Beata Nelson

She learned to swim at a neighborhood pool in Fitchburg and never stopped: club teams, Verona Area High School (the public school Fitchburg kids attend), class of 2016, and national public-high-school butterfly marks. Her father, Andrew, class of 1990 and JD 1993, had lasted one season on the Badger team before law school; she came home to eat dinner and talk her sister through freshman year. She labeled her own freshman college season disappointing. As a sophomore she split 49.78 on a medley-relay backstroke leg and went under Natalie Coughlin's 49.97, the mark that first broke a minute.

She became the only woman with three NCAA swims under 50 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke, then the record-holder at 49.18, plus the collegiate 200-back record of 1:47.24 (later surpassed by Claire Curzan). Three NCAA titles in 2019, CSCAA Swimmer of the Year, and thirteen-time All-American followed. She swam for the Cali Condors in the International Swimming League. On the 2023 World Cup circuit she collected a haul the Verona Press put at nine gold and three silver and $152,200. Three U.S. Olympic trials ended without a team berth; in Indianapolis in 2024 she was 0.72 seconds from Paris in the 100 butterfly.

Verona papers call her a Verona native. The UW alumni magazine, when she was still driving south for dinner, called her a kid from Fitchburg. Both are true. She returned to the Badger deck as a volunteer, then as an assistant coach in 2025. The pool came first.