Worrell on 'Mount Rushmore' of U of L sports
Sometimes as Kelsi Worrell stands on the block just before swimming a race – an endeavor in which she’ll test the limits of her arms, legs, lungs and will – she recalls one of her favorite Bible passages.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” Worrell thinks, and to her, it’s a calming reminder of why she swims and how she’ll power through.
On the top of her right foot, Worrell has a tattoo of another Bible verse, “Luke 12:22-31,” which instructs that there’s nothing to be gained by worrying and anxiety. She’ll glance at it right before a race, too. It’s another reminder that by having prepared to compete to the best of her ability, in her mind, she’s done her part, win or lose.
“I know God’s got my back,” said Worrell, the champion swimmer from the University of Louisville. “He knows the results, and that’s what gives me the most peace right now. … If it’s his will for me to move on from the meet, that’s awesome and I know I can glorify him through that. If not, then I know he’s got a better plan.”
The confidence Worrell derives from her Christian faith, along with a mental drive to endure her grueling training, has helped her make the most of her powerful, 5-foot-11 frame and become a world-class athlete.
She just completed a triumphant career at U of L that included four individual NCAA championships and setting an American record. Now she stands a good chance of making the U.S. Olympic team that will compete in Rio de Janeiro.
Worrell has achieved enough in the pool to build the case that she’s one of the greatest athletes ever at U of L.
“She’s on the Mount Rushmore, no question,” athletic director Tom Jurich said.
In addition, her coaches, family and friends admire and respect Worrell for her kindness, leadership and humility, and they say that heightens the legacy she’s built.
“She’s the epitome of a student-athlete,” Jurich said. “She does everything right. Not only is she terrific at her craft, but she’s a wonderful student, she’s wonderful in the community. All of our programs look up to her. … I think we’ve all been so blessed just to have her cross our paths.”
'Best in history'
Worrell’s list of swimming accomplishments is long and distinguished, headlined by the prestige of owning the American and NCAA records in the 100-yard butterfly, which she set in 2015, then broke again in March at the NCAA national final with a time of 49.43 seconds.
On the list of greatest athletic accomplishments ever at U of L, Worrell’s record “has got to be at the very top,” Jurich said. “I don’t know if we have anything else even close to that.”
Her initial record in 2015 – set during a preliminary heat of the NCAA championships - broke the 13-year-old mark held by eventual Olympic champion Natalie Coughlin and was the first time a woman swam the 100-yard fly in under 50 seconds. She broke it again that night in the event final.
In U of L coach Arthur Albiero’s office, amid many pieces of memorabilia he’s acquired from elite swim meets around the world, he has prominently hung a framed copy of Worrell’s USA Swimming certificate that recognizes her American record.
“When you think of an American record,” Albiero said, “I think people lose sight of that a little bit. That’s the fastest ever in the history in college athletics. That’s absurd. That’s the fastest in American swimming history, which has an incredible history and all the big names. The fact that this was Natalie Coughlin’s record, who is one of the biggest names in our sport, and the fact that she has eight of the top 10 performances in the history of this event, I think that puts her in her own category.
“It’s hard to compare basketball with softball and field hockey and swimming. But I think there is no doubt, and this is not an opinion, that at this moment she is at this moment the best in history (for her event). That makes pretty compelling evidence that’s she’s the best athlete ever to walk this campus.”
In all, Worrell, a native of Westampton, N.J., was the NCAA champion in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly in both 2015 and 2016, the 2015 Pan-American Games gold medalist in the 100-meter fly and a relay event, the 2015 USA Swimming national champion in the 100-meter fly, a nine-time college All-American, a two-time Atlantic Coast Conference Swimmer of the Year and the 2016 ACC Scholar Athlete of the Year.
This year, Worrell won the Honda Sport Award as the nation’s most outstanding female collegiate swimmer or diver – an honor whose previous winners include Mary T. Meagher, the legendary Louisville native who swam the same specialties as Worrell. Worrell is a finalist for the overall Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year award, which will be announced on June 27.
Now she has a strong chance to join basketball players Angel McCoughtry and Rodney McCray as the only athletes from U of L ever to be named U.S. Olympians.
