Former Louisville Swimmer Kyle Worrell Shows Off Musical Talent in Adele Cover

As all college athletes know, between training, class, schoolwork, weights, eating, and sleeping, there are negative hours left each week to focus on any kind of extracurricular. Still, some people are able to find a passion outside of the pool to keep them sane through the weekly grind.

For former Louisville swimmer Kyle Worrell, that outlet comes in the form of music. He recently performed a beautiful rendition of Adele’s “When We Were Young” alongside childhood friend Jude Potter:

Kyle swam at Louisville from 2018 – 2022 following in the footsteps of his sister Kelsi Dahlia, an NCAA Champion and Olympic gold medalist. At the 2021 NCAA’s Kyle earned All-American honors finishing 8th as part of the 4×200 freestyle relay.

We reached out to get a little more detail about his background in and passion for music:

1. Have you always had an inclination for music? Or is this a more recent development?

Along with trying different sports growing up, my parents encouraged all of my siblings to try a musical instrument. For whatever reason, I picked up the saxophone for a few years with a middle school jazz band. My brother and I were also in choir, but I didn’t pursue anything further singing wise until college.

2. Did you play music throughout your time in college? If so, how did you find time to practice?

Instruments? Unfortunately no. Singing? If you ask my college coaches and teammates, they would say I found the time to belt it out during swim practice. I often took full advantage of every second I had on the wall. With the repeated pool playlists, there weren’t many songs I didn’t know.

One of my college roommates was also an incredibly talented guitar player so we would jam some evenings. And of course, the car and shower were and still are my go to spots.

But I never really considered doing anything with it until I was connected to who would end up being my college mentor. One of the Louisville sports coaches would host Christian worship nights over the summer for anyone who was still on campus. I attended one evening and I happened to sit near Darian Sanders, who was a staff member with Louisville FCA, and is the most gifted vocalist I know. From there, we connected, chatted about life and music and he was one of the first to really push me out of my comfort zone with it.

We ended up collaborating with some other friends to put on a little worship night on instagram live not too long after that. That was really the first time that I did anything singing wise on video.

(That first worship session can be found deep in the vault on Darian’s instagram if you’re curious.)

3. Who are some of your favorite musical artists?

I could go on forever here. I’m a huge fan of Brandon Lake. Jervis Campbell and Chris Renzema are both such a cool vibe. And I can never go wrong with some Zach Bryan on a long car ride. Oh, and Ben Rector was the first album I bought.

4. Do you feel like music is an outlet that lets you decompress from life stresses? Or is there another motivation behind it?

 I think a little bit of both here. Now, I do a lot of driving for work and I am almost always listening to music while on the road. I love that different songs or genres can transport you to a certain feeling, emotion or even memory.

 The other part of that is that it’s enabled me to meet some really awesome people when moving to new places. I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina shortly after graduation in 2022 and got plugged into a local church. It’s actually the church that Michael Chadwick works at and he’s become a great friend of mine. He connected me with members of the worship team at our church and I have started to lead events with our Young Adults group. Just like what swimming was for me for so long, I’m just trying to use the gifts that God gave me to bring Him the glory.

 Random but I absolutely love when people send me new music or songs I may like!

5. If you could cover any other song, what would it be?

Gratitude by Brandon Lake. Lyrically, the song has meant so much to me in what has been so much life change in the last few years post swimming. This song for me is a great reminder to continue to be thankful for where I am at and the people I have in my life.

I do want to add one thing with the video itself. All the credit there goes my good friends Jude Potter, who sang and played keys, and his wife, Kenzie, who did all the videography. They are such talented and genuine people. Go check out his YouTube channel!

I guess we’ll see what’s next!