Alexandre Grand’Pierre, a rising senior at Bowdoin College, will swim for Haiti in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Photo provided by Alexandre Grand’Pierre

Alexandre Grand’Pierre sticks to the same routine before every swim meet.

He stretches and then sits by himself. He shuts his eyes to calm his body and busy mind. About 10 minutes before the rising Bowdoin College senior gets into the pool, he jumps up and down, often with Stan Getz’s jazz or Atlanta hip-hop pulsating through his headphones.

“I’m a competitor at heart,” Grand’Pierre, 21, said. “I try to pump myself up and try to convince myself that I’ll beat the guy next to me. Usually that helps.”

The preparation has served him well throughout his career, and it’s what he’ll turn to in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which gets underway Friday.

Grand’Pierre will represent Haiti when he swims the 100-meter breaststroke in Paris. He is the third member of his family to swim for Haiti in the Olympics, following older sisters Naomy (2016, Rio) and Emilie (2020, Tokyo).

“I remember when my coach said the words, ‘Yeah, it’s solidified, you’re going.’ I just couldn’t believe it,” he said of the moment he learned Paris was certain, which he described as “surreal.”

The Atlanta native and dual citizen of Haiti and the United States is one of seven athletes – including one other swimmer – who will represent Haiti at the Summer Games. He will be joined by his sister Naomy, 27, the Haitian swim team’s travel coach.

Grand’Pierre was named to a universality place on the Haitian team — awarded to athletes from nations with traditionally small delegations — after winning the 100-meter breaststroke race (1:02.39) at the Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships (CCCAN) in Monterrey, Mexico in June.

He holds Haitian national records in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter breaststrokes, as well as the 200 individual medley. His best 100-meter breaststroke time (1:01.85) is also a CCCAN record. Grand’Pierre also holds numerous Bowdoin and New England Small College Athletic Conference records across various distances. He was named an All-American in the 100-meter breaststroke after finishing fifth at the 2024 NCAA Division III national championships.

His long journey to Paris began with childhood swimming lessons.

LEARNING TO SWIM

Growing up in Haiti, Clio Grand’Pierre mourned several family members who had drowned. When the mother of five noticed that her eldest daughter, then in elementary school, struggled to swim at a pool party, she was determined to have her children learn to swim.

The next day, Clio brought Alexandre, then 3, and his siblings to an Atlanta YMCA and enrolled them in swimming lessons. It didn’t take long for them to take to the pool. Naomy, the eldest, soon graduated into swim team practice. Suddenly, swimming fast became the objective.

In the years that followed, the Grand’Pierres emerged as dominant swimmers on big-time stages.

In 2016, Naomy was the first Haitian female ever to swim at the Olympics. In 2020, Emilie became the second. All five siblings swam in college, including four at Bowdoin (older sisters Audree and Emilie, Alexandre and younger brother Raphael).

Alexandre Grand’Pierre was a late bloomer in the sport.

As a child, he suffered from asthma and was one of the smallest kids on the pool deck. Sometimes, he couldn’t make it all the way through practice. Years of swimming strengthened his lung capacity, and the breaststroke — the swim style that offers the most breathing opportunities — became his best event.

Alexandre Grand’Pierre swims for Bowdoin in a meet against Colby College. Photo provided by Bowdoin College/Brian Beard

“If I could tell that young kid shivering behind the blocks 18 years ago that he’d be going to the Olympics, I don’t think I would have believed myself,” he said. “But reality is a crazy thing.”

During the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the Grand’Pierres watched Cullen Jones become the first Black swimmer to break a world record as part of the United States’ 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.

Inspired, the siblings started to dream of competing in the Olympics themselves.

“We never really set too many expectations as a family,” Grand’Pierre said. “Having five kids do the same sport, you’d think it’d be super competitive  and we were competitive – but it was always in a respectful and healthy way. We always knew that sports were fun and it was a great outlet, but it wasn’t everything.”

ON THE MOVE

Even as Grand’Pierre prepares for the world’s largest stage, swimming still isn’t his entire life.

Like many of his peers going into senior year, he’s been working a summer internship.

A double major in computer science and digital computational studies, he’s been interning with the U.S. Department of State at the United Nations in New York. In the job, he’s been working on emerging technologies and the governance of artificial intelligence (AI).

