Wednesday, July 6, 2022
National Team Alum Brooke Forde is Ready for Next Chapter
Brooke Forde scrolled through her Instagram feed a few weeks ago and saw photos of her close friends at Team USA’s training camp for the FINA World Championships. The posts made her think of how much she missed traveling, swimming and being with her friends.
But after retiring in March, following the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships, Forde’s ready for what’s next. She plans to complete her master’s degree from Stanford and join the Peace Corps in September for a two-year mission.
“I knew I wanted to work internationally right after college because I’ve always been interested in working in global health,” Forde said. “I just think that, to be an effective global health worker, you need to have lived internationally, and the thing about the Peace Corps is that it’s not just living internationally. It’s really living with the people you’re trying to help, getting to understand them on that level before you come in and try and make a difference in their lives.”
Forde, 23, will go through three months of training in Lima, Peru, before being sent elsewhere in the South American country to start her work. She will screen children for malnutrition, teach about nutrition and develop health programs for pregnant and nursing mothers.
She described herself as “mostly fluent” in Spanish—she earned a minor in Spanish at Stanford—though added she could be sent to an indigenous village that only spoke Quechua, a language she’d have to learn during her three months of training.
“That would be a whole new adventure,” she said.
Forde plans to become a researcher after her work with the Peace Corps. She’s still deciding whether to go to medical school upon her return.
Forde’s decision to retire comes after earning a silver medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a meet she easily could’ve missed qualifying for.
She tested positive for COVID-19 in January 2021, which caused her to miss valuable training time, and then tested positive again just 16 days before the 200m freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming. A re-test of her second test showed that she had had a false positive.
Forde finished sixth in the 200m freestyle at Trials, earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.
“It was obviously just the coolest part of my life so far,” she said. “It was such an honor, especially after the extra year and COVID and everything. That was the thing that sort of gave me peace with my swimming career. I went through all these challenges and I came out on top and I accomplished a goal that I had had for so long.”
Forde credits her swimming at Stanford with preparing her for the future.
When she joined the Cardinal in 2017, the team included Katie Drabot, Ella Easton, Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel. Forde described that group as “probably the best NCAA swimming team in recent history,” which led her to doubt herself—she wasn’t sure she could keep up with her teammates—but also motivated her to achieve more challenging goals.
She finished fourth in the 400-yard IM and 11th in the 500y freestyle, and swam the third leg on Stanford’s national championship — winning 4x200y freestyle relay at NCAA. The success surprised her, she said, and the confidence she gained proving she could swim at an elite level led to her becoming more confident in other areas of her and spurred her onto the path she’s on.
“I was like, ‘OK, I really surprised myself with how I could keep up in swimming, so now I believe I can keep up in the classroom with these super-smart kids at Stanford,” Forde said. “I started pushing myself to interact more with professors and really find goals outside of swimming. That’s what led me to be interested in global health and really become involved in research as an undergrad.”
Forde earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology and is close to finishing her master’s degree in epidemiology and clinical research. She also was a 19-time All-American and five-time NCAA champion, and helped the Cardinal win two NCAA championships and four Pac-12 titles.
She recognizes the impact swimming has had on her as she prepares for what’s next.
“I’m obviously super glad that I did it,” Forde said. “It’s hard to even say what I would’ve been like without swimming because I’ve just always been a swimmer, but I think for sure that it shaped me in a lot of ways both in and out of the pool. (I'm) Super grateful for swimming.”
But after retiring in March, following the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships, Forde’s ready for what’s next. She plans to complete her master’s degree from Stanford and join the Peace Corps in September for a two-year mission.
“I knew I wanted to work internationally right after college because I’ve always been interested in working in global health,” Forde said. “I just think that, to be an effective global health worker, you need to have lived internationally, and the thing about the Peace Corps is that it’s not just living internationally. It’s really living with the people you’re trying to help, getting to understand them on that level before you come in and try and make a difference in their lives.”
Forde, 23, will go through three months of training in Lima, Peru, before being sent elsewhere in the South American country to start her work. She will screen children for malnutrition, teach about nutrition and develop health programs for pregnant and nursing mothers.
She described herself as “mostly fluent” in Spanish—she earned a minor in Spanish at Stanford—though added she could be sent to an indigenous village that only spoke Quechua, a language she’d have to learn during her three months of training.
“That would be a whole new adventure,” she said.
Forde plans to become a researcher after her work with the Peace Corps. She’s still deciding whether to go to medical school upon her return.
Forde’s decision to retire comes after earning a silver medal in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, a meet she easily could’ve missed qualifying for.
She tested positive for COVID-19 in January 2021, which caused her to miss valuable training time, and then tested positive again just 16 days before the 200m freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming. A re-test of her second test showed that she had had a false positive.
Forde finished sixth in the 200m freestyle at Trials, earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic Team.
“It was obviously just the coolest part of my life so far,” she said. “It was such an honor, especially after the extra year and COVID and everything. That was the thing that sort of gave me peace with my swimming career. I went through all these challenges and I came out on top and I accomplished a goal that I had had for so long.”
Forde credits her swimming at Stanford with preparing her for the future.
When she joined the Cardinal in 2017, the team included Katie Drabot, Ella Easton, Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel. Forde described that group as “probably the best NCAA swimming team in recent history,” which led her to doubt herself—she wasn’t sure she could keep up with her teammates—but also motivated her to achieve more challenging goals.
She finished fourth in the 400-yard IM and 11th in the 500y freestyle, and swam the third leg on Stanford’s national championship — winning 4x200y freestyle relay at NCAA. The success surprised her, she said, and the confidence she gained proving she could swim at an elite level led to her becoming more confident in other areas of her and spurred her onto the path she’s on.
“I was like, ‘OK, I really surprised myself with how I could keep up in swimming, so now I believe I can keep up in the classroom with these super-smart kids at Stanford,” Forde said. “I started pushing myself to interact more with professors and really find goals outside of swimming. That’s what led me to be interested in global health and really become involved in research as an undergrad.”
Forde earned a bachelor’s degree in human biology and is close to finishing her master’s degree in epidemiology and clinical research. She also was a 19-time All-American and five-time NCAA champion, and helped the Cardinal win two NCAA championships and four Pac-12 titles.
She recognizes the impact swimming has had on her as she prepares for what’s next.
“I’m obviously super glad that I did it,” Forde said. “It’s hard to even say what I would’ve been like without swimming because I’ve just always been a swimmer, but I think for sure that it shaped me in a lot of ways both in and out of the pool. (I'm) Super grateful for swimming.”