“She’s a pioneer,” Albiero said. “I recognize there are people who coach a lifetime who don’t really get an opportunity to have this kind of run. … She certainly has elevated not just our program but U of L athletics in general. There’s no greater ambassador.”
Preparing for trials
Worrell will compete in four events at the U.S. Olympic Trials June 26-July 3 in Omaha, Neb.: the 100-meter butterfly, 200 butterfly, 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle. The 100-meter fly, which is a slightly longer race than the 100-yard fly that she dominated in college, is seen as her strongest event.
In most events at the U.S. trials, the top two finishers will qualify for the Olympics, and Worrell is currently ranked No. 2 in the country in the 100-meter butterfly behind only Dana Vollmer, who set the former world and current American record when she won Olympic gold in the event in 2012 in London.
Worrell finished 2015 as the top American in the 100-meter fly, thanks to her career-best time of 57.24 seconds during a preliminary at the Pan-Am Games. It was also the third-best time in the world last year. Notably, it’s 0.69 seconds faster than the former world record that Meagher held throughout the 1980s and ’90s.
As for her other events, Worrell recently posted this year’s third-fastest American time in the 200 fly. She is No. 5 in the United States this year in the 50 free and No. 7 in the 100 free. For the 100 free, the U.S. trials’ top six swimmers will travel to the Olympics to participate in relays, improving her chances.
Strong and fast
Perhaps Worrell’s greatest weapon is her underwater swimming. That’s one reason she was so dominant in her short-course college races that have 25-yard laps. In the 100-yard fly, she was underwater four times.
“And her leg strength (in pushing off from the wall) has definitely become her strength, world-class," Albiero said. "Her underwater (swims) are as good as anybody in the world.”
Since she’s gotten to college, she’s worked harder than ever at so-called dry-land training – weightlifting, running, yoga – outside the pool.
Conditioning coach Jason Dierking said Worrell is the first Louisville swimmer ever to win the team’s Iron Cardinal training competition four straight years. Two years ago, Dierking was amazed to see Worrell, who is 5-11 and 165 pounds, run a mile in 5:25. In bike rides, heavy weight carries and sled pushes, she also dominated.
“Her physical abilities are matched with her effort level,” he said. “Every single rep, whether it’s on the track, in the weight-room, she gives 100 percent. She’s a rare athlete who has physical gifts and stamina but can mentally push through a wall.
“She’s also one of the happiest, most humble people I’ve ever met.”
Goal-oriented
Worrell has been honing her craft since she was 7 years old.
Erica Worrell describes Kelsi, the oldest of her six children, as having a Type A personality – driven, orderly, punctual, goal-oriented – and her self-sufficiency made things easy for the Worrells to begin a big family.
“She’s just a great girl,” her mother said.
Although Erica Worrell can recall her daughter crying and panicking at her very first swim meet, Kelsi soon hit a comfort zone and started winning races. The family became more seriously involved in swimming, and all the Worrell children have now tried the sport.
“I’m glad she didn’t convince us to give it up after the first meet,” said Erica, whose younger daughter Taylor swims at South Carolina and also has qualified for U.S. trials.
Erica Worrell car-pooled the family and other neighborhood kids to swim practice in her 12-passenger van. Kelsi always sat in the front seat and insisted that the family arrive at practice 15 minutes early. Erica remembers one occasion when a new girl who'd joined the car pool arrived late at the drop-off point, and how flustered it made Kelsi to be late to swim practice.
“Kelsi is definitely driven by time,” her mom said. “She knows how much time it takes to go places, to get ready for places.”
It's apt for a swimmer to be driven by time. Kelsi has been known to use the goal time for one of her races as the passcode to her phone, her mom said.
In March after she repeated as NCAA champion, Garrett Clark, who was Kelsi Worrell’s club coach throughout high school, texted Worrell to pass along congratulations.
“I haven’t kept in touch with you because you are a fast swimmer (but) because you are a rare person," he wrote … I’m rooting so hard for you to go to Rio because I want to see a real-life good person standing on the podium on the biggest stage.”
Correction: This story was updated to include McCray as a U.S. Olympian from U of L. He made the 1980 team that was not allowed to participate in the Olympics in Moscow due to a U.S. boycott, but USA Basketball still recognizes the members of that team as Olympians, and U of L also recognizes McCray as such.