From Hoffman Estates, Ill., Varun Shivakumar was a member of the Northwestern University Wildcats. During his career on the swim team, Shivakumar was Academic All-Big Ten, and was ranked on the Wildcat’s top times list in three different events. His focus was mainly on the backstroke events.
Upon first meeting Team Santa Monica’s Jordan Wilimovsky, your first thought might be “There’s no way that this kid is in college!”. Though looks may be deceiving, there is nothing deceptive about the potential that this young distance phenom has in the pool in years to come.
Jordan first made waves on the national scene when he won the 1500 meter freestyle at the Junior National Championships in August of 2012 in a new meet record time of 15:23.01. Notably, Wilimovsky won the race by 5 seconds over future Tennessee Volunteer, David Heron, who won the 5K race at the 2012 Open Water U.S. Nationals. Heron, a Mission Viejo product, finished 7th in the 5K and 10th in the 10K at this year’s Open Water Nationals and World Champ Trials.
Wilimovsky would continue his strong showings with a second place finish at the 2012 FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming in Welland, Ontario in Canada. He finished the 7.5K race in a time of 1:25:19.00, and was second only to Germany’s Rob Muffels
Ever since this first string of performances, Jordan has been on a roll. Entering Northwestern University as a freshman last fall, he immediately made an impact for the Wildcats in the Big Ten. At Northwestern’s own TYR Invitational in mid November, Wilimovsky would erase the Norris Aquatic pool record in the 1650 yard freestyle, swimming thee race in a time of 15:10.75. Jordan would lower this time to a 15:03.07 at the Big Ten Championships in February, which was good enough to qualify for the NCAA Championships in March, where he would continue his streak by dropping an additional 5 seconds to finally settle at 14:58.80. This was good for 24th place at the Championships.
Following his tremendous freshman campaign, Jordan set his sights on the Open Water Nationals and World Champ Trials that were conducted in Lower Castaic Lake near the City of Santa Clarita this past May. At these Championships, Wilimovsky would claim a pair of 4th place triumphs in the 5K and 10K races, and found out a few weeks later that he was selected for the 25K race for Team USA at the 2013 FINA World Championships when the roster was finalized.
Training at Northwestern University under Coach Jarod Schroeder until June 20th and then rejoining Team Santa Monica in order to finalize his preparations before embarking for training camp with the rest of the National team in Spain, Jordan would compete at one last competition. At the Flowers Sea Swim on Grand Cayman Island, Wilimovsky would claim a pair of 2nd places in the one-mile and 10K races behind Davie Nadadores’ Joey Pedraza. Both swimmers cleared the course record in the one-mile race.
Now that Jordan and his fellow Open Water National Team Members have settled in at training camp in Spain, I was able to catch Jordan during some downtime to conduct a quick interview.
V: How long have you been swimming?
JW: Since I was 9 years old. I’ve been swimming year-round since I was 14.
V: And have you always represented Team Santa Monica?
JW: Nah, I originally swam for a club team called Pali YMCA which formed into Westside Aquatics. But I moved to TSM when I was 14.
V: And how/why did you get into Open Water swimming?
JW: When my current coach, Dave Kelsheimer, started at TSM, he made all the distance guys do Open Water. So when i was 16-17, I got into Open Water as well.
V: And what made you pick Northwestern when it came to picking a collegiate program?
JW: I just really liked the guys on the team and I really liked the whole small-team atmosphere. The fact that it is such a great academic institution as well was a big bonus.
V: And what are you studying there?
JW: I’m getting a political science degree and I’m also pursuing a minor in our Business Institutions Program.
V: Do you have any idea what you’d like to do after college?
J: No idea what I want to do for a job. I do want to go to grad school though.
V: Great, so outside of swimming, what are some of your hobbies?
JW: I really like surfing. I often go surfing at the Topanga State Beach by my house in Malibu.
V: And where would your dream surfing spot be if you got the chance?
JW: I’d really like to surf somewhere in Hawaii. The weather’s perfect there and I would love to surf where all the pros go.
V: Now back to swimming. What’s your favorite music to listen to before a race to get you pumped up?
JW: I really like anything by Macklemore.
V: And do you have a favorite kind of food?
JW: I mostly like pasta before big meets, but my college teammates will tell you that I’m always craving wings.
V: That’s pretty funny. So are you pretty nervous for your 25K at World’s next week?
JW: I’m more excited than nervous. I’m just really looking forward to getting to swim with the World’s best Open Water swimmers, and I’m excited to see what I can do. It’s all a learning experience, so I want to learn more about Open Water swimming as a whole. I’ve never done a 25K before, so I’d really like to just finish it, but hopefully I can do well too.
The 25K is set to take place on Saturday, July 27th which is a week after the first 5K races start. Jordan will join Crimson’s Alex Meyer in the event.
Go Jordan!