SW Biweekly June 7, 2021 Issue

LIA NEAL RETIREMENT ENDS A REMARKABLE CAREER

CAELEB DRESSEL THE OBSTACLES IN HIS PATH TO OLYMPIC GLORY

THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF CHARLES JACKSON FRENCH

REGAN

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CONTENTS

008 LIA NEAL ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT FROM SWIMMING, REFLECTS ON HER SIGNIFICANT IMPACT

by David Rieder Lia Neal, the second African American female swimmer to qualify for a U.S. Olympic team and win an Olympic medal—and the first to accomplish those feats twice—announced her retirement from swimming. She explained that the pandemicinduced layoff allowed her to gain a different and broader perspective on swimming and life.

012 CAELEB DRESSEL AND THE OBSTACLES AWAITING HIS OLYMPIC SHOWCASE

by David Rieder After winning seven gold medals at the 2017 World Championships, then a record-breaking eight total medals at the 2019 version of the meet, Caeleb Dressel now gets a shot at taking his signature steamrolling to the Olympic level. It’s possible he could win seven gold medals in Tokyo, but he will also be facing a series of difficult challenges this July.

014 OLIVIA SMOLIGA LOOKING TO DEFEND HER TRIALS TITLE IN “LOADED” 100 BACKSTROKE, MAKE MARK IN FREESTYLE

by Dan D’Addona Olivia Smoliga, who stunned the swimming world when she won the 100 backstroke at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, is now a veteran looking to fend off the new wave in women’s backstroke. “I am going in with the intention to race how I have been training, and know I am capable of competing in multiple events,” she said.

016 KATIE DRABOT SEES 200 FLY TRANSFORM FROM PROVING GREG MEEHAN WRONG (FOR ONCE) TO JOINING WORLD’S ELITE

by Dan D’Addona Katie Drabot has represented the United States at just about every other international meet other than the Olympics, including winning a bronze medal in the 200 fly at the 2019 World Championships. After a year of upheaval with the COVID-19 pandemic, Drabot has put together a solid training block as she aims for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

018 REGAN SMITH HANDLING STRESSES AND REGAINING HER MOJO IN TIME FOR OLYMPIC TRIALS

by David Rieder After dominating women’s backstroke at the 2019 World Championships, Regan Smith became the overwhelming favorite for Olympic gold in the 100 and 200 back. But her momentum and sense of can-do-no-wrong were broken by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with Trials fast approaching, Smith can be certain that she has done everything possible to be at her best at the right time.

024 CHARLES JACKSON FRENCH: A HERO FOR OUR TIME

by Bruce Wigo Charles Jackson French of the U.S. Navy towed a raft full of his shipwrecked mates to safety—through shark-infested waters—after the sinking of the USS Gregory off the Solomon Islands in World War II.

SWIMMING WORLD BIWEEKLY JUNE 2021 | ISSUE 11 030 REECE WHITLEY PUTTING PIECES TOGETHER TO “SET MYSELF UP FOR A GOOD SWIM” AT OLYMPIC TRIALS

by Dan D’Addona While many swimmers get more tense and feel more pressure heading into the Olympic Trials, Reece Whitley is feeling more relaxed. Knowing that he has put in the preparation mentally as well as physically, Whitley is excited for the opportunity and poised for a strong meet.

032 ABBEY WEITZEIL WORKING ON “TAMING MIND” BEFORE UNLEASHING EVERYTHING AT TRIALS

by Dan D’Addona When Abbey Weitzeil steps onto the block, she puts everything into her race—body, mind and heart— to get to the wall first. On the mental side, the key is to have everything blocked out and be ready to roar. Weitzeil is healthy and ready to rip it at Trials, hoping to make her second Olympic team.

034 KATIE McLAUGHLIN FINDS NEW PERSPECTIVE HEADING INTO OLYMPIC TRIALS—FROM COACHING

by Dan D’Addona After graduating from Cal as one of the team’s key members, Katie McLaughlin was starting to struggle as a professional swimmer. But she was able to gain a new perspective about herself and the sport when she started to coach: “It’s given me so much more gratitude and better appreciation for what I get to do and more of a purpose.”

