Noelle Harvey is a sophomore swimmer at WSU. She has been swimming since she was seven and has grown passionate about the sport. 

She has always wanted to be a swimmer, and has shown impressive dedication and drive. 

“I wanna see just how far I can take this sport, see how far I can push my limits,” Harvey said.

Harvey has swum with WSU since her freshman year and has grown into a leadership position.

She has had many impressive moments over her swimming career that have caused her love for him her teammates, and her sport to grow. 

“If I had to pick one [impressive moment] at Washington State University it would be Pac-12 finals at the five [500] free where I had kind of a bum swim in the morning and I was going in with a hopeful view for finals and I just wanted to break 50,” Harvey said. ”I got under 50 by two seconds and I remember looking over, and all the team was still there and they just exploded because I won my heat, I met my goal time and my coaches were just jumping up and down. I mean that is just the feeling of having your team behind you, oh it’s ecstatic.”

Her drive in the sport took a hit around the start of the pandemic when the pools shut down and she was swimming entirely alone. 

“If you made me do this by myself for one week I would quit,” Harvey said. “You had to do it by yourself a little bit during Covid. I was like, wow this sucks, there’s no teammates, there’s no coaches, there’s no meets, there’s no music, there’s nothing. It’s literally just me in a pool.”

Just like many other athletes, this was a tough time in Harvey’s swimming career.

Things had to change, and for a sport that is centered around team atmosphere, the pandemic broke spirits. 

However, Harvey is a different story seeing as the pandemic seemed to only grow her love of the sport and give her an all-new sense of appreciation for the swimmers around her.

“I’m actually a little bit grateful for Covid,” Harvey said. “Because, not only me, but it gave other people the opportunity to kind of reset. It gave them however long you took off of swimming; I took about, maybe four months off with the pools completely shut down. It actually made me appreciate the sport a little bit more.”

Harvey is very proud of her team and is so excited to see how her team will perform. She is confident that some of the swimmers will exceed expectations.

“I took pictures at the beginning of the year with some of my teammates, because I know, I’m not guessing, I know that by the end of the year I’ll be able to go and be able to post those pictures on Instagram and be like, ready for the finals with so and so, because I know they have that potential and are gonna produce those results when it comes time,” Harvey said.

Through tough times and the best times, Harvey has proven to be a truly talented and persistent athlete always looking to lead her team to victory with positivity and tenacity.

“I am really stoked for the season,” Harvey said. “I mean, If you sat through a week of practice, and you watched some of the times that these girls put up, at practice, not meets, but at practice. You would be bamboozled almost, you’d be like ‘Oh my gosh, like I’m so excited to see these results.’”