Beata Nelson
Vernona/Mount Horeb High School
Impact Statement
“I always love competing for something bigger than me. I think that just drives me to perform in a way that I never thought I could.” -Beata Nelson
Biography
Beata Nelson closed-out her scholastic career with four gold medals at the Wisconsin state championships in 2015.
A 12-time Wisconsin high school state champion, the future Badger holds three Wisconsin high school state records in the 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard butterfly, and 200-yard freestyle relay. Nelson’s time of 51.62 seconds in the 100-yard butterfly at this year’s Wisconsin high school state meet also reset her previous USA public high school national record.
A five-event Olympic trials qualifier, she also owns the National Age Group record in the 100-yard butterfly at 51.08 seconds. Nelson is a member of the USA Junior National Team.
Nelson continued to shine at Wisconsin. She finished her career as a three time NCAA Champion, a seven time NCAA All American and a nine time Big-10 Champion. She is the only female to swim a sub 50 second 100 backstroke six times.
As a sophomore, she was named to the All-Big Ten first-team and the Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships. She repeated this honors as a junior and was also the Big-10 Swimmer of the Year as well. She was the CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year. As a senior, she was awarded the coveted Big Ten Medal of Honor. The Big Ten Medal of Honor, first awarded in 1915, is given to one student-athlete from the graduating class of each university who had “attained the greatest proficiency in athletics and scholastic work.” according to the Big Ten.
She excelled out of the pool. She earned CSCAA Scholar All-America honors as a Freshman. Nelson earned Academic All-Big Ten honors her final three seasons as a Badger.
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