Sims swims to strong finish in Paris

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

Paris, France -

University of Wisconsin-La Crosse swimming alum Natalie Sims of Edina, Minn. (H.S.) advanced to the finals in a pair of events representing the United States at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

She placed fifth (1:04.19) in the S9 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday, September 4 and sixth (2:40.02) in the SM9 200 individual medley on Thursday, September 5.

It marked Sims' third appearance in the Paralympic Games after finishing eighth in the 400 freestyle final at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. She also competed in the 100 backstroke, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly preliminaries at the Rio Paralympic Games. At the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, Sims advanced to a pair of finals, placing seventh in the 100 freestyle and eighth in the 400 freestyle.

Sims attended Edina High School (Minn.) and competed at her YWCA's swim club, the Minneapolis Otters, where she first qualified for the Paralympics. She was named to the U.S. Paralympic Swimming Emerging Team and competed in the 2014 Can-Am Paralympic Championships in Edmonton.

"I graduated from UW-La Crosse in 2021," said Sims. "I was training for Tokyo at that time, so it challenged me in a lot of ways because I was training with my able-bodied teammates and so that helped push me a lot." She earned her bachelor's degree with a communications major while minoring in sociology and leadership development. Sims competed in the 50, 200 and 500 freestyle as well as the 100 butterfly and 200 I.M. for the Eagles.

International competition is not new to Sims, who earned four medals representing the United States at the Lima 2019 Para Pan American Games, including capturing the gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. She was a member of the 4x100-meter relay to earn the silver medal and secured two individual bronze medals in the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley.

Sims recorded a pair of top-four finishes at the Copenhagen 2018 World Para Swimming World Series in Denmark, placing third in the 100-meter freestyle and fourth in the 50-meter freestyle. She was the lone United States swimmer to advance to the final in both events. Sims also competed in the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley preliminaries at the World Para Swimming World Series.

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