036 BROOKE FORDE RIDING MOMENTUM OF NCAA TITLE IN 400 IM INTO OLYMPIC TRIALS; WILL TAKE FIFTH YEAR AT STANFORD

by Dan D’Addona Brooke Forde is looking forward to simply having a healthy swim at the U.S. Olympic Trials—a simple goal, but one that was far from reality at the 2016 Trials when the Stanford national champion was recovering from viral meningitis. Now, Forde will be in contention to make the Olympic team in the 400 IM, heading to the 2021 Trials stronger, wiser—and healthier.

038 MALLORY COMERFORD: “FINALLY FEELING LIKE MYSELF IN THE WATER” HEADING INTO OLYMPIC TRIALS

by Dan D’Addona Mallory Comerford rose to become one of the world’s best swimmers through regimented training, a clear focus and planning ahead. But since the COVID-19 pandemic—plus dealing with some injuries— Comerford, like most swimmers, lost her regular routine with the ever-changing circumstances. But she feels encouraged with her recent practices as she prepares for the U.S. Olympic Trials: “Now, everything is moving in the right direction.”

040 HOW THEY TRAIN: HALEY ANDERSON

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Lia Neal Announces Retirement from Swimming, Reflects on Her Significant Impact

BY DAVID RIEDER

L

ia Neal has been making history for almost a decade, as the second African American female swimmer to qualify for a U.S. Olympic team and win an Olympic medal and the first to accomplish those feats twice. Neal has also swum at three World Championships, winning two relay gold medals in 2017. But after a decade among the elite sprinters in the United States, Neal has decided to retire from competitive swimming.

Neal told Swimming World that when the country shut down at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she left her training base in San Diego and returned home to New York.

At first, she tried to stay in shape, hoping that life would return to normal relatively quickly and the 2020 Olympic Trials would go on as planned.

“But the pandemic was getting worse, and I realized we weren’t getting back in anytime soon,” Neal said. “It kind of made me realize that with the time and space that we all had to be more introspective, that I’m totally fine being done. There wasn’t a dire need to get back in and race anytime soon.”

As Neal reflected on her decision and her swimming career, she explained that the pandemic-induced layoff allowed her to step back from the grueling, four-year cycle of swimming that stressed the Olympics above all else. Neal gained a different and broader perspective on swimming and life, 8

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which helped her come to her decision.

“I had been feeling kind of on the outs with swimming for a few years, but I think in swimming, and being an athlete, we’re trained to always persevere,” Neal said. “That mentality kept me in this sport a little bit longer, and I didn’t realize that I had outgrown the sport at a certain point.”

However, in September, Neal did return to the pool, albeit temporarily. Shortly before the International Swimming League began its second season, Olympic legend and Cali Condors general manager Jason Lezak contacted Neal about signing with his team when he needed more sprinters on his roster. Neal told Lezak that she had not been training, but Lezak asked if Neal could get in shape as quickly as possible.

Neal agreed.

“I had three and a half weeks after not swimming for six months to get back into racing shape. I let him know the physical state I was in, and he was OK with it,” Neal said. “I kind of took it as an opportunity to give to myself and use it as one last trial to see if what I had been feeling about being done with swimming was going to be validated because I loved ISL so much the last season.”

Because of the abbreviated timeline, Neal eschewed building up her aerobic base and focused only on sprinting before heading to Budapest, where the entirety of the 2020 ISL

season took place. Over the course of the ISL meets, she gradually found her racing form again, and she even mastered some skills that she had never perfected before, like flipturns and kicking. “I never learned how to kick properly, so that was a nice little last-minute learning how to kick before I retired,” Neal said.

Neal helped the Cali Condors capture the ISL league championship, but the experience still reinforced her decision to step away from the competitive side of swimming.

“While I was there, I was having fun, but I was also very aware that I wasn’t as passionate about the sport as I used to be,” Neal said. “It was kind of me coming to the realization that I had officially outgrown the sport, but it was definitely a nice meet to go out on.”

Lia Neal, Her Place in History and Making Change Before she qualified for her first Olympic team, Neal was oblivious to her status as a trailblazer, a minority swimmer excelling in a mostly white sport. She grew up in New York and swimming for Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics, a diverse team in Manhattan. Even while her competitors at higher-level meets were mostly white, Neal never paid much attention to her status until she qualified for the 2012 Olympics in London and was asked what it meant for her to make history.

