Bella Sims Returning To Sandpipers of Nevada To Practice This Summer season

Coming off a profitable faculty season with the University of Michigan, Bella Sims is returning house to coach this summer time.

Sims recently told Swimming World she’s heading again to Las Vegas to coach together with her membership crew, the Sandpipers of Nevada, after she didn’t have the possibility to spend a lot time there in the summertime of 2025 (although she nonetheless represented the Sandpipers at meets).

“I am going home for the summer. Last summer I didn’t get to go home,” the 20-year-old mentioned. “I know what Ron (Aitken) does works for me. I want to go home and not risk anything. I will head home with Claire (Weinstein) and the crew.”

After spending the primary two seasons of her collegiate profession on the University of Florida, Sims transferred to Michigan final May, and subsequently made the transfer to Ann Arbor whereas spending time coaching on the Olympic Training Center throughout the 2025 lengthy course season.

Although it was up-and-down sophomore 12 months at Florida, which included a pair of runner-up finishes within the backstroke occasions at NCAAs and successful the SEC title in each races, however failing to earn a second swim within the 500 free at NCAAs, Sims landed a spot on the 2025 U.S. World Championship crew final 12 months, qualifying within the girls’s 4×200 free relay.

That got here on the heels of a disappointing 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, the place her highest end was seventeenth within the 200 free. Prior to that, she had made three straight main worldwide squads for the U.S., successful medals on the 2021 Olympics and each the 2022 and 2023 World Championships.

She added to her medal haul on the 2025 World Championships after swimming a prelim leg on the silver medal-winning relay, and adopted up with a standout season at Michigan. Not solely did Sims win the nationwide title within the 400 IM and rating 50.5 particular person factors for the Wolverines at NCAAs, however she led Michigan to its first Women’s Big Ten title since 2018, scoring 92 of a potential 96 factors after successful convention titles within the 100 again and 400 IM to go together with a trio of relay victories.

Now, Sims is worked up to rejoin the Sandpipers this summer time, particularly coming off the NCAA Championships the place she and teammate Claire Weinstein had sturdy showings, with Weinstein successful the nationwide title within the 500 free as a freshman at Cal.

“Michigan and Cal sat next to each other at NCAAs,” Sims instructed Swimming World. “It was so awesome. I was cheering for her so much. I wish so much success for the Sandpiper girls, but to see her do so well has been so exciting.”

Sims and Weinstein lately raced collectively on the World Aquatics Open Water World Cup cease in Ibiza.

Heading into this summer time, Sims plans on taking up a variety of occasions, and hopes Aitken will enable her to place concentrate on the 200 fly, an occasion she hasn’t had the possibility to totally discover but in her profession.

She final raced the lengthy course 200 fly on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, putting twenty first in a time of two:12.41. Her private finest time stands at 2:09.89, set in March 2023 on the Fort Lauderdale Pro Swim.

She notably ranks twelfth all-time amongst American performers within the SCY 200 fly (1:51.06) and 14th all-time amongst Americans within the SCM 200 fly (2:04.85).

“I am hoping Ron lets me swim some butterfly,” Sims mentioned. “I have so much hope in my 200 fly, but I just haven’t been able to unleash the best. It was always the same day as something. I hope that I can some more confidence in that event. I will stay doing a lot of events. But I hope butterfly is more of an option.”

In faculty, Sims’ focus appeared to shift in direction of the 200 free and the backstroke occasions at Florida, transferring away from the five hundred free whereas retaining the 200 IM in her repertoire, after which final 12 months at Michigan, she absolutely embraced the 400 IM.

Last summer time, she caught to the identical lineup at each the U.S. National Championships in June and the U.S. Pro Championships in August: 50, 100, 200 and 400 free, and the 200 IM.

She spoke to Swimming World about how, after becoming a member of Aitken’s group as an eighth-grader, he labored to develop her into a real all-arounder.

“I don’t think I ever had a main event,” Sims mentioned. “I joined Ron’s group when I was in eighth grade. When you are little, you dabble in all the strokes. I was backstroker, then a flyer, then distance, and now back to the backstroke. But I hated the backstroke in eighth grade. I would do anything to swim fly. That is what my mind was set to. He wanted me to swim all the events that I wanted, but he didn’t want any events to define me. It panned out to be perfect for me. If I am ever tired of any events, I have so many others that I can do. I love being versatile like that.”

Despite making the 2025 World Championship roster, Sims didn’t crack the U.S. crew for this summer time’s Pan Pacific Championships, which means her focus will doubtless be on the U.S. National Championships, which run a couple of weeks earlier than Pan Pacs in Irvine on the finish of July.