200 breaststroke specialist and Olympian Micah Sumrall relocated to Gamecock Aquatics in June 2020, she told SwimSwam today, after a couple of years coaching and training with Chattahoochee Gold in Georgia.
Gamecock Aquatics trains out of the University of South Carolina, where Sumrall says that the post-grad group was the main draw.
“I wanted teammates closer to my age,” she said, adding that Gamecock coach Kevin Swander is an old teammate of hers. “A few of the swimmers I coached in Woodstock would be moving into the group I trained with, and that was not really a dynamic I wanted to explore.”
Swander was an Olympic Trials finalist, National Team-er and breaststroke specialist when he swam competitively, and the Gamecock pro group is made up of several breaststrokers, including former Drexel standout Rachel Bernhardt, former Loyola (MD) standout Ben Cono, South Carolina alum Itay Goldfaden, and veteran Liz Roberts.
Sumrall, who competed earlier this month at the Pro Swim Series’ second San Antonio stop of the year, made her post-2016 Trials comeback with Chattahoochee Gold. After representing Team USA for the 2012 London Olympics, Sumrall missed the team in 2016, then took a break from the sport. She said in 2018 that she was inspired by the swimmers she was coaching at Chattahoochee Gold to get back into the water, and that year, she won the 200 breast at U.S. Nationals.
Sumrall’s win at Nationals punched her ticket to the 2018 Pan Pacs, where she’d win the 200 breast gold medal, while she competed at 2019 Worlds, too, making it to the 200 breast semifinals.
Now a contender to make the Olympic team in the 200 breast for the 2021 Tokyo Games, Sumrall ranks fifth among Americans in the event this season with a 2:27.64 from 9 days ago at the PSS – San Antonio.