“Hopefully it gets to a point where we don’t have to emphasize race because that’s not a big focal point anymore,” Neal said.

“Hopefully it will just be diverse. But obviously we have some time until that.”

In the summer of 2020, racial equality once again became a central topic of conversation in the United States after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and Neal brought those conversations to the swimming community when she and fellow 2016 Olympian Jacob Pebley launched Swimmers for Change. That turned into a weeks-long series of webcasts where the duo reached out to national team swimmers, and those swimmers appeared on the webcasts to help raise money for various charitable organizations that promoted inclusion.

“It was started to fill a void of a lack of a conversation, especially in the swimming community. Basically, I just did what made sense, and that was to create a platform to help give swimmers the space to talk about it. I’m just really lucky to have made so many close friends from being on these junior teams and national teams. Just being able to text Natalie Coughlin and Madison Kennedy and Madisyn Cox and Nathan Adrian, all these people, and I’m very grateful that I have that connection to be able to do that, and then even more so grateful that they were on board with it and the way it panned out in the web series,” Neal said.

Over the next decade, Neal realized how important it was for “Hearing them explain what the charity does and why they young black swimmers to see swimmers who look like them chose it, how they relate to it emotionally, just went above competing and winning at the elite and beyond anything I was expecting. It level. Seeing that representation can was super touching because I know these help instill the dream of competing at people, I reached out to these people the Olympics and winning national because I know they probably feel some DESIGNING & MANUFACTURING HIGH QUALITY POOL DECK championships, and it make those type of way about what’s going on and EQUIPMENT FOR 89 YEARS! accomplishments feel attainable they want to be able to help, but it was for minority swimmers, compared cool to see just how deeply they felt about to only seeing white swimmers at the issues. It wasn’t anything I could have the top. imagined if they didn’t say it themselves on that platform, so that was really cool to “It totally makes a difference to be able to do that.” see someone who looks like you achieving something great because Going forward, Neal has big plans it makes it seem that much more for Swimmers for Change, and she’s feasible,” Neal said. “That’s why I working to get the brand incorporated as now fully embrace that, I understand a 501(c)(3) non-profit. She wants to work that I look different compared to towards more water safety programs for a majority of people in the sport. minority children and towards creating Because of that, I’m using my accessibility and resources for minority unique background to be able to be swimmers looking to get into swimming that person for other people because and help them reach the elite level by I didn’t see it that much growing up.” creating a strong sense of community.

She wants to make the path for black In 2015, Neal was part of a historic swimmers trying to reach the elite level finish at the NCAA championships, a lot smoother, with the eventual goal when Simone Manuel, Neal and of having a lot more black swimmers Natalie Hinds finished in the top become Olympians. three spots in the 100 free, making it the first-ever 1-2-3 for black “As a reflection of my journey throughout swimmers at that meet. Given the swimming, knowing that I’ve had all sport’s historical lack of diversity, these scholarships and grants and things the moment was monumental, but in that have been bestowed to me, I want 800.824.4387 the long run, Neal hopes for better. to present these opportunities for other SRSMITH.COM people,” Neal said. “Not only have those CONTINUED >>

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things helped me keep progressing within swimming, but it’s also helped me in life in general. I want to be able to help people in a swimming capacity, but more importantly, overall, I want to help them in their life trajectory.”

Looking Back and Looking Forward The highlight of her swimming career, Neal said, was not either of her Olympic appearances or any international occasion.

Instead, it was the 2017 NCAA swimming championships, when Neal led her Stanford team to a national championship.

She was not necessarily the superstar on a team that included Manuel and Katie Ledecky, who were coming off historic individual accomplishments at the Olympic Games, but she was the senior leader and clutch relay performer.

“I say it’s my proudest achievement because swimming all four years is super exhausting, super hard, and you’re with your teammates, the people in the class above you and below you for three years, so you’re just going through all these really life-changing, life-forming experiences together, so it just means so much more to achieve the pinnacle of college athletics together. Whereas the Olympics is super cool, too, obviously, but you’re only teammates for a month max. It’s a super accelerated way of bringing together,” Neal said. “So that’s why it just meant a lot more to win with a team, with girls I’ve trained with every day for multiple years, compared to the Olympic medal.”

Neal was always at her best on relays, where she could “just go on autopilot and just focus on racing and getting my hand on the wall first.”

In her individual races, however, Neal believes she tended to overanalyze her swimming to a fault. That’s why, as she hangs up the cap and goggles, she still believes she has untapped potential that she never reached, goals for individual events that she did not reach.

And that’s OK. Towards the end of her career, Neal realized that it’s healthy to know when a goal is worth devoting energy to and when it’s OK to walk away. Success is subjective and not a firm measure equivalent for each individual swimmer. Now that she’s removed from the thick of battling for a spot in another Olympics, Neal is more than proud of her accomplishments and ready to take her next steps in swimming, which includes promoting diversity as well as continuing to mentor athletes and help them grow, both in swimming and in life, to “package all the lessons I’ve learned in a very concise way.”

Even in the moments that felt like disappointments at the time, Neal learned and grew, and all those experiences helped form a swimmer who made history in the pool and will continue contributing to positive change now that her racing days are done.

“There are definitely things that I would do differently now, but I feel like everything happens for a reason,” Neal said. “I had been thinking about a lot of things I would have done differently, but I wouldn’t know to do those things differently if it hadn’t happen the way that it did happen. So I think I’m totally fine with how everything played out.” ◄

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Caeleb Dressel and the Obstacles Awaiting His Olympic Showcase

BY DAVID RIEDER

A

fter winning a record-tying seven gold medals at the 2017 FINA World Championships and then a record-breaking eight total medals at the 2019 version of the meet, Caeleb Dressel had to wait out the pandemic-induced 12-month delay of the Olympic Games, just like everyone else. But in 2021, Dressel gets a shot at taking his signature steamrolling to the Olympic level.

The accomplishments Dressel could reach at this summer’s rescheduled Tokyo Olympics are significant, even if there’s no realistic path for the 24-year-old Floridian to match Michael Phelps’ eight gold medals from the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

But seven? That’s definitely a possibility. Dressel enters the Olympic summer as gold medal favorite in the 100 free, 100 fly and 50 free, and he figures to be a key member of the American men’s 400 free relay, men’s 400 medley relay and the newly-added mixed 400 medley relay. He could make an appearance on the U.S. men’s 800 free relay, as well.

1. Caeleb Dressel vs. Kyle Chalmers This one will be no surprise to anyone who has followed the men’s 100 free over the past four years. In 2016, Kyle Chalmers was just 18 when he shocked the world and came from behind to win Olympic gold in the 100 free. A year later, he missed the World Championships after undergoing heart surgery, and Dressel took advantage. Showing his abilities on the global level for the first time, Dressel swam a 47.17 to win by a massive margin of six tenths.

But when Dressel returned to defend his title in 2019, Chalmers was waiting for him. Dressel went out a half-second ahead of his Australian rival, but Chalmers stormed back and almost got back to dead even at the finish. Dressel won gold in 46.96, but Chalmers was right behind in 47.08. Dressel got the American record and improved to third-fastest all-time in the event, and Chalmers moved to sixth all-time.

The other piece of history Dressel could accomplish is becoming just the third man to win three individual gold medals at one Olympics. The others, of course, are Mark Spitz, who won four events in 1972, and Phelps, who won four events in 2004 and five in 2008. (Nine women have won more than two individual golds at one Games).

Chalmers underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in November, but the surgery was minor with a prognosis for a quick return to swimming, and he was back in the competition pool in January. When the two reach their inevitable 100 free rematch in Tokyo, even if Dressel takes another shot at Cesar Cielo’s 12-year-old world record (46.91), Chalmers should be right there at the finish.

But that’s all hypothetical right now. Winning races in real life is a lot different than projecting based on best times and previous accomplishments. And in real life, Dressel will face a series of difficult challenges this July.

