Brooke Forde (born March 4, 1999 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

) is an American

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

. The daughter of sportswriter

Pat Forde Pat Forde is a sports journalist who is a national columnist for ''Sports Illustrated''. He previously worked for ESPN, ''The Courier-Journal'' in Louisville, Kentucky, and ''Yahoo Sports''. Personal life and education Forde is a native of C ...

and his wife Tricia, the latter a former swimmer at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

, she grew up around the sport, with both of her older brothers going on to swim in

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

. She swam for Lakeside Swim Club in Louisville, Kentucky. According to a 2021 story by local Louisville journalist Rick Bozich, "As her parents remember it, Brooke had ''one'' swimming lesson. She learned by sitting with her mom at practice and then mimicking her brothers." She set her first Kentucky state record as an 8-year-old, and a year later recorded that year's best age-group time in the U.S. in the girls' 50m butterfly. At Louisville's Sacred Heart Academy, she went on to win multiple

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

championships, make multiple U.S. international teams, and be named national high school girls' swimmer of the year. Forde received multiple NCAA Division I offers, ultimately choosing

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where she had been hosted on her recruiting visit by multiple Olympic gold medalist

Katie Ledecky Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky (born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. She has won seven Olympic gold medals and 19 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. Ledecky's six individual gold medals at ...

. While at

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, she was on two NCAA championship teams and won four NCAA individual titles, and was also named the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

scholar-athlete of the year in women's swimming & diving in 2021. Forde graduated from Stanford in 2021 with a degree in human biology. Due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the NCAA granted all student-athletes in the organization's winter sports, including swimming & diving, an extra year of eligibility; Forde remained at Stanford in 2021–22, continuing to swim for the Cardinal while pursuing a master's degree in epidemiology. At the 2020 United States Olympic Trials Forde finished sixth in the 200m freestyle, qualifying her for the relay team at the

2020 Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

after the results of the women's 50m freestyle opened a spot for her. She earned a silver medal for swimming on the preliminary 4x200-meter freestyle relay team. She won the 400m individual medley at the

2021 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships The 2021 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships were contested from March 17-20, 2021 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in Greensboro, North Carolina at the 39th annual NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individua ...

, her fourth overall title. She finished fourth in the Women's 500 yard freestyle at the

2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships The 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships were contested March 16–19, 2022 at the 40th annual NCAA-sanctioned swim meet to determine the team and individual national champions of Division I women's collegiate swimming ...

Personal

Forde's father, Pat Forde, detailed her "long, laborious path to the Olympics" for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', where he is a writer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forde, Brooke 1999 births Living people American female freestyle swimmers Sacred Heart Academy (Louisville) alumni Stanford Cardinal women's swimmers Sportspeople from Louisville, Kentucky Universiade medalists in swimming Universiade silver medalists for the United States Medalists at the 2017 Summer Universiade Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming