As reported by SwimSwam June 11th, 2013: Late Sunday evening, fourteen year old swimming phenom, Michael Andrew, signed his first endorsement deal, officially making him the youngest swimmer in United States history to turn professional.
Andrew hasn’t been fourteen long. His birthday was April 18th, and just last weekend in Iowa City he became the fastest 13-14 year old in the 50 long course meter freestyle in American history with a 23.47. That’s the 11th National Age Group (NAG) Record he holds, and he’s broken 32 NAG Records since he started making waves in the pool.
Michael Andrew, @SwimmerMichael, Twitter Profile Pic
Andrew’s 50 free time ranks him 59th in the nation among all elite males. A few female swimmers, similar in age, rank higher, but women have historically developed faster than men in the sport of swimming. It’s highly unusual for boys to crack the top 60 in the country at 14 years old. The next-closest ranked 14-year-old boy is #167.
The young swimmer might be one of the best 14-year old athletes in the history of the sport, but he’s also been one of the most discussed. His product endorsement, the youngest ever signed by an American swimmer, will only serve to further increase the buzz, mystique, and hype surrounding the talented young swimmer.
You can follow Michael Andrew on Twitter here.
Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist from the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. He is also the co-founder of SwimSwam. This video series is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com.
Michael needs to start focusing more on his accomplishments in swimming vs the specific times he needs to make. Michael needs to give himself more credit for what he has done, and start getting use to “I” instead of “we”. His father is his coach, not the one swimming.
I have heard that Michael plans on representing Australia in any Olympic competition – so he will be going up against US boys
JUSTSWIM – I believe he’s Eligible for either Australia or South Africa, but every conversation I’ve ever had with the family is that the plan is for Michael to compete for the US
Given that Braden is probably the only one commenting on this story that has actually spoke with the family, I’m going to lean in that direction with Andrew representing the US:)
You never know with these athletes that are eligible to represent other countries. Some go with the US because they are the power house of world swimming, but it’s typically easier to make an Olympic team for any other country than the US. Mihail (Mike) Alexandrov for example could have had a much easier time making the Bulgarian team in 2012 as he did in 2004 and 2008, but chose to represent the USA and lost out that year.
“Iconic” swimmer, Mel? Really?
The first who criticize Michael Andrew now will also be the first to support him in front of their televisions if he is in an olympic final in 2016 or in 2020!
Great video! The more I see of this kid the more I like him. I have no problem whatsoever of him going professional and I also have no problem with the sponsorship. I’m not sure why people are disappointed in him going pro, but it’s undoubtedly one of two reasons:
-They are resentful that someone has tried to make a go of it in a non-traditional way and forgo swimming competitively at the high school and college level and undergoing a different training program. Personally I feel if colleges don’t switch over from SCY to SCM or LCM I would rather see top talent swim for clubs than colleges. I think Olympic caliber swimmers would improve much quicker not swimming… Read more »
Ugh, I’m so conflicted on this whole thing. Some things are great! – race-pace training, stickin’ it to the NCAA and goin’ pro – and some things, not so great – all this publicity stuff, weird company he signed with and goin’ pro after having accomplished relatively little i/r/t being an actual pro.
Gah.
Pulling technique is very strange, probably a big part of why he starts off slow. But his finish was amazing! He takes his last breath and absolutely hammers it to the wall. Great kick.
Michael is a great swimmer and has a good chance to continue this success; but I’m still amazed by the decision to go pro. Maybe at some point “they” will decide to do some more training with other elite athletes. Can you imagine this kid going head to head with the Bolles group in practice?
Thought it was pretty good. Don’t really understand the scuttlebutt. It’s a very interesting scenario and I’m glad we got to see more. GMM and Swimswam can do a piece on anyone they see fit, no pun intended.
So we are going to criticize improved production ideas to make interview/pieces more interesting?
What makes Olympic coverage the best coverage is not the swimming, it’s the extras…just go with it people and leave your bias for this kid out of it (I’m not personally in favor of the pro move myself).
On a side note, does this kids profile pic resemble spitz?