2. Watch Out for Kristof Milak At the 2017 Worlds, Hungary’s Kristof Milak took the silver medal behind Dressel in the 100 fly. Two years later, Milak won his first world title in the 200 fly in stunning fashion,

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smashing Phelps’ decade-old world record and stopping the clock in 1:50.73. Milak was expected to give Dressel a run in the 100 fly, as well, but he finished a disappointing fourth place as Dressel broke the world record in the semifinal and cruised to gold in the final.

In Tokyo, don’t expect the same outcome. The 21-yearold Milak will surely present a threat to Dressel’s goldmedal hopes in the two-lap fly race. His performance at the recent European Championships should put fear into his competition. His 200 fly time of 1:51.10 gave him the top three performances in history, and his 50.18 100 fly ranks him as the fourth-fastest performer ever. Like Chalmers in the 100 free, Milak will be churning and chasing after Dressel down the stretch of the 100 fly.

Also worth watching in the 100 fly is Russia’s Andrei Minakov, who took silver at the 2019 World Championships.

Minakov, 19, is heading to the United States to swim at Stanford this fall, and he ranks 14th all-time in the 100 fly at 50.83. Teenagers can drop time quickly, but his window of opportunity may not open until the next quadrennium.

3. The Schedule Dilemma Excelling at the Olympics requires intense training, mental toughness and killer instinct, but balancing a multi-event program requires a friendly schedule. Phelps took advantage of a good lineup in four straight Olympics, while Ryan Lochte had to deal with all three rounds of the 200 back and 200 IM occurring concurrently. At both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, he had already competed in the 200 back final when he faced off against Phelps in the 200 IM. This year’s Olympic schedule will definitely present Dressel with some challenges as well. The Tokyo Olympics will feature evening prelims and morning finals over nine days (prelims Saturday, July 24 through Friday, July 30 and finals Sunday, July 25 through Sunday, August 1). If all goes as expected, Dressel would barely compete over the first three days, with just the 400 free relay finals on his schedule prior to the fourth evening of prelims. That’s when he would get his individual program underway with the 100 free.

The potential issues come over the last few days. On July 31, Dressel would likely compete in the 100 fly final, the 50 free semifinals and then as part of the mixed medley relay, and then on August 1, Dressel would have the 50 free final and the men’s medley relay. While that triple would be grueling, he wouldn’t have to swim in three finals in one session as he has at the World Championships. That’s also a major improvement over the version of the Olympic schedule used in from 2004 through 2016, where the 100 fly and 50 free finals were in the same session, with just the women’s 800 free final in between.

How about the 800 free relay? Dressel actually qualified for that relay back in 2017, finishing sixth in the 200 free at U.S. Nationals, but he has never actually swum the relay at Worlds

because he already had two rounds of both the 50 free and 100 fly that day. But he could certainly take a shot at the 200 free at Olympic Trials. That event occurs early in the event schedule, before his sprint events. The 800 free relay would fit with Dressel’s Olympic schedule better than his World Championships schedule, with the final scheduled for about 90 minutes after the 100 free semifinal. So maybe he takes a shot and see what happens. Why not?

So if Dressel were to compete in his three individual events and on all four relays, that would be 13 swims total, with 12 of those swims scheduled for a five-day period. Not ideal but certainly manageable. *** Since 2016, Dressel has swum in many high-pressure meets, between World Championships, Short Course World Championships, NCAA championships and the ISL, and he’s come up big with marvelous performances on almost every occasion. The only exception was the summer of 2018, when he missed significant time in training after a motorcycle accident. And even when he does break world records and win world titles, he still finds room for improvement.

Days after the 2019 World Championships, Dressel said, “There’s certainly a lot of room to improve on that meet. I was happy with it but not completely satisfied.”

Considering the big picture of what he wants to accomplish in swimming, Dressel gave a thoughtful, introspective answer.

“I just really want to try to be the best person I can be, and I feel like my swimming as a way to get me there. I just want to inspire some people, maybe just give some people some hope,” he said.

“I’m not satisfied with what I’ve done in the sport as of right now. I want to keep going. I just want to see how far I can push myself in the sport, and I know it’s going to be tough, but I just want to see. Maybe I can conquer a little bit more of my mind and just keep pushing myself for years to come in this and do something special in my own mind, and that’s really just up to me what I consider that to be. I do enjoy the challenge, and swimming certainly does bring that to me.”

