This week’s Pio Personality is swimmer Heidi Bradley from Victoria, B.C. Bradley is currently a senior but plans on studying and competing for Denver next year, as she still has a year of eligibility left. Bradley is pursuing a business management and finance major. She describes herself as positive and a hard-worker, qualities that are readily apparent in Bradley’s accomplishments and represent DU Athletics with a recent Summit League Swimmer of the Week award.
Bradley’s goals with business and finance include working with Lululemon in their Elite Ambassador Program. Not only are Lululemon’s corporate offices based in her dream city, Vancouver, Canada, but she knows people who work at Lululemon and enjoy it. By working with Lululemon’s Elite Ambassador’s program, Bradley said she, “Would be able to do what I love right now, even when I’m not an athlete anymore.”
One person that has made a large impact on Bradley in her swimming career is retired marketing professor, Nancy Sampson. Sampson, Bradley said, “Comes to every single swim meet, so she knows a lot about swimming, [as well as] always bakes us cookies.” Bradley said she can talk to Sampson about anything. Bradley also credits Professors Paul Harrison and John Tripp, both professors with the school of accountancy, with helping her both in class and outside of class. She often goes to them for help outside of academics, like things such as taxes. For her, this is part of why she enjoys DU so much.
The connection and balance between academics and athletics, as well as the amount of resources to succeed at DU are all things that Bradley loves about DU. When visiting other schools, Bradley said “I feel like some other schools there may be more pressure to succeed [in academics or sports].”
Among her greatest accomplishments in the pool, Bradley lists going to two Olympic trials in Montreal and Toronto, as well as attending the NCAA swim finals as a junior after attending as a second alternate her freshman year. Out of the pool, handling school well and making Dean’s List and being a Hornbeck Scholar are among Bradley’s personal favorite accomplishments. It is easy to see why Bradley considers diligence to be one of her best qualities.
Her hardwork to maintain good grades has helped Bradley earn a spot to study abroad in Netherlands next year, a decision Bradley made because it was one of the only trips that would fit into her schedule, as well as talking to other swimmers who enjoyed studying abroad in the Netherlands.
Bradley says that swimming is most definitely an escape for her, “It gives you two hours a day to think about things.” And although she pays attention to pace times and continues to work hard to improve, she says that “you’re also organizing your life.”
Bradley’s drive to improve and her strong work ethic are readily apparent both in and out of the pool. Bradley looks forward to continuing her hard work and representing the Pioneers.
