Kayla Fu is someone who absolutely hates losing; who chooses the harder set in practice every time; who obsesses over details; who always thinks she’s not fast enough; who has kept swimming this season despite an injury that causes her pain, just to help her team.
“I try not to put a lot of pressure on myself,” sophomore butterfly/freestyle specialist Fu said. “I’m someone who gets satisfied very easily.”
When Fu speaks about swimming, it can often seem like she is not quite aware of her own greatness. She won two Ivy League titles her freshman year and holds three individual and five relay program records. For reference, there are 21 events that the swimming and diving team competes in. She is undoubtedly already one of the best swimmers to ever compete for Penn.
As is the case with many of the greats, it’s the small things that set Fu apart. Her boyfriend and junior individual medley specialist Peter Whittington spoke about her attention to detail. Her roommate and sophomore freestyle/breaststroke specialist Amy Qin described how she is 100% present in everything she does. Fu herself mentioned her “delusional” faith that she will win every race.
She doesn’t even remember when she first learned how to swim. The sport has always been a part of her life — at home in Sugar Land, Texas, every community had access to at least one 50-meter pool. Fu started out smaller than that.
“We have a pool in our backyard, and so my parents would always throw me in there, and I would swim in there. And so, I guess I just started from there,” she recalled.
Like any respectable younger sibling, once Fu’s older brother started taking swimming more seriously, she followed along. At first, she tried the less intense summer league, which ignited her love for the sport. Later, she pivoted to club swim, getting a first taste of a more competitive environment.
“I think the easiest way I get motivated is looking at others, because in the end, there’s always someone faster than you, and so I think I’m constantly trying to play catch up,” Fu said about her mindset when competing. “And my goals are to meet … what this person does.”
The same thing applied to college: Once her older brother, senior butterfly/breaststroke specialist Alex Fu, committed to Penn, she started working to achieve the same feat.
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Coach Mike Schnur describes Kayla Fu as “possibly the easiest recruit we’ve ever had.”
“We basically called her on June 15, after sophomore year,” Schnur said. “I called her that morning and said, ‘Are you coming here or not?’ And she was like, ‘Yep.’”
In Fu’s stellar freshman season, one thing quickly became clear — in a sport that is focused on individual performances, she is the biggest team player. She puts pressure on herself to win for her team, not for herself, and even credits her teammates for her success at Ivies last year.
“I got sick on my second day of Ivies, and I really wanted to give up. So I think my team really saved me. They were the ones who encouraged me to come back the next day and still give it a shot,” Fu said.
“Her motto is ‘For the team.’ She definitely puts everyone else before her,” Qin said. “I do think a lot of the pressure she puts is from herself.”
Never has this been more visible than right now. Earlier this season, Fu dislocated her knee. Where most would take the season off to fully recover, she has been pushing through the pain and is competing at this year’s Ivies, which take place Feb. 18-21. Her main goal? Making the top three as a team. She even changed her event lineup for Ivies to maximize the number of points she can collect for the team standings.
“Everything I do is for my team. The stress that I feel is because I want my team to win,” Fu said.
She puts it on her own shoulders to always support and push her teammates. In practice, she will challenge Qin to race her, so that they both continue to improve. Above all, Fu loves watching her teammates succeed.
“I get the same amount of happiness seeing them win as if I was also winning,” Fu said.
Despite her team-first mindset, there is still one individual goal on her mind. This one, too, came from watching someone else. Captain and senior distance freestyle specialist Anna Moehn has qualified for NCAA Division I championships twice in her college career, and after arriving at Penn, the same thing became one of Fu’s goals. This year, a rule change could make this easier than ever before: If swimmers win their conference title and hit the national qualifying time standard, they get an automatic berth to NCAAs.
Still, there is no doubt that the main reason Fu is even swimming at Ivies this year is for the team — and to help it achieve its first top-3 finish since 2022.
“As amazing as she is individually," Whittington said, "she always, never fails to put the team first.”
