Elizabeth Beisel on the Olympics, music & more

The Newport resident is an Olympic medalist, NBC sports commentator, and “village violinist” bursting with creativity

A year ago July, Elizabeth Beisel took to the main stage at the Newport Folk Festival, accompanying local band Laden Valley on violin and joining the Friday lineup. This past July, she was in Paris working as an NBC sports commentator for the Summer Olympic Games.

Both events reflect two of her lifelong pursuits: swimming, and music.

Beisel, who grew up in North Kingstown and has lived in Newport for the past five years, is known primarily as a swimmer — an Olympic swimmer — although she learned to swim and play music at the same time, around the age of three. She plays piano, violin, and mandolin. These days, music is her
creative outlet and something she is focusing on more and more, after having set it aside.

“I have not felt that alive and excited about something since [competing in] the Olympics,” she said of playing at Folk Fest, her smile wide and energy palpable. It was late May and Beisel’s skin was already tanned, her curly blonde hair bright against a blue tank top. We were in a long conversation at Simple Merchant Coffee, one of her favorite spots in Newport. “It was an absolute dream.”

In June, her swimming career and music pursuits overlapped when she played violin during “The Star- Spangled Banner” at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials — Swimming in Indianapolis, where she was primarily working as a commentator.

In July, she headed to Paris for a month, where she resumed her role with NBC. The 2024 Summer Games were her fifth; Beisel is a three-time Olympian and two-time Olympic medalist.

She competed in the 2008 games in Beijing, the 2012 games in London, and the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, when she was 15 and the youngest member of Team USA, she swam the 400-meter individual medley and the 200-meter backstroke. In 2012, she earned a silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley and a bronze medal in the 200-meter backstroke. In 2016, she was voted by her teammates to serve as captain of the U.S. Olympic swimming team.

Beisel, who is 31, officially retired from the sport in 2017, although she continues to be connected in other ways. In 2021, she traveled to Tokyo for the Summer Games (delayed a year because of the pandemic), for her first gig with NBC. This summer, she’ll produce postrace interviews with athletes, along with feature-like stories for the network.

“NBC allows me to have creative liberty,” says Beisel, who studied journalism while she was a student at the University of Florida, which she attended on a swimming scholarship. Her storytelling focuses on what she thinks would be interesting to watch.

“I get to be a very important part of these athletes’ stories,” she says, emphasizing that, for her, it’s important to always include a human element in the reports of competing athletes. “I feel a responsibility to do my peers good — I used to be them.”

In March of 2020, just before the world shut down, she auditioned at the NBC headquarters in Connecticut. Soon after, she learned she had landed the commentator gig for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo — which then were delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

She finds traveling with a broadcast crew similar to traveling with a team. “The production family at NBC is the same dynamic as my swim family,” explains Beisel.

Her first go at broadcasting was while she was living in Florida, where she would livestream youth swim meets on Facebook, mostly for the benefit of parents “It caught wind,” she says, noting that appreciative parents came to love the broadcasts. Beisel started livestreaming college meets, gradually building a resume. After three years of doing live broadcasts for free on her own time she connected with ESPN.

She stayed in Paris covering other Olympic events once the swimming competition was completed.

“We all feel the pressure to put on the best event possible,” she says, noting that her NBC team is focused on telling stories that convince people at home and around the world to tune-in. The pressure, in many ways, is not so different from that of being a competitive athlete (“you have to be hot at the right moment,” she says).

“I’m learning that I do love the pressure,” Beisel adds, “I thrive in those environments.”

Diving into music has been different than swimming, she says, in that it requires asking for help and actively creating a network. She’s switching lanes and leaning into her artistic impulses to see where they lead. “I need to tap into being a little kid again, and give it a shot,” said Beisel, still smiling.

The process of pursuing and creating music is a vulnerable one, she says. She often goes on long walks — without her phone or headphones — and finds herself composing melodies or creating song lyrics in her head. She repeats them over and over until she gets home and records them as a voice memo.

“When I stopped swimming, I didn’t know I needed that alone time,” she says.

Soon after returning from Paris in August, Beisel married Jack Nichting in a late-summer ceremony in South County (the couple met while competing on the reality TV show Survivor). It was through Nichting that she met Evan St. Martin, and through St. Martin that she met Dave Sarazen, the duo behind the Newport-based indie-folk band Laden Valley. The three now are dear friends and frequent music collaborators.

Her first show with the band was in December 2022, when Laden Valley played at the Top of Pelham off Thames Street. Since then, she has supported Laden Valley at other gigs, calling herself a “village violinist,” ready to play with any group, locally or regionally.

When not working for NBC or focusing on music, Beisel is dedicated to Block Cancer, a project she created in honor of her late father, Ted Beisel, who died in July of 2021 from pancreatic cancer. Partnering with Swim Across America, she made a 12.5-mile nonstop, unassisted swim from Matunuck Beach to Block Island that September to raise awareness and funds for cancer research.

Beisel has since launched a line of Block Cancer merchandise that includes stylish sweatshirts and tee shirts, along with cancer support materials. (Go to blockcancer.co.) All proceeds go directly to funding cancer researchers. One of the items available is a grief resource packet, that Beisel put together based on the things she and her father went through during his illness.

She fills all the orders herself, from her mom’s house, often including personalized notes.

“I keep my dad alive… it means the most to me,” she says, “this is my true passion project.”

To date, Block Cancer has raised more than $700,000 for cancer research. “Without the research, there’s not going to be a cure,” she says.

These days, her open water swims are more relaxed. Some of her favorite local places to swim are: Second Beach in Middletown, which she favors for longer, more open swims and exploring Purgatory Chasm; Third Beach in Middletown, for calmer waters; and Reject’s Beach in Newport, which she loves to bike to in summertime. For sunsets: Secret Beach.

“I’m really grateful to have these opportunities,” Beisel says, aware that nothing in life should be taken for granted. That realization fuels her to chase the feeling she’s been filled with since last summer, the sense of music flowing through her and the vision of a creative path unfolding ahead of her. Wherever it leads.

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To keep up with Elizabeth Beisel’s latest endeavors, follow her on Instagram.