The final day of the US Olympic Swim Trials opened with the Star-Spangled Banner. This time, however, the rousing anthem rang out from the violin of Olympic swimmer Elizabeth Beisel.
Beisel has joined the Olympics thrice: she was the youngest member of the US Olympic swim team in 2008, she won bronze in the 200-meter backstroke in 2012, and finished sixth in the 400-meter individual medley in 2016. In all, Beisel has won nine medals in a remarkable career that began when she was four years old.
The year before that, she began play the violin after hearing the instrument at a birthday party. At five years old, she took up the piano. Beisel's musical and athletic training ran side by side: she swam under Chuck Batchelor at Blue Fish Club, and trained in the Suzuki method of violin playing. In high school, Beisel played in her school orchestra. In an interview with the New York Times, she said: "I think in swimming, I was always ultracompetitive, but violin, it was more to have fun."
In fact, she said it was always a dream of hers to "play in the Boston Pops."
Beisel became a prodigy in both her instruments, and is described by her mother as "a better musician than swimmer." She kept on playing through her athletic career, and has served as first chair of the Rhode Island Symphony Orchestra, Ocean State Orchestra, and Rhode Island All-State Orchestra, and played as a guest soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic.
"The longevity of playing an instrument is your entire life," said Beisel. "I always knew that if anything went wrong, I could go back to the violin or the piano."
Now that she has retired from competing, Beisel has been giving more time to music. This has allowed her to give her recent performance of the American national anthem, which was met with wild applause, as well as a duet with fellow Olympian Ketie Ledecky-playing on the piano-at the 2018 Golden Goggles Awards.
Beisel is still heavily involved in swimming, serving in the SPIRE Institute and Academy, and the LEAD Sports Summit.
