Kate Bird ‘25 is one of this year’s co-captains for the girls swim team. Entering her 9th year of swimming, Bird is quite experienced. She understands theThis experience is essential to the City High team. Bird is a distance freestyle swimmer, swimming in events such as the 200, 500, and 1000.
Bird has been swimming for almost a decade, but in the last few years, she has watched as women’s swimming has gained an increase in coverage. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics saw record viewership for women’s swimming events. Simone Manuel’s performance in the 100-meter freestyle generated over 15 million viewers, contributing to the significant rise in interest for women’s swimming.
“I feel like the past five years have just been so impactful, like Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, even Caitlin Clark. There’s so many up and coming athletes that are just doing such amazing things that people are noticing more and because of that there is more just media on it and more role models,” Bird added.
Overall, Bird is quite pleased with the rise in the media coverage of women’s swimming.
“I think it’s about freaking time. There’s always been incredible female athletes who just haven’t gotten the same coverage, and that’s changing, and it’s a really positive thing going forward, just because maybe one day that will be the same as male sports,” Bird states.
Bird finds that although the world of women’s sports is changing, City High continues to have more viewers and coverage at boy’s swim meets than at girls. Nonetheless, instead of focusing on that, Bird chooses to “make the most of every day”, and always “encourage the other girls on the team to really think about how well they’re doing.”
If Bird could give any advice to a young female athlete, she says it would be to:
“Always have confidence in what you’re doing, because people want to tear themselves down. They shouldn’t. You are strong and capable, and you just need to remind yourself that you’re doing a good job.”
Bird is a big believer in uplifting her teammates, as confidence is an issue that young athletes often struggle with in sports.
“I feel like women, especially like to talk down on themselves, and especially like on the swim team, I’ve noticed after races, so many people are just never happy. They’re just critiquing everything. It could be their best race ever. And it just takes so much for people to really be happy with what they’re doing. And I’ve noticed that, like, I’ll go to boys meets, and they just don’t do that. Like, they’re always excited for how they swim. They’re always proud of themselves regardless.”
This has led to Bird trying to create a positive atmosphere in her team’s dynamic by “encouraging all the girls on the team to really think about everything that they’re doing well, instead of always tearing themselves down.”
Bird says that “you have to find the positives in it”, and she trusts in the fact that if “you feel like you’re letting people down, you never are”.
