It is hard to miss Team USA at any major sporting event, given their loud chants, sizable delegation and big personalities. But one student-athlete stands out for another bold move, as she is the only female swimmer at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games to swim without a cap, with a bald head.
FISU Games 400m individual medley champion Leah Geneva Hayes chooses not to wear a swim cap – or a wig or hat when out of the pool – as the 19-year-old aims to raise awareness and be the role model she never had for others suffering with the disease alopecia areata.
“I meet swimmers, little girls with alopecia,” Hayes told the FISU Games News Service. “I do a little bit of youth mentoring for kids with alopecia because it’s something I didn’t have as a kid and really realised that I wanted that.
“I was, like, ‘I may as well make myself a resource and share my experience’. I feel such a strong connection and bond with the girls that have alopecia. I’m, like, ‘whoa we’re twins’.”
Rapid hair-loss
A diagnosis with the rarest form, alopecia universalis, when she was about six years old meant Hayes would lose hair all over her body and, in the past year, has started losing her eyelashes.
“I don’t even remember when I was diagnosed, it’s been like a million years, like six to eight (years old),” she said. “I lost all my hair (on my head) in three months.”
“I wore a wig for the first four years because I wasn’t sure how people would react to it and I wasn’t comfortable within myself.
“After that, for four or five years, I was, like: ‘I’m not doing this any more. This is too hard to put a wig on, this isn’t who I am, people are just going to have to get who I am and deal with it.’”
Hayes, who also took gold in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay on Thursday, has found that in helping others she has helped herself, and not just when it comes to swimming.
“When people come up to me and tell me that what I’m doing and just being myself and showing that I have alopecia has helped them, honestly, it moves me more than anything in this sport and in my life.”
Olympic influence
After coming from behind, Hayes dominated by almost four seconds in the final of the 400m individual medley on Friday.
Such a performance is not surprising given the calibre of her training partners at the University of Virginia: Olympic silver medallists Katie Grimes, Claire Curzan and Alex Walsh, along with Alex’s younger sister Gretchen, who won two gold and two silver medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“Honestly the entire team are superstars,” Hayes said.
“Being around them is so humbling but also, knowing them personally, all of these amazing athletes are just human too. And seeing how hard they work I think has been one of the things that has helped me the most.
“It shows that even the greatest of athletes have days where they aren’t feeling the best but they put in the best effort they can and that’s why they’re that good.”
Inspiring a habit
Going by her performances so far Hayes has certainly brought that philosophy to Rhine-Ruhr 2025, especially having started a new habit on the day of her gold medal-winning exploits: listening to motivational podcasts.
“Coming here, I was, like: ‘Everything in my path has led me to this moment. This is my moment, and I’m going to make the most of it.’
“I was nervous, I was really shaking before that (race). But I was like: ‘You know what, I’m not going to let my nerves and my anxiety take over this opportunity.’”
And on her overriding belief in sport and in life?
“You’ve just got to be yourself at the end of the day because that’s just going to be the happiest that you can make yourself. I think being true to who you are is what will give you the best in life.”