Dressel has been to the Olympics before, but 2016 was just a preview. He got to swim with legends like Phelps and Nathan Adrian as part of a gold medal-winning 400 free relay, but he was never in the mix for any individual medals. This time, he will be the preordained star of the Games, with all the cameras zeroed in on him. This will be his chance to inspire some people and push himself to some special accomplishments.

Yes, he will have some serious challenges to manage— competitors like Chalmers and Milak, the schedule of events and, of course, the one-year delay. But this is a special athlete with a learned ability to step up his game when needed. Come Tokyo, expect Caeleb Dressel to be ready. ◄ BIWEEKLY

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[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

Olivia Smoliga Looking to Defend Her Trials Title in "Loaded" 100 Backstroke, Make Mark in Freestyle

BY DAN D'ADDONA

O

livia Smoliga stunned the swimming world when she won the 100 backstroke title at the 2016 Olympic Trials, a changing-of-the-guard moment in women’s swimming.

In that race, Smoliga and Kathleen Baker qualified for Rio, while swimming legends Natalie Coughlin and Missy Franklin couldn’t quite keep up with the young guns.

Now, Smoliga is a veteran looking to fend off the new wave in the backstroke.

“The 100 back is loaded,” Olivia Smoliga told Swimming World. “The 100 back has been awesome. It is incredible to have so much depth as a country. That is what makes us a top competitor at any international meet. It is exciting to be a part of that.”

Smoliga, who raced the 100 back in 58.31 at the Atlanta Classic last month, is on paper perhaps a favorite to make the team, but in an event like the 100 backstroke, there is not a ton of stock put into favorites.

Baker is back and swimming well, while teen sensation Regan Smith set the world record in the event in 2019. Meanwhile, veterans like Amy Bilquist, Beata Nelson and Ali DeLoof, and younger swimmers Phoebe Bacon, Rhyan White, Claire Curzan and Katharine Berkoff are looking to put together a stunning upset swim just like Smoliga did five years ago.

But Smoliga has been focused on taking in each moment, each swim and each lesson, preparing herself for the best race she can put together.

“I am trying to be the best I can be,” she said. “It is going to be a race and it is going to be so much fun. At this point, you

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have put in all of this training. It is going to be so exciting to see how much I can do — 2016 drives me. It is the meet that drives me to be able to compare myself to that meet. It is exciting.”

Smoliga is looking to make some noise in some other events as well. She will swim both backstroke events, the 50 and 100 freestyle and possibly the 200 free and 200 back as well.

While she has been one of the world’s greatest backstrokers the past five-plus years, Smoliga is an elite freestyle sprinter as well, something that brings out some stealth swims in the biggest moments.

So Smoliga will be in the mix in the 100 free, especially with six spots making the team because of the 4×100 free relay.

“I feel like the 100 free fits in pretty well. I have been doing more main group based practices focusing on long course freestyle and backstroke. The biggest change has been my mentality and mental fitness, to be able to focus on each event individually,” Smoliga said. “Jack (Bauerle) will always tell me one race at a time. That is what I think when I race now.

“With all the training we have been doing I think it fits really nicely. Being a part of any U.S. relay is a thrill. Being able to make that happen in any event will be thrilling. There is nothing like it. To be in the heat with all of those girls would be an awesome race.

“It doesn’t change the way I think about it but relay spots is an added (cushion). It makes it all the more exciting.”

Smoliga is putting the finishing touches on her technique to bring out her best races at Trials.

“I have been doing a lot of backstroke sculling because I am very leg driven,” she said. “My kick drives me. That will help me push water better.”

Smoliga enters Trials as a contender in multiple events, but she has a different mentality in 2021 than she did in 2020.

“For me, it definitely let me let go of some things. A lot more just comes naturally when you don’t expect things.

Everything can be a gift. One of those gifts was ISL. We did not expect that to happen. It was guaranteed training, weight rooms and practice with racing.”

Letting go of previous expectations has been transformative for Smoliga, who is embracing the in-the-moment mantra more and more every day.

