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Oldest, Youngest, Zodiacs, and Birthday Twins on the 2024 US Olympic Swim Team

Luke Hobson and Chris Guiliano are not twins, but they do share a birthday! Both swimmers were born in June 25, 2003, marking a momentous day in the history of American middle-distance swimming as the two male representatives on the US Olympic Swim Team for the Paris 2024 Games.

Hobson and Guiliano are a demonstration of the birthday paradox, where if you gather just 23 people, there is already a greater than 50% chance of at least two sharing a birthday (though that accounts for only the month and date, not the year). At over twice as many, 48 including open water swimmers, the odds climb even higher – about a 95% chance.

Overall, they are part of a youth trend in American men’s swimming. Perhaps a bit obscured by a few veterans on the team like 30+ year olds Nic Fink and Chase Kalisz, most of the Olympic Swim Team this year is under the age of 23.

All ages based on the date of the opening ceremony, July 26, 2024

Means & Medians

  • The average age of the whole team is 23 years, 140 days
  • The average age of the men’s team is 23 years, 277 days, which is the youngest men’s team we’ve seen in a long time (thanks in part to the first two high schoolers to qualify since Michael Phelps). In 2021, the average age was 24 years and 87 days; in 2012, the team was 26 years and 96 days old on average, with a group of older swimmers (Held and Murphy are 29, Kalisz and Fink are 30 and 31, respectively) dragging the average up.
  • The median of the men’s team is 23 years, 28 days
  • The average age of the women’s team is 22 years, 288 days. The women’s team’s average age has stayed remarkably stable; while this is slightly older than all of the teams we’ve seen since 2012, all of the teams have averaged about 22 years.
  • The median of the women’s team is similar to the mean at 22 years, 167 days

Zodiac Signs

In a trend that has happened way too often to be a coincidence, the two most common zodiac signs on the US team are Pisces (9 swimmers) and Aquarius (7 swimmers), represented by the fish and the water bearer. Pisces was the most common zodiac sign in 2012 and the second-most common in 2016 (behind Leo).

Zodiac Signs
Aries 0
Taurus 2
Gemini 0
Cancer 5
Leo 4
Virgo 2
Libra 5
Scorpio 6
Sagittarius 3
Capricorn 5
Aquarius 7
Pisces 9

There is a pretty consistent distribution of birthdays throughout the year (though nobody on the team was born in April)

Month
Number of Swimmers
January 7
February 6
March 6
April 0
May 2
June 3
July 3
August 4
September 2
October 6
November 4
December 5

In another “what is going on here?” scenario, for the second straight Olympics, Wednesday was the most common day of the week for US Olympic Swimmers to be born.

Day of the Week
Number of Swimmers
Sunday 5
Monday 7
Tuesday 5
Wednesday 11
Thursday 6
Friday 4
Saturday 10

Holiday Babies

Katie Ledecky will again bring the luck of St. Patrick to Team USA – her March 17th birthday is celebrated around the world as St. Patrick’s Day.

Shaine Casas was a Christmas baby, having been born on December 25, 1999.

There are

Oldest to Youngest

At 31 years and 23 days, Nic Fink is 23 days younger than Allison Schmitt was at the start of the 2021 Olympics. Schmitt was the oldest member of that year’s team.

Simone Manuel at 27 years, 358 days is the oldest member of this year’s women’s team – a significant shift from where Schmitt carried that torch in 2021.

Claire Weinstein and Thomas Heilman, both 17 and born about a month apart, are the youngest members of Team USA for the Paris Olympics. They are both almost two years older than Katie Grimes was at the 2021 Olympics where she was the youngest swimmer at 15 years, 190 days.

