Even With Worlds Qualification Uncertain, Henry McFadden Made Big Strides At Nationals

INDIANAPOLIS—Just a week ago, Henry McFadden graduated from Haddonfield High School. Now, he could possibly qualify for the 2023 U.S. World Championships team.

In the final of the men’s 200 freestyle at the 2023 U.S. National Championships, the 17-year-old Stanford commit finished sixth overall with a time of 1:47.02. While that doesn’t guarantee him qualification for Worlds, he can go to Fukuoka if enough swimmers qualify for more than one individual event—which will be determined by the end of this meet.

“It’s stressful, and it’s too complicated for me to think about,” McFadden told SwimSwam regarding the Worlds selection procedure. “So I’ve pretty much given up, and we’ll see how things fall. You never know how the team’s going to shape out to be.”

• Check out SwimSwam’s breakdown of the World Championships selection procedure here.

Handling Pressure

McFadden first broke out in long course at the Pro Swim Series in Knoxville this January. At that meet, he ran down Kieran Smith, Robin Hanson, and Gabriel Jett on his last 50 to win the 200 free in a time of 1:47.23, making him the sixth-fastest American of all-time in the boys’ 17-18 age group.

It was that performance that made McFadden realize he had a shot to make the World Championship team. All of a sudden, he was a newcomer contending with a field of seasoned Olympians and World Championship team members that were older, faster, and had much more experience than him on the biggest stage—a very pressure-inducing situation.

However, a combination of a positive mindset and growth from past experiences helped McFadden deal with the expectation that came with his position as a favorite.

“After my Pro Series swim, looking at making Worlds was pretty obvious,” McFadden said. “I think you’ve just gotta stand up and race these guys. They’re really fast, but you’ve gotta forget about time and just try to beat them.”

Last summer, McFadden was in a similar situation at the top. He had set a personal best of 1:48.27 at Junior Nationals by dropping over a second, but then added significant time at Junior Pan Pacs three weeks later to go 1:49.01 and miss the ‘A’ final.

It was difficult for McFadden to maintain momentum after his first big drop because he was training alone. This time around though, it was not a problem. In addition to training with his whole team at his club, the Jersey Wahoos, he also had club teammates Audrey Derivaux and Maddie Waggoner competing with him at Trials.

“Last year, there was only me training for three weeks, so it was kind of isolated,” McFadden said. “But [at Trials] I had my whole team around me, so it was just a lot more enjoyable.

“The most fun part about training is being with your teammates; they just make practice a lot more fun and enjoyable and help me do better.”

Furthermore, a situation at the Meet of Champions (the high school state championship for swimmers in New Jersey, called MOCs for short) taught McFadden how to deal with unknowns.

In the prelims at MOCs, McFadden clocked a new best time of 1:32.97 to become just the fourth high schooler to get under 1:33 in a 200-yard free. Then, right before his finals race, there was a long delay that was caused by the scoreboard breaking.

“I was jumping around the whole time [during the delay] and it wastes energy,” McFadden says. “Things happen and you can’t control that, and you’ve just got to learn from it.”

McFadden didn’t have a bad finals swim at MOCs—he added 0.04 seconds but still won the state title by five seconds. But after the meet, his coach told him about a similar situation that happened before a men’s 50 free heat at the 2023 NCAA Championships, and how Virginia Tech swimmer Youssef Ramadan had just sat down when the delay was called.

McFadden and his coach then realized that he needed to emulate Ramadan the next time a situation like his 200 free high school state final happened, as it conserved energy.

“You need to know how to control yourself and not let things control what you’re gonna do,” McFadden said.

Race Strategy

Similar to his Worlds qualification scenario, McFadden cut it close in his 200 free swims.

In prelims, he set a best time of 1:46.94 to finish eighth overall and sneak into the ‘A’ final by 0.03 seconds. Even though he was eventually moved up to the seventh seed due to Carson Foster‘s scratch, he would have still been out had he swum 12 one-hundredths slower. Then, in the final, he secured sixth place by just 0.05 seconds.

In both prelims and finals, McFadden used his back half to pull ahead. He was the only swimmer with a sub-27 final 50 during prelims. In the final, he was eighth at the 100-meter mark but split 27.45/26.91 on his last 100 to run down Zane Grothe and Coby Carrozza and finish sixth.

Coming from behind isn’t stressful for McFadden, even with his inexperience on the biggest stage of swimming. In fact, it’s what he’s used to, as his club training is designed to help with his closing speed—though he wishes he could take his race out faster.

“I think it’s fun,” McFadden said of closing fast. “I think I’d rather be on the running-down side of it than the getting run-down side of swimming. You just have a lot of momentum. But I’m actually trying to get out faster.”

“(Back-halving) is kind of how we train—we do a lot of 50s at 200 pace (in practice).”

Even if McFadden doesn’t go to Worlds, he will be able to swim at the 2023 World Junior Championships. Last year, his best time (at that point) would have won bronze at Junior Pan Pacs. This year, with more experience prepping for a big meet, he should be one of the favorites to win gold at the World Juniors.

Regardless of where McFadden will be this summer, his experiences on the highest level of swimming will continue to develop him as an athlete—he’s already made big progress and doesn’t plan to stop.