Olivia Belda

Class:
Senior
Height:
5-4
Weight:
null
Hometown:
Sao Paulo, Brazil
High School:
Graded School

Notes: Sailing became a varsity sport at Brown prior to the 2020-21 academic year.

2021-22: Named a Women’s All-American Skipper … Named to the All-Ivy First Team … Helped Brown place fifth at the Women’s Fleet Race National Championship … Helped Brown place third at the Fleet Race National Championship … Represented the Bears at the NEISA Championship … Helped Brown place fourth at the Women’s Team Race National Championship … Represented the Bears at the NEISA Women’s Championship … Also competed for the Bears during the weekends of Sept. 11, Sept. 18, Oct. 2, Oct. 9, Oct. 16, Oct. 23, Oct. 30, march 5, March 12, March 19, March 26, April 2, and April 9.

2020-21: Earned ICSA All-American Women’s Skipper and Honorable Mention All-American Coed Skipper honors … Competed at the ICSA Women’s, Coed, and Team Race National Championships, helping the Bears finish fourth, 11^th, and sixth as a team respectively … Raced at the NEISA Women’s, Coed, and Team Race Championships, helping Brown place first, first, and third respectively as a team … Also raced during the regular season on Apr. 24, May 14, and May 15 … Season shortened due to COVID-19.

Before Brown: Earned the Sao Paulo State Sailing Federation Woman Sailor of the Year award in 2017 … Also competed in basketball and softball; won Team MVP honors in both sports in both 2016 and 2017; gained Female Athlete of the Year in basketball in 2016.

Why Brown? “I grew up hearing about Brown; both my cousins are alumni. When the youngest, now a surgeon, talked about Brown, she described it as a space that nurtures self-growth, intellectually and socially. I see this in Brown, most meaningfully in the academic permissions it offers. As both a potential pre-med student and someone who hopes to study broadly, Brown’s open curriculum and unlimited pass/fail budget can drastically alter the way I approach education. I’ll already be taking a demanding set of prerequisites, so aside from that I value the freedom to choose classes unconstrained. The other reality of being pre-med is that GPA is important, but I would hate for my concern about my grade to deter me from taking challenging classes, or classes far outside my field where I’m not sure how I’ll perform. Brown alone allows me to pursue medicine with the academic freedom I seek.”