Michael Andrew of Team USA did the improbable: he set a precise goal time in the 50m freestyle, 21.75, and hit it on the nose. Not once, but twice. Swimming at the FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Indianapolis on Friday, Andrew blasted a 21.75 in heats to match his goal to the millisecond. He also destroyed both the Championship Record and the World Junior Record with the swim, becoming the first FINA-defined 18-and-under to break the 22-second barrier since FINA has been keeping track of World Junior Records. Yu Hexin had held the 50 free record with 22.00 since 2014. Later that day, Andrew went 21.79 in his semifinal. In the final on Saturday, Andrew stopped the clock at 21.75 for a second time, tying his day-old CR and WJR and taking home the gold medal.
“After going 22.03 [at Nationals], the goal was to get under 21.97, because that would make the National Team. I ended up putting a crazy time out there, saying, ‘I believe I can go 21.75.’ I wrote it down on paper and put it on top of my bed, in my bathroom, in my office; I put it everywhere around the house just so I could always see it, to the point where it became part of the house. It wasn’t something that stood out because it was something I believed so much in. It’s crazy how it worked out. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve set a goal time and achieved it to a tee. So that was pretty cool.”
Andrew also broke World Junior Records in the 50m backstroke and 50m butterfly on Saturday. His path to the backstroke WJR was eerily similar to that of the freestyle. After taking a chunk out of Kliment Kolesnikov’s 24.94 world mark in heats on Friday with 24.63, he went 24.67 in semis later that night, and then 24.63 on Saturday in another gold-medal performance.
“My goal [in the back] was just to get under 24.94. Coming into the meet I knew that there would be a lot of people wanting to see what I could do in my last big junior meet. I felt like I put a bit of pressure on myself in the first two days and I really wanted to perform amazingly. I knew I had the 50s coming up and we trained with a focus on that. My goals were to break Junior World Records, swim fast, and win golds.”
In the 50 fly, Andrew knocked down the CR in heats on Saturday morning with 23.48, then came back to take .01 off Evgeny Sedov’s 23.28 WJR in semis that evening with 23.27.
“I journaled my goal times for all of my events, but the only one I put on paper to be seen everywhere was the 50 free. I think it was because I felt it was the most powerful [event]. If I could really achieve that time, then the rewards would be much larger: making the National Team, being in a really good spot, further solidifying my professional status.”
And what has been the best part of the last 24 hours, with three World Junior Records in his pocket?
“The Team USA staff and all the athletes. I am so grateful to them, and to the fans. Every time I got on the blocks they cheered louder and louder. It felt like everyone was racing with me. It was a pretty special moment.”
Very quick times. I’d be interested to know what happened in the 200IM.
Joke’s on Michael. I just wrote ‘20.75’ on papers and posted them all around my house.
Being listening for a while and new to site. Cant believe some of the comments here. Needs a real coach, different training ect.
18 years old
50 fFree 21.75 50 Back 24.63 50 Fly 23.37 50 Breast Probally 27.2
How many of you even personally know, much less ever coached any won that fast?
I have 3 kids that swim, Oldest in her 2nd year college division 1 but no powerhouse school. 100 Bk 53.94 200 Back 1:57.8 Good times that im proud of but she knows she has no future in swimming.
All thought her clubs swimming she had coaches who did massive yards that really only help a couple kids here and there. Really just burned out… Read more »
Most people don’t know nor have they coached anyone that fast simply because world class athletes are extremely rare. But let’s face it, there have been better male swimmers at the same age, for example, Phelps and Thorpe. Yes, swimmers of that caliber are rare, but MA has an incredible amount of talent, and some of us believe that he could be on par with the greatest swimmers in history if he did a little bit more of conventional training. Unfortunately, only the 50 free among all the 50 events is an Olympic event. He is great in all strokes for the 50’s, and is a great 100 breastroker to boot. With a little bit more endurance training, I think… Read more »
I see nothing wrong with specializing in the 50s of strokes, except that you get only one shot at making the Olympic team, and in the most unpredictable of races.
But also the event with the longest longevity in the sport (Torres, Ervin).
Just a reminder that Dressel won the 50 free at NCAAs as a freshman, and didn’t even final in the 100. He couldn’t even swim up to a 100 SCY at that point. People universally doubted that he could even do a legit 100 LCM free, and were shocked he made the Olympic team in that instead of the 50. And now look where we are. A lot can happen in a short time at that age. You can’t teach raw speed, just like you can’t teach height in basketball.