“I am not thinking where I would have been or could have

[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

“I have kind of learned not to have many expectations throughout this last year with COVID and perspective changes,” she said. “I think our whole post-grad group is thankful that we were one of the few post-grad groups to find spots to train during COVID. We made it work. When I was home in Chicago, I was able to find a pool. I am really grateful to be able to train. I don’t even know where I thought I would be at this time. been. I have to be there in the now to see if I have made the most of the situation,” Olivia Smoliga said. “The experience has helped me tremendously. I think back to myself in 2012 and 2016. Each time I feel I have grown and learned something new. I come into the meet itself just feeling different. Experience helps with anything you want to master or achieve.

“I am going in with the intention to race how I have been training and know I am capable of competing in multiple events. I am excited to see how this Trials will go.” ◄

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[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

Katie Drabot Sees 200 Fly Transform from Proving Greg Meehan Wrong (For Once) to Joining World’s Elite

BY DAN D'ADDONA

W

hen Katie Drabot learned her final NCAA Championships were canceled, things completely changed.

No longer getting that last swim for her Stanford team, Drabot was now a professional swimmer — something she found out was a huge adjustment, especially the way the COVID-19 pandemic rushed the transition.

“It is the basics — eat, sleep swim. It is focusing everything on swimming. I make sure I do what I need outside the pool to make sure what I do inside the pool is the best it can possibly be,” Drabot told Swimming World. “At times it can be a little lonely, but you just have to think about what you are aiming for.”

Drabot is aiming for a spot on the U.S. Olympic team.

She has represented her country at just about every other international meet other than the Olympics — including winning the bronze medal in the 200 butterfly at the 2019 World Championships.

U.S. Trials is the most pressure-packed meet in the country with elite swimmers vying for two spots in most events. That pressure can be useful if harnessed properly.

“There are nerves for sure and there have been all year. I always thing nerves are good. It shows that you care,” Drabot said.

After a year of upheaval, Drabot has put together a solid training block.

“There have been many ups and downs in training this year and trying to get into a good groove again,” she said. “It became the most real when I was back to competing. My first 16

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meet in over a year was in San Antonio. I realized I had a lot of work to do. It gave me something to refocus on and see where I was and see what I needed to work on. Meets give great feedback and I got some great feedback. I switched up my training a bit and I feel like I am doing well. I am trying not to think about it too much because that can set off a snowball effect. There is nothing I can do except work hard and be prepared. It is exciting. This is what we have been working toward.”

At Worlds, Drabot began to utilize the nerves in that positive way, gaining confidence with what she had accomplished.

“I think I gained a lot of confidence from worlds, realizing that I have made my presence on the world stage. With that there is confidence, but you never want to be comfortable because in this sport, there is always someone working harder,” she said. “I want to take what I learned from Worlds but it is not given. There is always someone who comes out of nowhere in Trials and makes their presence known. I am going to leave nothing on the table. I know I belong on the world stage, but I need to keep pushing myself to prove I still belong there.”

She also knows that there are plenty of young guns waiting to be unleashed. Drabot said the key is to be aware, but not dwell on how others are swimming.

“You always want to be aware of what people are doing,” she said. “ That is what keeps you going and makes the sport of swimming faster. There is always someone up-and-coming that wants to beat you. But at the same time, you can only control what you are doing. I use the mentality that someone else is training harder than me for that spot. It keeps me going in practice. Trials is such an intense meet and you have to

try to get out of your head as much as possible. You have to be confident in what you have accomplished and use it as motivation. The meet is so mental. A good chunk is about the mental preparation.

“It is about trying to keep things as calm as possible. You can’t run from them knocking on the door.”

Drabot has competed at two Olympic Trials in the past, 2012 and 2016, making the semifinals in the 200 free in 2016.

“They were quite a bit different. I was there in 2012 just to be there. I made it the very last meet possible. It was just to gain experience. I finished close to last in the 200 IM,” she said.

“I had a few more expectations in 2016, but was there to race at a higher level and see what I could do. I definitely left the meet disappointed with a bitter taste in my mouth. I didn’t expect myself to make the team, but it definitely gave me motivation. With those two meets under my belt, you know what to expect and it gives me a little more confidence.”

Plus, the third time around, Drabot’s main event is the 200 butterfly, an event not on her radar in 2016.

