14-year old professional swimmer Michael Andrew is taking on a rare summer yards meet this weekend in Indiana, with the original plan being to pick up a few swims on the way home from the World Championship Trials.
While Andrew didn’t end up getting his Trials cut in the 100 meter butterfly, he swam the 100 yard butterfly on Sunday and put up a 48.98, which ties the National Age Group Record held by Asphalt Green swimmer Michael Domagala.
Domagala did his swim in 2010, and is now set to begin his first season at USC next year as a top-10 national recruit in the fall.
For Andrew, this is his second National Age Group Record as a 13-14, and the 33rd record-breaking swim of his career. Earlier this season, he broke the 50 long course meters freestyle in the 50 free.
Andrew has a lot more yards swimming to go before he ages up; his birthday comes in the spring, at the end of the short course season. Most of this summer will be focused on long course swimming, where he’s a second-and-a-half from the National Age Group Record held by Justin Lynch. Lynch was a standout junior performer at the World Championship Trials this past week.
I don’t disagree with the idea of him being able to sell suits…though he doesnt really even have a team to sell them to. And with the new age of swim reporting going on (much of it thanks to websites like this), people like me (a 29 year old masters swimmer in CA) know all about the accomplishments of a 14 year old age grouper 100’s of miles away.
Michael Andrew is not sponsored by any swimsuit company, yet.
He is sponsored by supplement company.
The way that Michael Andrew trains is very similar to the type of training Stefan Nystrand of Sweden has been doing for the last couple of years. His trainings has “only” been a warm-up and one all out race for Stefan 50 or 100 freestyle and then swim-out..
I don’t know if Stefan did this kind of training when he was younger,but he was pretty succsesfull with it atleast with the suits, he held both the 50 and 100 freestyle records in short cours.
I’m sorry if i have bad language, it’s not my first language 😉
That’s great info Sondre. I think Nystrand shows why this training could be great for swimming. It could theoretically save the bodies of older swimmers, and if it works, allow more to train into their 30’s healthfully.
Yes, but with Nystrand we talk about a sprinter. Mr Andrew also swims the 400 IM. Can it work with that event?
Nystrand’s training sessions is never more than 3000 meters and for the most part under that. That is what i have heard from coaches being involved with the Swedish national team and his club/team.
But did Nystrand also did this short yardage type of training?
Without any aerobic base training?
That i do not know, it’s quite possible he did some aerobic dry-land workouts instead of swimming long. All i know is that his swimming practices where like this for most of his proffesional swimming carrear atleast.
All this hype on young kids, but its still the “old guys” at the top of the heap. Grevers, Lochte, Ervin, even Adrian (who is on the young end of older swimmers) continue to push the limits and win. More power to young Andrew, but as far as a pro – call me when he beats someone of the above caliber at a major meet.
I think the mistake that people make is to assume that being the best in the country is the only (or even the best) way to sell suits.
The reality is that suit companies make as much, if not more, money from what goes on at the local level. I guarantee you that Michael Andrew’s endorsement will sell a lot more suits, caps, and goggles through the Missouri, Kansas, Iowa corn-belt than a whole lot of Trials finalists would do with an endorsement aimed at the entire country.
The suit companies know it, too. Go to your local club team. If the team ‘star’ wears a Speedo tech suit or an Arena tech suit or an Engine tech suit, I’d… Read more »
What does he still do in yards at the end June?
People keep focusing on his 30 some-odd records. He holds only 12 records currently across the various ages — no doubt impressive. I believe many more will be falling with the kids coming up today that are training harder and faster than previous generations. These are not 6’4″ kids either, but skilled normal size swimmers working their butts of every day.
It’s interesting to note that he is excelling at yard events that he won’t even be able to compete in collegiately due to his professional status. Age Group Swimmers that are 10, 11, 12, 13, etc. that are not 6′ 4″, are breaking Meter Records he wasn’t able to touch. Mark my words: THOSE kids are the future… Read more »
Good insight, I agree. For Andrew to train in and for yards is a waste of time, unless the only thing he’s shooting for is NAG records. Any major event he has left to swim in his life will be LCM.
I agree.
Now, will Andrew break 14 yo WR of 22.73 by Darren Lim?
I think Mr. Andrew should have considered turning pro if, let’s say, went a time that would’ve WON NCAA’s at age 17, made world champ trials, or done anything of huge significance to USA Swimming. For example, Ben Ho out of PEAK went a 57.3 which qualifyed him for worlds trials; I don’t see him turning pro. Others, like the Murphy’s and Conger’s of the world could turn pro instantly, but don’t. He needs to accomplish something huge to turn pro. This all seems like a huge publicity stunt by the family of the “phenom”. He’ll regret his decision making when his senior year rolls around.
But it was written in some comments before that Andrew could annul his contract going pro when he’s in senior year because the contract was made by his parents, therefore made him eligible for college swimming/NCAA if his doesn’t deliver results by then.
aswimfan – whoever wrote that comment has no understanding of how those sorts of laws work. If such a strategy were to be used, it would’ve been used LONG before Michael Andrew in many, many industries.
In the views of the NCAA, you don’t go pro by signing a contract, you go pro by accepting stuff on the basis of your athletic abilities. There’s no validity to the comments speculating on invalidating the contract and restoring his eligibility.
Across the pacific ocean, in Singapore, two days ago Darren Lim swam 22.73.
The mindboggling aspect of this news:Lim is still 14 yo.
Not sure if he’s gone pro yet.
aswimfan – I keep seeing people say that he’s 14, but the results say that he’s 15. Trying to track down his birthday.
Yes, it’s confusing. In some news he is reported as 14 (and in last year’s news he was reported as 13), but Singapore swimming result printed him as 15.
He is training in the same club as Joseph Schooling before Schooling went to Bolles.
And it maybe a matter of time too before Lim goes to USA (or Australia).
aswimfan – he broke a 13 & under national record last August, so he must still be 14. Probably ages up later this year.
David would be 14 or near 15. Singapore uses January as their age up month and it works the year ahead. My son is 10 and swam the Singapore Age Group Champs as 11 since he was born December 2002. Hope that helps?
Thanks Cyrus, makes much more sense now.
This kid improves every time out and is now really challenging several of those NAG records. I agree that he’ll have a great SCY season and hopefully he’ll be able to get enough LCM swims in to pick up a NAG or two there.
As for going pro I still don’t see why it’s a big deal. So he can’t swim high school or college. That doesn’t mean he won’t be successful in swimming nor get a degree, but may prevent his parents from going bankrupt trying to get him to all these meets.
Also, if they plan on sticking with this training routine he would have a tough time in college switching over to the high yardage programs.… Read more »