He starts his workday at 8:15 a.m. and walks into the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) chamber to get going on a wide array of tasks. He shadows council members, takes notes and writes summaries. One of the larger projects he’s worked on — the Global Digital Compact, which the U.N. says aims to “outline shared principles for an open, free and secure digital future for all”— is set to be presented at a summit in September.

“Every single day at the U.N. is something new,” he said. “(They’re) long days, but it’s rewarding work.”

After work, he heads back to his apartment to grab swim gear and walks over to a New York University short-course (25-yard) pool. Here, he’ll train for up to three hours, focusing on endurance and stroke technique.

On Saturdays, he heads to a long-course pool (50 yards long), where he focuses, with a speed and race-specific mindset, on the starting blocks and resistance training. He skips the pool on Sundays to run in Central Park.

He left for Paris on Wednesday. He’ll have just a few days to prepare for his event. Preliminary heats for the 100-meter breaststroke begin Saturday.

Alexandre Grand’Pierre, a rising senior at Bowdoin College, will swim the 100-meter breaststroke for Haiti in the 2024 Summer Olympics. Photo provided by Alexandre Grand’Pierre

“Maybe the most impressive thing about (him) is his ability to own the details in his training and racing,” said Bowdoin swim coach Brad Burnham. “He is really his best coach now.”

Added Naomy, his older sister: “Alexandre is a beast when it comes to (the 100-meter breaststroke) race. … At Bowdoin, I think Alexandre has been able to refine his technique. It’s all these little pieces of his training, plus his genetics and natural ability, that just make Alexandre a powerhouse.”

In March, when the collegiate season ended, he and Burnham created an Olympic training road map. Since then, the coach has sent Grand’Pierre daily workouts.

In New York City, those training sessions occasionally catch onlookers’ attention.

“The lifeguards know that I’m training for the Olympics, so they try to give me a lane to myself and not have anyone distract me,” Grand’Pierre said. “But it’s nice to get the off comment by one of the newer faces like, ‘Wow, you’re really fast.’ … I guess they don’t really know that I’m training for the Olympics. They just think I’m hogging a lane or something.”

REPRESENTING HAITI

Grand’Pierre said he never felt pressure to represent Haiti in the Olympics.

Still, he said, “My parents were always incredibly proud of their heritage. I always grew up with a strong sense of the Haitian culture. So, once I got the chance to join the Haitian national team (in 2019), I mean, it was a no-brainer. I was all in.”

He last visited Haiti in 2012. School, training and the country’s political instability have kept him away since.

Haiti has seen a sharp rise in gang violence, particularly in its capital, Port-au-Prince, since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in 2021.

The U.N. estimates that 80% of the city is run by gangs and has reported that 2,500 people died in gang-related incidents in the first three months of 2024.

Grand’Pierre worries for family members who remain in Haiti, but he reminds himself of their resilience.

Of the current instability, he said, “I’m hoping for it to come to an end, and for the people to get a break and to rebuild, especially the youth, and be able to go out and participate in sports or education or whatever their dreams may be.”

For years, the Grand’Pierres worked with other families and swimming organizations to run water safety awareness programs and clinics around Haiti. Those efforts have been on pause.

The turmoil in Haiti also has made it difficult for some of its Olympic athletes to make the trip to Paris.

Alexandre Grand’Pierre stands on the podium during the 2024 Central American and Caribbean Swimming Championships. Photo provided by Bowdoin College

The Miami Herald recently reported that the Haitian Olympic Committee was struggling to support the athletes.

Naomy Grand’Pierre told The Times Record that both swimmers, her brother and 14-year-old Mayah Chouloute from South Florida, were able to secure flights, housing in the Olympic Village and opening ceremony outfits.

“We feel very confident about our ability to get to Paris and to get ready for our races,” said the proud big sister, who recently created a new Instagram profile for Alexandre, to prepare for an influx of new followers.

Even with the political strife in Haiti, Grand’Pierre said he feels “incredibly blessed” to represent his family’s heritage. He said he’s felt the support not just of his family members and his co-workers and the Brunswick swimming community but of Haitians and the diaspora.

“I hope to be an inspiring story for younger generations and give them a role model that they can look up to, given their tough circumstances – that they, too, can compete at the Olympics if they really try,” he said.