Meet Jimmy Feigen, who will be swimming at his 2nd Olympics. Feigen grew up in San Antonio, Texas, and swam collegiately for the University of Texas. He cites traveling as one of his biggest hobbies, saying that it’s even gotten him in trouble with his coaching staff before. Feigen loves swimming, and says that he owes so much in his life to the sport– it’s taught him many valuable lessons. In Rio, Feigen has been named as a member of the men’s 4×100 free relay, a relay that is expected to contend for the gold medal.
From his SwimSwam bio:
Feigen held the high school national record in the 100-yard freestyle (43.05) and the 50-yard freestyle (19.49), and was the Texas UIL Class 5A state champion in the 50-yard freestyle from 2006–08. Feigen earned the National Boys’ High School Swimmer of the Year in 2008 and was recruited to attend the University of Texas located in Austin, Texas.
In 2012, Feigen returned to Omaha, Neb. to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials for a chance to represent the Stars and Stripes in London, England. Feigen again swam the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter freestyle, making his first U.S. Olympic team by finishing fifth in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 48.84 seconds. By finishing in the top six of this event, Feigen qualified to swim in the 4×100-meter freestyle as a member of the U.S. relay team. Although his final time was faster than his swim in the heats (49.29), it was significantly slower than what he posted in the semifinals (48.48). In the 50-meter freestyle, Feigen finished fifth with a time of 21.93 seconds.
Once Feigen arrived in London, England for the Olympic Games, he earned a silver medal while swimming with Matt Grevers, Ricky Berens and Jason Lezak in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter freestyle relay. Feigen swam the lead off leg and recorded a time of 48.49 seconds.
Feigen had a repeat performance in the 100 meter freestyle from four years ago [at the Olympic Trials]. He secured a spot on the 400 meter freestyle relay in Rio with a 5th place finish again.
HIs tour of the training facilities was great. Very natural with a camera and funny. Love to see clips of him out of the pool again. Oh, and of course, go fast in Rio!
Great swimmer he’s in my top 3 for biggest impact freshmen ever. He got second in the 100 and 50 free his freshmen year.
He is such a class act I love it, his humor is something that is so needed on an Olympic Team, what a fun relay that must be
Yep. Didn’t know too much about him when we had him visit our local club to do an Olympian swim clinic a few years back, but he was a very funny, genuine guy and a hit with the kids. Happy to see him achieve continued success.
Go get ’em “Silver Medal Jimmy”!
We’d love a video tour of the Rio facility. (Your first video of the SA pool was a boffo smash.)
He’ll have plenty of time because that Silver medal is a distant memory and he’ll have a very light load this time around.