For Halé Oal, love of swimming and passion for the environment are two things that just clicked! And when things click for the Rutgers sophomore, she starts moving forward and fast. That is why Lew Blaustein, EcoAthletes’ founder and CEO was quick to invite her to become an EcoAthletes Champion.

“Halé’s interest in using her platform as an athlete and as an environmental studies major to make and lead real progress on climate came through in the first five minutes of talking with her,” shared Blaustein. “I can’t wait to see the impacts she makes as a Champion on the #ClimateComeback.”

Oal, who grew up outside of Detroit, the daughter of a Turkish father and an American mom, loved swimming almost as soon as she first hit the water.

“My parents put me in swim lessons when I was six,” remembered Oal. “I was good, but I had a fear of going in the deep end. That held me back at first, but my teacher told me I was too good to stay in the shallow end. So, we ripped the band-aid, I went to the deep end and then things took off from there.”

She had the right coaching — Sean Peters, the swim coach at Wayne State University in Detroit, took Oal on as an eight-year-old and worked with her for the better part of a decade — and had the necessary motivation to do the work in the pool, day in and day out.

“From middle school on, I was in the pool,” Oal said. “I’d wake up at five AM, go out in the cold to go swim in a cold pool. And I loved it! The movements, the motions, the timing of swimming came naturally to me, as did getting in a good rhythm.”

Another thing that came naturally to Oal was winning.

“My high school, Cranbrook Kingswood, won the state championship when I was a freshman,” recalled Oal. “It was so exhilarating. And then as a senior, we won it again in the most intense meet I’ve ever been a part of.

Oal caught the eyes of college recruiters as a freshman in high school as both a breaststroker and in the individual medley (IM*). While she considered Division I universities, her focus was mainly on the smaller D-III schools.

“While I thought I could swim at the D-I level, I had heard from older swimmers that the environment and vibe could be toxic, that the only thing you were there for was swimming,” she acknowledged. “At a D-III, the competition would be strong, but you could have time for other things, which appealed to me.”

Oal narrowed her decision to two small, highly rated liberal arts schools in Maine, Bowdoin and Bates, and D-II Wayne State in her hometown of Detroit, which was coached by her longtime mentor, Sean Peters. Despite the pull of the familiar, she went in a different direction.

“I chose Bates but from the first week, I knew something was off,” Oal lamented. “The environment within the team was toxic, with there being a big divide between the upper-classmen and the freshmen. There was no bonding whatsoever and that had nothing to do with COVID. They didn’t want to deal with us, they wouldn’t share practice lanes with us. I felt like the odd person out. It was awful.”

Oal didn’t let the toxicity of the team slow her down in the pool, becoming the best 50m and 100m butterfly swimmer at Bates as a freshman. That said, as time passed, she decided that the situation was untenable and entered the ‘transfer portal’ to find a new school and a new start. To give herself the best shot of finding the right situation, she adopted a new attitude.

“I broadened my circle and took another view of D-I, taking the approach that some can be problematic, but some could be good fits for me,” she acknowledged. “So, when I found and visited Rutgers, I was blown away by coach Jon Maccoll. The first thing he told me was that Rutgers Swimming was about ‘culture, culture, culture!!! And ‘team, team, team!!’ It was eye-opening.”

Oal was welcomed from the get-go by her teammates last September, melting the awkwardness of being a sophomore transfer student almost immediately. That acceptance from fellow swimmers and coaches alike was crucial since she came to Rutgers as she was rehabbing from surgery in May to repair a torn labrum.

And, while her long rehab grind continues, Oal has set big goals for herself when she gets back in the pool.

“I won’t be ready to race during the spring season, so my focus is to get fit for next seaon,” she reports. “I can’t wait to compete for Rutgers and since I have dual citizenship with Turkey, so I hope to make a run at making their Olympic team for Paris 2024 or Los Angeles 2028.”

The political science and environmental studies double major is also making a big run at making a difference on climate.

“I’m interested in pursuing environmental law and/or sustainability and climate policy,” asserted Oal. “Helping underrepresented people who are impacted harshly by the impacts of the climate, like Native Americans, people of color, and the poor, is very important to me from a policy perspective, as are reversing biodiversity loss and conservation.”

She knows that the problems she wants to tackle seem intractable, she also is a big believer that things are impossible…until they’re not: “I like the idea of taking on big challenges, and we face no bigger challenge than the climate crisis. So, I want to work to devise, advocate for, and implement climate policies that offer real solutions for people and all life.”

Oal sees EcoAthletes as an organization that can help her accelerate progress on a variety of climate solutions.

“I can’t wait to learn from my fellow EcoAthletes Champions and the experts and leaders that the organization brings to us,” she enthused. “It will help me be a more effective advocate and allow me to influence my network and beyond to take positive climate actions.”

* The four strokes that make up the IM are the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle.

You can follow Halé on Instagram