After retiring last August, Blake Pieroni is making a return to swimming this upcoming weekend at the Indianapolis Spring Cup.
Pieroni told SwimSwam that there were multiple reasons for the return including “primarily because I love the sport, I miss training with a great group of guys, and I miss pushing myself physically.” He also has the goals of “to train and compete as long as [I] enjoy the sport and give back to the community that gave a lot to me.”
He first made his return to training about 3-4 weeks ago and is only training 4-5 times a week. He still works full time but is back at Indiana University where he went to college and stayed to train as a pro.
Pieroni is entered in both the 50 and 100 freestyles this upcoming weekend in Indianapolis. He is the sixth seed in the 50 free (22.85) and the second seed in the 100 free (48.13).
This will be Pieroni’s first meet since October 2021 when he competed in the World Cup in Doha. He originally planned to compete at USA Swimming International Team Trials in April 2022, but a knee injury he sustained in November 2021 required him to have surgery in March 2022.
Pieroni won his first of three Olympic gold medals in 2016 after swimming in prelims of the US men’s 4×100 freestyle relay.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Pieroni swam in both prelims and finals of the men’s 4×100 free relay, swimming the second leg in finals splitting a 47.58 helping the US finish ahead of Italy. There in Tokyo he also swam in prelims of the men’s 4×100 medley relay that went on to win gold and in prelims of the men’s 4×200 free relay that ended up finishing fourth in finals.
During his college years at Indiana, Pieroni was a six-time Big Ten individual event champion, winning the 100 and 200 frees during his sophomore, junior, and senior years.
Love to see all the positive and supportive comments. Blake is obviously one of the good guys in more ways than one.
Good he didn’t stay away too long. He retired but it turned out to just be a break. He’s been on lots of relays that won medals in WCs and two Olympics.
Now get Phelps back
Some people only need to train 4-5 times per week. Diehl only trains 5-6 times per week and he is already putting up NCAA D1 A final times. I’m excited to see how Pieroni will do!
Pepperoni is back!
Welcome Back!
Haas next? Retirement is just the purest form of taper after all
Cody had mentioned how some of his friends were getting back into swimming on a recent vlog