The Real Bella Sims Stands Up and Shines at SEC Championships
Entering last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials, there was no reason to believe Bella Sims would not qualify for her second Olympic team. Sims had become entrenched as a regular on the American women’s 800 freestyle relay since her unexpected debut in Tokyo three years earlier, with a standout moment of anchoring the team to gold at the 2022 World Championships. Her freshman season at Florida had been an unmitigated success, with NCAA titles in the 500 and 200-yard free plus leading the Gators to a national win in the 800 free relay and third place in the team standings.
Yet in June, Sims was nowhere close to her best times: she was 20th in the 400 free and 17th in the 200 free — two hundredths out of a spot in semifinals — to essentially doom her hopes of reaching Paris, and none of her three further swims resulted in making it to semis, either.
Right now, those results look like a total fluke thanks to Sims putting together a sophomore season of college swimming on track to exceed her results from year one. With Florida having said goodbye to Isabel Ivey, who played a key role in the team’s huge national jump last year, Sims was the lead point-scorer as the Gators beat Tennessee by seven points to lock up second place at the SEC Championships.
Last week in Athens, Ga., Sims was brilliant from her first splash, a 1:39.55 split as the second leg of Florida’s 800 free relay. That time was the third-fastest flying-start performance ever behind splits from Mallory Comerford at the NCAA Championships in 2018 and 2019.
Bella Sims — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
But while Sims has been a freestyle specialist in international competition and her NCAA wins last year came in freestyle, she skipped the individual 200 and 500 at the conference meet to concentrate on backstroke and the 200 IM. A third-place finish in the medley was followed by stellar backstroke results which have her positioned well for the national meet.
Sims won the 100 back in 49.20, only to swim even quicker leading off Florida’s 400 medley relay later in the session. Her time of 48.97 made her only the third swimmer in history to crack 49, joining Gretchen Walsh and Katharine Berkoff. With Berkoff out of college eligibility and Walsh likely to opt for the 100 butterfly and sprint free races at the national meet, Sims would be a slight favorite to win the four-lap backstroke race at the NCAA Championships, with Virginia’s Claire Curzan (best time 49.35) her closest competition.
That is, if Sims chooses to swim the 100 back. Entering that event would likely mean skipping the 200 free, another event in which she would be the national favorite. Sims has not posted any scintillating flat-start 200s this season, but her relay result is sufficient to remind the country of her skills in the event. Of swimmers likely to contest the event at the national meet, only three have been sub-1:42 this year: Indiana’s Anna Peplowski at 1:40.69 plus Michigan’s Stephanie Balduccini and USC’s Minna Abraham both with 1:41-low results. If Sims opts for the 200 free, she would be the co-favorite alongside Peplowski.
There’s no doubt about her status in the 200 back, however. Curzan leads the way after swimming the fastest time ever at 1:46.87 in November, but Sims is the No. 2 swimmer in the country right now. Her 1:48.28 to win the SEC title made her the 11th-fastest performer in history, and she surpassed strong efforts posted by Phoebe Bacon and Leah Shackley elsewhere in the country Saturday evening.
And with Florida’s depth lacking compared to last season, Sims is the unquestioned ace on every relay she competes. Tennessee and Texas battled for the SEC title in the 400 free relay but only after Sims led off in 47.06, making her the sixth-fastest 100 freestyler in the country this season. Only three swimmers in the race surpassed that time from a relay start.
Yes, there were questions surrounding Sims entering this season, understandably so following her inexplicable Olympic Trials results. Her performances in the fall were solid but not groundbreaking. But these SEC performances restored Sims’ spot on the short list of the country’s best swimmers capable of contending in events far beyond the three individual races she is allowed at a college championship meet. She and Walsh, widely considered among the greatest short course swimmers ever, are the country’s only two women who could opt for two different races on the middle day of the NCAA Championships and be favored in either one.
Forget about what happened at Olympic Trials: that was the outlier, and this is the real Bella Sims.
