2018 YOUTH OLYMPIC GAMES
- October 6th-18th, 2018
- Swimming Portion: Octoer 7th-12th, 2018
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Schedule/Results
- Entries
South Africa’s Michael Houlie swam a Youth Olympic Games best in the men’s 100 breaststroke on Sunday with a 1:00.23 to qualify 1st to the final. While it doesn’t appear that the IOC is yet keeping Youth Olympics Records, nobody has been faster at any edition of this meet.
The previous best was the 1:00.84 done by Russia’s Anton Chupkov in the semi-finals of the 2014 meet, which at the time broke the World Junior Record. Chupkov was half-a-second slower in finals.
Houlie has a very interesting style of racing the 100 breaststroke; he takes the first 50 at effectively full speed and holds on for the return trip. Incidentally, his 27.51 opening 50 in prelims and 27.44 opening 50 in the semi-finals are also the two fastest 50 breaststrokes ever swum at this meet. 27.83 won gold in the individual 50 breaststroke in 2014 and 28.55 won gold in 2010.
For the 18-year old Houlie, the siwm also breaks Cameron van der Burgh’s National Record for 18-year olds in the 100 breaststroke. Van der burgh swam 1:01.73 more than a decade ago at the 2007 South African National Championships. Houlie’s 1:01.47 at the Commonwealth Games in April was already the fastest-ever by any South African junior. He holds the national age records for 15s, 16s, 17s, and 18s.
He reminds me a lot of former Tennessee swimmer, Peter Stevens.
Proud of you Michael well done
So he starts at Tennessee in January?
The next generation Tennessee Volunteer breaststroker. These guys always seem to reload with a stud and do a great job with them. I watched this kid swim and he is unlike any young breaststroker I have seen. This will be a name to remember.