Swimmer Birthday Age at Start of Olympics Zodiac Sign
Nic Fink 7/3/1993 31 years, 23 days Cancer
Chase Kalisz 3/7/1994 30 years, 141 days Pisces
Ryan Held 6/27/1995 29 years, 29 days Cancer
Ryan Murphy 7/2/1995 29 years, 24 days Cancer
Blake Pieroni 11/15/1995 28 years, 254 days Scorpio
Simone Manuel 8/2/1996 27 years, 358 days Leo
Caeleb Dressel 8/16/1996 27 years, 344 days Leo
Abbey Weitzeil 12/3/1996 27 years, 235 days Sagittarius
Lilly King 2/10/1997 27 years, 166 days Aquarius
Katie Ledecky 3/17/1997 27 years, 131 days Pisces
Charlie Swanson 2/20/1998 26 years, 156 days Pisces
Erika Connolly 8/27/1998 25 years, 333 days Virgo
Paige Madden 10/22/1998 25 years, 277 days Libra
Bobby Finke 11/6/1999 24 years, 263 days Scorpio
Shaine Casas 12/25/1999 24 years, 214 days Capricorn
Drew Kibler 3/9/2000 24 years, 139 days Pisces
Kieran Smith 5/20/2000 24 years, 67 days Taurus
Brooks Curry 1/22/2001 23 years, 185 days Aquarius
Hunter Armstrong 1/24/2001 23 years, 183 days Aquarius
Katharine Berkoff 1/28/2001 23 years, 179 days Aquarius
Ivan Puskovitch 2/28/2001 23 years, 148 days Pisces
Alex Walsh 7/31/2001 22 years, 360 days Leo
Carson Foster 10/26/2001 22 years, 273 days Scorpio
David Johnston 10/28/2001 22 years, 271 days Scorpio
Kate Douglass 11/17/2001 22 years, 251 days Scorpio
Emma Weyant 12/24/2001 22 years, 214 days Capricorn
Regan Smith 2/9/2002 22 years, 167 days Aquarius
Matt King 2/19/2002 22 years, 157 days Pisces
Luca Urlando 3/16/2002 22 years, 132 days Pisces
Phoebe Bacon 8/12/2002 21 years, 348 days Leo
Anna Peplowski 9/25/2002 21 years, 304 days Libra
Matt Fallon 10/3/2002 21 years, 296 days Libra
Josh Matheny 10/16/2002 21 years, 283 days Libra
Torri Huske 12/7/2002 21 years, 231 days Sagittarius
Jack Alexy 1/19/2003 21 years, 188 days Capricorn
Gretchen Walsh 1/29/2003 21 years, 178 days Aquarius
Mariah Denigan 5/3/2003 21 years, 84 days Taurus
Chris Guiliano 6/25/2003 21 years, 31 days Cancer
Luke Hobson 6/25/2003 21 years, 31 days Cancer
Emma Weber 1/13/2004 20 years, 195 days Capricorn
Keaton Jones 10/13/2004 19 years, 286 days Libra
Erin Gemmell 12/2/2004 19 years, 236 days Sagittarius
Aaron Shackell 9/11/2004 18 years, 228 days Sagittarius
Katie Grimes 1/8/2006 18 years, 199 days Capricorn
Luke Whitlock 3/8/2006 18 years, 140 days Pisces
Alex Shackell 11/13/2006 17 years, 255 days Scorpio
Thomas Heilman 2/7/2007 17 years, 169 days Aquarius
Claire Weinstein 3/1/2007 17 years, 147 days Pisces

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Viking Steve
4 months ago

LA Team could be a powerhouse if the <24 year-olds stick with it for the next cycle

Boknows34
4 months ago

Eight teenagers and only two 30+. Who of those 26+ today will still be challenging for a roster spot at LA28?

MIKE IN DALLAS
Reply to  Boknows34
4 months ago

75% — a wild guess, nothing more!

HeGetsItDoneAgain
Reply to  Boknows34
4 months ago

Dressel in 50 free for sure and a relay spot maybe

Viking Steve
Reply to  HeGetsItDoneAgain
4 months ago

Dressel 50 free and 100 fly…. Fly comes so natural to him… I cannot imagine him leaving it out of his lineup if he is still swimming.

100 free requires more/different training with unsure results (not sure if he would train for it just for the chance of a relay spot)

Last edited 4 months ago by Viking Steve
MIKE IN DALLAS
4 months ago

OK, guys!
It’s trivia, mostly trivia, but I still luv breezing thru this stuff.
MOST INTERESTING: the shifting “or not” of average ages of men’s vs. women’s teams.
A lovely Saturday AM read for me!
PS: Dec. 29 / Tuesday / way back when!

Craig
4 months ago

No 2005s?

Scott Bonney
4 months ago

Aqua Obscura

Swammer
4 months ago

Shackell family meeting FY 2006:
We’re projecting a growth of customers from 0 to 2 over the next FY. We’ll reach 1 by the end of Q1 and if we really work hard, we should reach our goal of 2 near the end. Regardless, the FY06 money is allocated for the second customer should it arrive next FY.

Willswim
4 months ago

Damn, the Shackells are only 11 months apart. Alex Shackell has an Irish twin and a real twin.

DMSWIM
Reply to  Willswim
4 months ago

Three kids under a year old at the same time. God bless their parents!

RangerCoach
Reply to  DMSWIM
4 months ago

And then they were done.

PVmom
Reply to  Willswim
4 months ago

Other news sources report Aaron as 19 years old and born in 2004. Which makes more sense with him being high school class of 2023.

Boknows34
Reply to  PVmom
4 months ago

Which puts him between Weber and Jones at (19y, 318d?) and makes a Virgo instead of Sagittarius,

Owlmando
4 months ago

Pretty sure Aquarius is considered an air sign smh

swimswamswum
Reply to  Owlmando
4 months ago

It’s silly given the name starts with aqua, but you’re totally right

Owlmando
Reply to  swimswamswum
4 months ago

Ya who let that fly? although tbf aeroius doesn’t have the same ring to it

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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