That’s right. Endurance develops 23x faster than speed. MA was born with the speed.
In the swim training advocated by Brent Rushall, I’ve read that to train for the longer distances you do sets like all out 75s and 100s, instead of all out 25s (for 50s).
If MA starts doing that, he’ll be a monster in the 100s.
Since you are comparing him to Caeleb, did the Dressels build their entire family lives, including their own careers, around their kid’s swim career? Did they proclaim their son a heavenly gift to the swim world?
Don’t know, but he sure wrote a lot of Biblical passages on his face when he was that age.
Do you not see a difference between being religious and proclaiming that your offspring is a gift to the swim world? If anybody can say that without being completely laughed at, it would be Debbie Phelps, but I don’t think she did.
I’m no fan of their approach. But, they have managed to raise a poised, gracious, and humble young man, who doesn’t make excuses when he loses (see Schooling), but just gets back up on the blocks and tries again. Gotta give them points for that.
You’re right, except those SCM times were SCY. 2014 and 2015 he was 48.9+. So even after his full year at Florida, he was still comparatively much weaker in his 100 than his 50.
How much could he benefit from weight training too? Add some bulk to the string bean body.
If MA completes the clean sweep of all four of the 50m events it would be a remarkable achievement. There’s also a chance he walks away with the WJR in all four, though Martinenghi will be the favourite in the 50BR.
Unlikely based on the 100 breast
MA was 50.5 with a flying start on the 400 free relay. For this meet, there is zero translation between MA’s 50’s and his 100’s (and especially his 200 IM). He dropped 3/10’s in his 50 free just since World trials. He’ll be around 27.0 in the 50 breast. Still should lose to Martinenghi, but it’ll be close.
the 50’s were amazing. 50 free could certainly get him to his parent’ life-long quest of an olympics spot.
50 back and fly will get him a blue ribbon on the Lawrence Lionfish neighborhood swim team relay squad
He’s getting to the point where he might make some decent money on the World Cup. By 2017 Worlds, he’s looking to be a potential multi-medalist. I don’t think the 50s (outside of free) should be in the Olympics because swimming already offers enough medals to sprinters, but let’s not pretend like there’s no prestige in the 50s.
Pretty sure it’s MA’s quest, too. Fine to hit on his parents, but don’t dismiss the fact that he did the work and he got the results.
Congrats. Great swim. One statement in the article is wrong and goes to the insanity of the definition of juniors. He is not the first 18 and under to break 22 in the 50 free since WJRs were established. His time is not a 17-18 NAG record. Caleb Dressel holds that at 21.5 in 2015. Not sure when his b-day is but presumably he turned 19 before Dec 31st of that year. So MA is the first to break 22 when he was still 18 or under at the end of the year, a slightly different statement. I know folks will defend the definitions but I don’t agree with the definitions or how they did not go back in history… Read more »
His swim was on par with Dressel since he couldn’t stand up with even his 2015 start.
Not sure of your point. MAs swim was simply amazing. If your point is that his in the water speed was the same or better than Caleb’s I think that is a valid point to discuss. If the point is that the swim is in the same neighborhood as Calebs, another valid point. But to be blunt, and again this is not to take away from MA, I am not one of his detractors, but in swimming we measure things from the start to the finish and in that measurement, Caleb’s swim was better by 0.22. Caleb’s start is amazing and has only gotten better but that is part of the swim.
Yeah, technically not a NAG. I’m sure he’s not too upset about being second to Caeleb Dressel, though. That’s not a bad place to be.
I’m interested to see if this means he can break 19 this fall in yards. I would assume so.
Yeah being 21.7 long course means he should be under 19. He has improved 5 tenths this summer in aggregate so if he is anything close short course and continues to improve, I could see an 18.5 short course.yards
But since he’s not swimming in college, yards times are somewhat irrelevant to him right now. Being a pro, only times in meters really count, if you want to claim that you’re the best in the world.
I have to disagree. They absolutely are relevant Yes, we are all aware that SCY times do not count toward world rankings, but they are still a metric of improvement. Beyond that, I’m sure you know that a significant portion of meets in the US during the fall, winter, and spring are done in a yards format. It may not be the purpose of their season, but plenty of pros do SCY meets every year just for sheer racing experience (plus the Pro-Am, 50 free shootouts, and other yards meets offering prize money). Why shouldn’t Michael Andrew?
And since he is likely to be doing some short course racing this year, I’m saying I hope he breaks 19 in the… Read more »