If you’re a fan of sprinting (and who isn’t), this should get you excited. While on tour at the 2017 FINA World Cup Series at the Singapore stop, American junior star Michael Andrew, along with Australian sister Cate and Bronte Campbell got together to host a swim camp at the Nexus International School.
The 18-year old Andrew is the holder of 6 World Junior Records, including the long course 50s in freestyle, backstroke, and butterfly (and formerly held the 50 breaststroke as well). He also won World Junior titles in the 50 free, back, and fly this summer.
The Campbell sisters are among the most successful swimming siblings in history. Between the two of them, they own 6 Olympic medals (3 gold) and 17 World Championships medals. Cate, the older of the two sisters, is the current World Record holder in the 100 short course meters freestyle, and for 1 year and 3 weeks, until July 2017, was the World Record holder in the 100 long course meters freestyle as well.
While Cate and Bronte instructed from the deck, Andrew spent time watching from in the water as the trio worked with junior swimmers of all ages.
Below, Andrew chronicled the clinic in a YouTube video:
Campbells are a class act 🙂
the article is about 3 swimmers and all the comments are on just one of them. thanks for being the only unique comment. they are indeed classy.
Michael Andrew needs to go to a clinic himself, his technique for freestyle sucks. It’s good for a 50, but that’s all. He needs to change it if he wants to make 2020 in the IM
Andrew is a fabulous talent & to be fair he’s accomplished some great things thus far. I can’t think of a single male 18 year-old big NCAA recruit in the last decade who was slighted for not accomplishing more in his teens. Not Dressel, not Murphy when he missed making the Olympic team in 2012, not Seliskar, etc. Andrew is still young, although that thread is getting bare considering he is a pro & has no focus beyond the pool for his future income.
My negatives — however unfair — are the absurd focus on 50s. The peak of Andrew’s career will include the 2020 and the 2024 Olympics. The only 50 worth anything is free & that’s only 2… Read more »
Send him 3 months with the freestyle magical coach Fabrice Pellerin (Muffat, Agnel, Friis, Bonnet) and you will see MA improve a lot his freestyle technique. And while he’s in France he spends 3 more months training with Philippe Lucas and he will be able to swim something above 50 meters.
But maybe he’s very pleased to be a 50-meter specialist. That’s not a shame at all. 🙂
Worth noting we see MA at a lot more meets in Europe & Asia than other Americans. As far as finances go, he can make a *lot* of money globe-trotting specialising in 50s, winning multiple events at meets and racking up prize money bonuses. I wouldn’t worry about his income in that regard.
His international career prospects are the real conundrum – As others have pointed out, no medals are handed out for being good at all the 50s. He is very young though, and the speed of a natural sprinter is something hard work can’t buy… On the contrary, when you have raw sprint speed, hard work and emphasis on technique can often buy you a pretty decent 100… Read more »