"Committing to female student-athletes can serve as launching pad"- Alexandra Turvey opens up after winning NCAA Women of the Year award

Alexandra Turvey highlighted how she learned that the NCAA can bridge divides and unite people from her experience as a student-athlete in Pomona-Pitzer Athletics. She joined MIT to utilize her one-year NCAA eligibility and compete in swimming and diving.

Turvey holds eight SCIAC records besides two qualifications at the Olympic trials as a Canadian representative. Her repertoire also boasts 21 CSCAA All-American titles and three SCIAC Women's Swimmer of the Year honors. Her contribution at the Division III Women's Swimming and Diving Championships in March 2024 helped her team to a seventh-place national finish.

Swimming since eight years old, Turvey took the stage among the Top 30 honorees, the first time for a Pomona-Pitzer alum. She was announced the winner of the NCAA Women of the Year. In her speech, the PhD student noted how the NCAA bridges divide in the most unexpected places, something she learned through her experience.

"This is truly such an honor. I stand here tonight not just as a single person but as someone who represents thousands of other female student-athletes across the country...When I really think about my NCAA experience, I'm struck by how it can bridge so many divides and really create community in the most unexpected places."

Reiterating the importance of being an NCAA athlete as a woman, Turvey said:

"This really does highlight how committing to female student-athletes can serve as a launching pad for them for the rest of their lives and the rest of their careers."

Turvey also shared how she took over the aux cord in the weight room to make her fellow athletes feel safe and welcomed, helping them gain confidence. She said, via Sagehens:

"Those small, minute changes really became a big tangible force in that four-year period. Seeing my final year, how we walked in like we owned the place — we'd play our loud music, we'd sometimes be a little bit obnoxious — but seeing that transformation in the span of just four years and sort of cultural shift was really motivating and inspiring."

Alexandra Turvey shed light on how swimming shaped her career in and out of the pool

2024 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships - (Source: Getty)

Alexandra Turvey enrolled in an eight-year graduate program at MIT and Harvard Medical School, willing to pursue a medical degree and a Doctor of Philosophy. En route to becoming a physician, she shared how her student-athlete life helped her set ambitious goals, and unlock depths of strength and others.

Turvey said, via Sagehens:

"Swimming has shaped who I am. It has taught me to take risks and to not shy away from setting ambitious goals. Athletics teaches you that life does not go as planned. I have learned far more from days when success eluded me than from podium moments. Swimming has taught me to access depths of toughness that I didn't know that I possessed and to truly be there for others."

Alexandra Turvey also amassed the NCAA Elite 90 award, College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Team Member of the Year honors, and Goldwater and NCAA Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship.