packed schedule. She will have the 100 free on day one, the 200 free on day two, the 400 IM and 100 fly on day three, the 400 free on day 4, and the 200 IM and 50 free on day five. Aitken says “I’m looking forward to having fun and seeing what she can do with these new events.”
This is the BEST SwimSwam article I have ever read.
I wonder why she’s not entered in any backstroke events? The 200 Back sounds like it would be good for her.
They need her for the relays
53.92/1:56.34/4:03.68 FR; 58.34 FL; 2:11.45/4:39.74 IM
“But who cares what I think! It about what you think. Drop your comments below”
“Bella Sims from the Sandpipers of Nevada is a generational talent”.
This call is waaaay too early. She’s never even qualified for an individual event on an international team. A generational talent is someone who is so good that they can’t be matched in their generation. Summer McIntosh, Benedetto Pilato, MOC, Chikunova and Lydia Jacoby are all around the same age and have achieved exponentially more.
Sims has a lot of talent and potential. She could absolutely become a generational talent. But she’s nowhere near one based on her current achievements and times.
don’t try to derail the hype train. It could go either way. I think she goes 1:39 in her 200 scy free next season. I think she needs to set some records before we anoint her.
Been on this train since worlds last year
Kai Winkler broken arm 🙁
the NC State effect
Where’d you see this??
I think Bella is a dark horse for the 4×100 free relay. She’s been 47 low in short course and 1:40 in the short course 200 free. I’m pretty sure everyone who has been 1:40 or better in the 200 free has been 53 flat start in the 100 free (e.g., Comerford, Haughey, Franklin, Ledecky, Manuel, Schmitt).
I’d tend to agree. Huske & Weitzeil have been in good form and you definitely can’t count out any of the other swimmers in the mix at the top (Hinds, Curzan, G. Walsh, Douglass) but assuming she nails her prelims swim from lane 8 and gets into the top 8 she’s a great pick for the top 4.
I think the 200 and 400 are the interesting ones, though. Given how excellent she was on last summer’s relay and the 1:40 she did in yards you’d think she has the speed to go well under her PB and under Gemmell’s second-seeded 1:56.1.
The 400 (second spot) could go to Smith, Grimes, Gemmell, Weinstein, but Sims is better than all four… Read more »
I disagree. I think she’s a lot more UWD focused than the majority of those swimmers, although I do think she can be 54 mid here.
She’s already been 54.7 in season and she was 54.5 to the feet at worlds in her relay split. She’s got underrated speed even taking UWD out of it!
this is true with everyone except mcintosh and sims. backing this comment up with a list of all their 1free PBs:
worth noting that #10 is Megan Romano with a 1:41.2 and also a monster 52.6 split from 2012/13
pattern definitely checks out though, but the variation is huge
Franklin split 52.79 and 52.9 in Shanghai 2011
A moon shot.
Personal Best Times
100 FR (LCM)
Moesch – 54.33
Pelaez – 54.65
Shackell – 54.69
Sims – 54.78