Bronze medalist to speak at scholarship banquet

Feb. 7—Natalie Hinds will get a chance to share her life's story when she returns to the Permian Basin as a guest speaker at the Black Cultural Council of Odessa's banquet in February.

The Midland native Olympic swimmer who took home the bronze medal from last year's games in Tokyo will talk about her experience and hopes to inspire the scholars who will be honored at the event. It'll be the second time that Hinds, who is a graduate of Midland High, will be making a public appearance in the Permian Basin. She also came back in October. "I'm really excited," Hinds said in a phone interview. "I was back in Midland in October. It was a good experience with the homecoming and the warm welcome from my city. This will be pretty much the same and I'm looking forward to it. It's a little change in my schedule to go back to my roots and inspire the next generation."

The scholarship banquet, which will be titled "An Evening with the Stars" will take place 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center. Hinds graduated from Midland High in 2012 and attended the University of Florida where she graduated with a major in communications for a bachelor of arts in 2016. After missing out on the 2016 Olympics in Rio, Hinds took a break from the sport before making her return in 2018. She says her speech next month in Odessa will focus on the lessons that she has learned from her comeback in 2018 to now. "I feel like that now I'm just back into the grind of things and just what I learned," Hinds said. "Going to the Olympics was an amazing experience. But I feel like the experience that topped that was just getting there. I think that's one of the biggest lessons that I want to convey. Goals are very important but you also need to pay attention to the journey in which it takes you to get there."

Being big in public speaking, she said she is honored to be able to speak at scholarship banquet. "It's always awesome when people ask me to speak publicly and I love to help others in any way that I can so if I can use my words to help other people, maybe have a leg up on the experiences that they're going to have, I feel like that's something I'm going to look forward to. I'm really excited to honor all the kids who will be receiving this honor and share my story. I think it's a pretty unique story so I feel like the more that hear and if it resonates with them, I'll feel like I've done my job."

The Olympics were originally supposed to take place in 2020 but were pushed back a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the one-year hiatus before the Tokyo games could take place, Hinds said it wasn't too big of a deal to wait for the Olympic time trials, saying that it gave her more time to prepare. "I feel like it was kind of 50/50," Hinds said. "I felt like I was kind of at peace because I didn't think I was ready in 2020 so it was kind of a blessing in disguise. But there were days where I felt lost in terms of 'what if I hold on another year and don't even make the team?' so that was always in the back of my mind but I always came to the conclusion that I literally did everything that I could to make the team and if I made it, I made it and if I didn't, then I gave my all. I took into mindfulness in being able to focus on myself and I feel like that helped me when we got to trials. Everyone was in the same boat. Everyone had an extra year so it's all about how you're going to respond."

However, the wait proved to be worth it as Hinds qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay team last summer. "I feel like that's bigger than a one-sentence answer," Hinds said of her experience in Japan last year. "It was amazing to say the least. It was kind of a dream the whole time but to be able to put the American flag on your cap and be a part of the relay that's representing the whole country, I feel like that's pretty riveting to say the least. I feel like I learned so much. Just going to trials and making the team and throughout the camp, being surrounded by the world's best swimmers and coaches was just an amazing experience. I feel like after taking a break after the Olympics, I feel much more equipped to my training and nutrition and everything else."

She swam in both the prelims and the finals in the relays last year. Her relay team placed fifth overall to qualify for the finals. During her prelims relay, Hinds clocked in the fastest individual time with a split of 53.28 seconds. Her finals relay teammates consisted of Abbey Weitzeil, Simone Manuel and Erika Brown as they swam a time of three minutes and 32.81 seconds which was enough to earn the bronze medal. "I wasn't expecting to come home with a medal so that was a nice cherry on top to a dream season that I had," Hinds said. "It's like when you think you're going to feel a certain way when you get something and you don't feel that way. Getting the medal was a dream but now I think of it as a check point in my career and I know what it took to get that medal. Now, I have to do that plus more to get more and be more efficient with what I'm doing. I don't even have it. It's just a physical thing. All the experiences are in my brain. I think that's most important but it's still cool just to say that I was be able to be on the team to do that because you never know when it's going to happen again. With that extra year, it just means that much more."

10 students from Odessa will be honored at the scholarship banquet including: Korey Bass, Bedric Baty, Eric Jamahr Brooks, Calvione Calicutt, Amaariya Green, Alexis Lampton, Brookeynn Pruitt, Tereia Steward and Kanazeya Williams. "It's a great group of kids," BCCO President Jo Ann Davenport Littleton said. "Some of them have college credits. "It's a gifted group of young people. They're looking forward to the event and to hear Natalie's story."

Each of the students will be receiving scholarships. "Every year, we try to build on the previous year and most of the time, the program basically depends on the students and the speaker," Littleton said. Littleton said she was happy that the BCCO is able to bring in Hinds as the guest speaker. "Her story is one that as a board, we feel like will help these stars in life," Littleton said. "Her story will help all of us in life. It's going to be a great time. We want the whole community to come out and listen to her."

The BCCO has been putting on the scholarship banquet since 1999. "Each year, we've had 10 plus stars that as a board member, you can select the student that you would like to honor," Littleton said. "The criteria is that they're a student from ECISD and that they have a 2.5 GPA and that they're active in their church and active in their school. Each student that we select receives scholarships. Since 1999 we've been giving thousands and thousands dollars to aid these young people as they go off to college." The ticket prices are $50.

It is a black tie event and no tickets will be sold at the door.

Feb. 10 is the deadline to get a ticket. For more information, call 432-853-1344 or 432-212-6700.

If you go

>> What: An Evening with the Stars: Black Cultural Council of Odessa's Scholarship Banquet.

>> When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19 .

>> Where: Odessa Marriott Hotel and Conference Center.

>> Ticket prices: $50 (Deadline is Feb. 10. Tickets won't be sold at the door.)

>> For more information: Call 432-853-1344 or 432-212-6700.