“I Found My Passion for the Sport Again”

Princeton Sr Nikki Venema won the 50 Free, 100 Fly and 100 Free at the 2023 Ivy League Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships and earned the High Point Swimmer Award for the second time in her career. Their performance was all the more significant after the disappointment of the last two seasons: the first was canceled outright by the Ivy League; and the second in which the Tigers finished outside the top three for the first time ever.

“Last year was a very, very tough year. We had the perfect obstacle tower against us. About fifteen of us got COVID two weeks away from Ivies. I was one of them. We had to go through an intensive Princeton University isolation protocol and tested two to three times a week. It was stressful all around. Besides, we were right in the middle [the controversy] about the Ivy League, the NCAA, and transgender rules. We had meetings all the time; There was a lot of drama… it was a lot.”

Venema joined Princeton in the fall of 2019 and as a freshman at the 2020 Ivy League championships, she won the 50/100/200 Free and shared the High Point Swimmer honors with teammate Ellie Marquardt, who won the 500/1000/1650 Free . As the pandemic raged across the United States for the rest of the year, the Ivy League canceled all fall and winter sports, forcing Venema, who was already enrolled at Princeton, to sit out her second season. Then came the 2021-22 season, with the world’s eyes on the Ivy League as it weathered the often politicized media frenzy that came with embracing transgender swimmers.

And as if the COVID protocols and outside attention to the Ivy League’s last-minute rule clarification for transgender athletes weren’t enough, Venema was expected to lead the way as team captain. “From my freshman year when I was a top performer on my team and then had to move into a leadership position without really having a transition year in year two to orient myself, there was a lot of pressure on me to lead my team . That was my first year as captain of our swim team. I felt a lot of pressure to perform. I wanted to do well for my team.”

Venema felt the weight of disappointment when Princeton finished fourth behind Harvard, Yale and Penn at the 2022 Ivy League Championships. But instead of staying down, she vowed to herself and the team to “put your head down and get back to the swimming I know and love.”

“I think a lot of it started with each person individually taking in what had happened and feeling that loss of Ivies and making an individual change in each of our mindsets that we wanted to do better – for ourselves, for our teammates and for the women who came before us. That summer I decided to put my head down and focus: getting in and out of the pool twice a day and pushing myself physically and mentally, but in the right way. I just made a commitment to give whatever it takes to my final year of swimming. It kind of leaves no room for excuses. I made no excuses this year. I wanted to do my best for my team. I wanted to be great and I know my team wanted to be great. It’s a scary thing, it’s a vulnerable place for an athlete. ‘Cause if you go all in and that’s not good enough, then I’m not good enough. It’s very scary when you’re a collegiate athlete.

“I think we’ve adopted that mindset all along. “We’re going to go all in; we strive for greatness, whatever that means for each and every one of us.” We’ve definitely had challenges along the way, but we’ve never strayed from our goal: to be great as individuals and to be great as a team. We wanted to bring the legacy of greatness back to Princeton; It’s known for fast swimming and wonderful people, and that’s where I took my team this year. I’m really grateful to my co-captains and we also had a great new class of freshmen who were really excited to be here. We also played off their energy.

“We’ve been working non-stop on our morning swims this year. Getting up in the morning, racing when we’re tired, when we’ve had a super long week… I think I had the hardest two weeks of training I’ve ever had in my life going to the Navy reunion. But I can’t thank the coaches and team enough for pushing me through these two weeks because it helped me get through the four days of this meeting where there are ups and downs and it’s so important to get to the A -Finals to come the morning. It was so much fun to have five free out of 50 and paint the podium orange!”

Venema admitted: “Although 2021-22 was a painful year, it was a great growth experience. I wouldn’t change it for anything. I rediscovered my passion for sport. It fired us up not to be complacent. ‘Never let your guard down, never underestimate your opponent.’

“We welcome the competition. We want the Ivy League to grow stronger as a conference. The history of Harvard-Yale-Princeton and Penn as the frontrunners is outdated and should be more equal across all eight schools. It was really nice to see that at Ivies this year. Columbia, Brown, Cornell, Penn, Dartmouth… it really pushed the performance as a whole. To be honest, it was more fun for me and pushed my team. It really wanted us to win so badly, we had such a strong will to win that we never took our foot off the gas.

“This competition was less about swimming and more about the team culture that we had established beforehand. It’s about resilience, it’s about determination and it’s about standing up after being brutally beaten over the past year but being hungry and proud of who you are, wanting to be at your craft and better for your teammates and yourself. And give yourself a chance to be great.

“It’s hard coming off the Ivy League conference, especially swimming. We’re not necessarily known for being NCAA qualifiers and being the fastest conference in Division I, but I think that should change and I think that’s the stance we’re taking at Princeton. I really think it pushes performance. The swimmers here are showing a passion that I don’t think Princeton has seen before and I’m very excited to see what this team has in store. I will no longer be a part of it, but I am so grateful to be able to leave this team as it is and I know that after I leave, the people on the team will carry on that legacy of greatness, and passion and Drive. Of course we will have ups and downs, but that attitude about who we are and who we want to be will always be there. I look forward to seeing the people that this kind of energy draws to Princeton. I can’t wait to be a screeching alum in the stands when I’m older, but I truly believe it’s the culture we’ve built with Bret over the past four years.”