#1/#16 ARIZONA STATE @ #2/#11 CAL
- January 20, 2024
- Spieker Aquatics Complex
- Berkeley, California
- Live Results available on Meet Mobile: “California vs. Arizona State”
- SCY (25 yards)
- Live Recap
Arizona State standout freshman Ilya Kharun had another incredible weekend of racing, clocking a lifetime best of 1:37.9 in the 200 fly (vs Stanford), the #2 swim of all time. Kharun described to SwimSwam what has clicked so well for him since joining Bob Bowman’s team in Tempe.
I wonder if the grueling distance training in high school with Ron is what gave him the base to then fine tune his butterfly and sprint freestyle in college with bowman. Wasn’t he the one that went from like a 1:58 to like a 1:44 his soph year in the 200fly?
Would a USRPT-based swimmer thrive if they got to a bowman-type program?
Why didn’t Lleyton Plattel, who was the next big distance star at 14, not even make NCAAS while swimming with bowman at ASU? I don’t think he even made a pac-12 team…
Either way it’s exciting to see him swim this fast and to see what happens this summer.
“Coach Bob knows what he’s doing and I believe in the training.”
In my opinion, there is very little besides that which matters. A swimmer who trusts their coach is a danger to the competition.
Look at the little bunny go, flourishing in this new environment. I heard his motto is bunyun over munyun!
im relatively indifferent but Max Williamson should seriously consider ASU
I get it’s nowhere near UVA academically but ASU would turn him into an absolute animal and we already know he’ll never reach his ceiling under Desorbo
I get the feeling his original idea was Texas, but that was before Eddie announced his retirement. I don’t think he’s fully set in stone for UVA like Hellman is, though.
Max would’ve easily been sub 1:30/1:45 2 freer at Texas. I can’t speak on his other events but Texas does a phenomenal job with mid D free
I guess he wasn’t a fan of Ron’s training for him
Crazy because he did so well with it
1:52 low this summer from him
Do you think that wins gold?👀 (Not implying anything, just genuinely curious)
Either way, gonna be such a fun race
Such a hard question this far out, especially w Milak being an unknown. I also never know about Leon because he does breast stroke all year long then comes out of no where w the 2 fly at champ meets. Right now I’ll say Marchand for gold, Kharun for Silver, Heilman out touching Honda for bronze with a sick final 50
I like this answer. I know people are high on Milak if he comes back, but I just don’t see him medaling.
No matter how much work you’ve put in, it’s really hard to get on top of the podium and it seems like mentally he’s been out of it for a while now. No shade toward him, I completely sympathize with his position. I’m just not thinking he will medal.
If Milak resumed swimming earlier this month and puts 7 months of work into it, he’ll have a shot. Might fare better in the 100 depending on how fit he’s been in the gym.
Sure, but I don’t think training is Milak’s problem. I think mentally, he hasn’t had a break in years and training probably just makes it worse.
We’ve seen several cases of athletes doing it all (Olympic title, world title, world record), and then trying to proceed with ‘business as usual’, only to realize they have no motivation because they’ve accomplished everything that there is to accomplish. I think the pandemic only made this worse.
From reports we’ve put out, it sounds like Milak has still not had proper time top fully reset mentally after hitting every target the sport has to offer.
“From reports we’ve put out, it sounds like Milak has still not had proper time top fully reset mentally after hitting every target the sport has to offer.”
Right after 2022 Budapest World Championship he should have taken a complete 1 year break from swimming, do anything else he love to do but swimming.
And then come back with refreshed spirit and renewed vigor and motivation.
I partly blame Hungarian swimming federation for not providing good support.
Training without motivation is not effective.
Does Milak still have strong motivation?
I agree with you Coleman.
Comeback could be super successful if the swimmer has extra motivation and something to prove, just like Cameron McEvoy.
We know Milak has nothing to prove. And a big question remains about his motivation.
Ilya has a great attitude! Swimmers who want to reach the top should listen to him!
This kid has really grown with his new training. Wonder how far he’d be right now if his previous training wasn’t one size fits all. Excited to see what he does this season in college and for years to come!
Good swim teams give their athletes a good balance of everything. From what I know his training was balanced from his fly to IM. It was obvious his fly is his strength. You’ll never know what he could have done with his club team. He was always improving just as fast there also. It’s a shame they ask him a question about one training vs another. He obviously doesn’t know what to say so he just says what you all want to hear. So, he says all he did was focus on the mile and if that was true, he wouldn’t be very good at everything else. Don’t make people dumber by saying one size fits all. We all know… Read more »
You know nothing. Good swim teams give their athletes a good balance of everything. Great swim teams, especially those with an elite group of only 7-10 swimmers, give each athlete what they need, not just what the coach needs or knows, and not only what the coach’s star needs.
Not sure how you know exactly what type of practices he was given at his club team, but what it seems he was given sets that didn’t truly benefit him and probably others is his small group.
If SAND is truly an elite team then Ron and the rest of coaches would be creating workouts that are not specific to one group of kids or one kid and be focused on long distances and even open water. Elite clubs provide opportunities for all their kids not only focus on one or two. There are elite clubs out there – sounds like SAND has some work to do to be one of them.