I won four medals!
Happy fall everyone!
With the weather turning colder now, I hope you are all staying warm. In October, I competed at the Pan American Games taking place in Santiago, Chile. Since Chile is in the southern hemisphere, it was spring there and the weather was fantastic! I had a great meet and brought some hardware home, but more on that later.
Now that I've gotten another taste of international competition, the focus turns towards Paris 2024. This will be the longest uninterrupted training block of my life, so I am excited to maximize this training as a pro. I won't have a lack of racing though, I have the US Open coming up at the end of November in Greensboro, NC, and then the Pro Swim Series in the early months of 2024.
All-in-all, I am looking forward to this stretch and getting to experience the professional athlete lifestyle!
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What’s Happening?
At the Pan American games, I brought home four medals. I placed bronze in the 200 Butterfly individually, earned two silvers swimming prelims of the 4x100 mixed freestyle relay and anchoring the finals relay of the 4x200 freestyle relay, and I also earned a gold medal for swimming the butterfly leg on prelims of the 4x100 medley relay.
With a relatively short training block between the World University Games (August) and PanAms, I couldn't rest for as long as I would have with more training under my belt. Each day during the meet was an extra day of rest and I got better as the meet went on. I started things off strong with a neck-and-neck race in the 200 fly and built off that with each subsequent swim.
For me, the highlight of this meet was anchoring the 4x200 relay in finals. I love being put in that high pressure position where everyone is counting on you. My split (1:45.67) was over a second faster than my best time and the fastest out of the entire field, but ultimately wasn't enough to win gold.
The whole experience of the meet was fantastic with a great crowd, tough competition, and fantastic teammates. I look forward to seeing all of the people I met at future meets.
Looking Ahead
With the US Open and Pro Swim Series meets next on the docket, I thought it would be fun to do a side quest during the early stages of the training cycle leading up to Olympic Trials next summer.
It is my goal to have the most Olympic Trials cuts during the qualifying period out of any male swimmer. I already have five cuts during the time period (100 Free, 200 Free, 100 Fly, 200 Fly, 100 Back), which puts me in a tie for tenth. At the US Open, I will attempt to add the 400 Free and the 200 Back to that list. Then I will swim the 200 IM and 50 Free at the first Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville in January, in addition to some of my more usual events.
It will be fun to race some events I don't usually swim, so tag along as I try to beat this side quest!
Fun Fact: Sweet Martha's Cookies from the MN State Fair are my favorite cookies!
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