Natalie Kan

Rising junior Natalie Kan has made a strong name for herself on the University of Michigan women's swimming and diving team in both relay and individual events.

A butterfly and freestyle specialist, Kan found success at this year's Big Ten Championships. Beyond significant time drops in her individual events, Kan placed seventh in the 100-yard butterfly (53.20 seconds), 14th in the 100-yard freestyle (49.23) and 13th in the 50 free (22.57). In the freestyle events' prelims, Kan reached B-cuts and personal best times of 52.57, 49.07 and 22.50, respectively.

In her relay events at Big Tens, she swam in the 200 Freestyle Relay, pushing the Wolverines to third place with an A-cut time (1:27.91). Kan also swam the butterfly leg of the 200 Medley Relay to help her team reach second place in the event with another A-cut (1:35.96).

"It's really fun and exciting racing with my friends," Kan said of the 200 medley relay, her favorite event. "It's just really special because it's a memory we can all look back to."

Kan discussed her specialties in freestyle and butterfly and described how she initially came in planning to specialize in 100 butterfly, but the freestyle came as more of a surprise.

"I remember the year when we had to make the cut for the Olympics (in) 2020," she said, "I was planning to make the cut for 100 fly, but I ended up so close to making the cut for 100 free, so that's when I knew maybe freestyle could be my specialty as well."

After Big Tens, she further dropped to reach a personal best and came in first in her 100 butterfly (51.84) event at the Boiler-Make-It Last Chance Meet, qualifying for the NCAA Championships.

Kan competed in her first NCAA Championships this season, helping the 200 medley relay to 14th place (1:36.24) and the 200 freestyle relay finish 15th (1:28.60). In individual events, she competed in prelims for the 100 fly (52.57), 100 free (49.11) and 50 free (22.71), reaching third, 49th and 54th, respectively.

Kan really enjoyed being able to compete in individual events along with the relays at NCAAs.

"It's a whole other experience because Big Tens and NCAAs are so different," she said. "Being able to see the Olympians racing and breaking records firsthand, it's just so cool."

Kan got her start swimming at the age of 5 and grew up taking ballet lessons along with swimming. Although it helped her in giving her flexibility, she ended up focusing on swimming and competing internationally around the age of 12.

"My coach said, 'I see potential in you. If you want to take swimming to the next level, you have to fully commit,'" Kan said.

Born in Hong Kong, Kan knew she wanted to study abroad in college no matter what. A significant factor in choosing Michigan was the community of other athletes from Hong Kong.

"I saw so many alums and athletes from Hong Kong. They were all swimmers who graduated here so I had a network and I was able to build a connection with them," Kan said. "I asked them questions about college life and the swim program, and they sold me."

She also was captivated by the diversity of the team, with swimmers coming from around the world.

"I'm really lucky to be able to keep in the Hong Kong pipeline," Kan said. "Every year, there's people from Hong Kong who graduated from Michigan from the swim team."

Kan noted her current teammate Katii Tang and former swimmers Siobhán Haughey, Claudia Lau and Jamie Yeung.

Another factor in Kan's college decision was the prestigious sport management program. She had researched pursuing sports career-wise before coming to Michigan and knew sport management was the major of most interest to her.

"I have a passion for sports in general and I also enjoy the marketing field," she said. "This program is just perfect for me."

Kan describes her interest in sports marketing and brands like Nike and lululemon.

"I really want to learn more about how they run their business and how they manage it," she said. "That's one of the reasons why I decided to take sport management. (In) my future career, I really hope I could start my own business, like a sports brand. I really hope I could bring out women empowerment as well."

Kan discussed a group project business proposal which was part of her favorite sport management class.

"We took the entire semester to come up with a business proposal and our business proposal was introducing virtual reality to Big Tens," she said. "We did the entire project and then kind of sold the professor -- that was fun. Technology is so advanced, and people are so interested in virtual. Traveling could be an issue to some people, so having virtual reality would be so convenient, you could still experience a similar environment and a similar game day."

Kan's success in the classroom has earned her Academic All-Big Ten recognition as well as being named an Academic All-District honoree this year.

"I really want to thank my parents for their support," Kan added. "Coming here as an international student can be really tough. I'm really glad that they don't have much expectations for me, but I have high expectations of myself to excel in not just swimming but in academics as well."

She also discussed what advice she would give to other international student athletes.

"I would say be prepared for the cold weather," she joked before adding, "enjoy your moments here. It's an opportunity to explore, learn and understand different cultures. The first few months will be tough because you're so far away from you parents and family in an entirely new environment, but you're going to meet so many friends and people who are going to support you and they will become you're lifelong friends."