“My focus has shifted to being a butterflyer. I have always dipped my toes in different events. There has never really been that steady event for me throughout my career. My very first state cut was in backstroke and my first junior national cut was in breast. That has helped with my training,” she said.

But swimming the butterfly at an elite level came during her time at Stanford — and it wasn’t the original plan.

“My freshman year, I came in and I wanted Greg (Meehan) to put me in any events I could help the team out in. That meant the mile the last day of Pac-12s and NCAAs. I did it freshman year and as a sophomore at our goals meeting, I had gotten used to training the butterfly and I felt strong in it. I asked him if I could try out the 200 fly and he looked at me and kind of laughed and wanted to focus on the mile. That really didn’t sit that well with me, but at the same time, I wanted to be a team player and score points wherever I could,” she said. “I kept pushing him on it and the first dual meet that season, he put me in it but I remember coming out of it pretty happy, and he was like, ‘OK, let’s try the 200 fly.’ I did it midseason and it went from there.”

All the way to a bronze medal at Worlds.

“I was happy with it and I felt like I was just stuck in the 200 free and not making improvements. The 200 fly gave me a breath of fresh air. Greg is right 99.9 percent of the time whether I want to admit it or not, but the 200 fly was that 0.01 percent,” she said.

Drabot said training with Hali Flickinger helped her develop her 200 fly race.

“There is so much to be said about Hali. She is a great competitor and just a great human. I get to be in the ready room with her and I have learned a lot from her. She is so consistent and upbeat. She is small but she is feisty. Everyone thinks you need to be this big jacked swimmer but she proves that it doesn’t have to be how it is. She can kill it in a lot of events. I am trying to go in with no fear and adopt her mentality,” Katie Drabot said. “At worlds, swimming next to her helped me.”

It helped validate Drabot’s switch to the 200 fly.

The Pandemic Road Once her college career was officially over, Drabot had to figure out how to train and where to be. Post-grads were not allowed in college pools at first, and California was one of the strictest states with shutdowns because of the number of COVID-19 cases.

“It was pretty hectic. Right when things hit, I remember one day waking up from a nap to a ton of missed calls and text. One day we were training for NCAAs and the next day we were trying to find a pool. We still had access for a few days, then like everything else, plans quickly changed and post-grads were kicked out. Then other pools closed and we started looking for other opportunities. We probably had five or six different plans all at once,” Drabot said. “It was about making decisions best for us. When there was talk of a total shutdown, I wanted to make a decision that led me to going home with Brooke Forde. I was in Kentucky with her for a couple of weeks. Then their pool got shut down. We quickly resorted to running, biking, anything to stay active. That is when we found out the postponement of trials and the games.

That kind of eased the nerves a bit. We didn’t have to be as frantic and we could have a sigh of relief.

“Then we could focus on our health and safety.”

That changed the venue of her training for a bit.

“We decided it was best for me to come home at that point.

I went home to Wisconsin, which was nice because I hadn’t been home that long since I went to college. I got to spend time with my family, got some home-cooked meals and all of the good things of home,” Drabot said. “We had some family friends who had a 12-yard backyard pool. I trained there for a month. It was a lot of resistance training and swimming in place. Just anything to keep moving and keep my feel in the water. Then a pool opened up and we got 4-6 a.m. training.

As early as it was, at that point, I wasn’t taking anything for granted. Then Stanford opened back up in July and I made the decision to come back and I have been here ever since.”

And relishing the fact that she is part of that 0.1% where her coach got it wrong, which has worked out pretty well for everyone. ◄ BIWEEKLY

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[ PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK ]

Regan Smith Handling Stresses and Regaining Her Mojo in Time for Olympic Trials

BY DAVID RIEDER

O

ver three astonishing days, 17-year-old Regan Smith made the best swimmers in the world look pedestrian, and she made a mockery of all previous records in the backstroke events. Smith had been a rising star since she qualified for her first World Championships at age 15. From there, she continued to improve upon her own best times season after season, so the natural progression would be world title contention, but this monumental leap was simply improbable.

At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Smith crushed Missy Franklin’s seven-year-old world record in the semifinals of the 200 backstroke. The next day, she captured her first world title by 2.57 seconds, and a day after that, she swam the leadoff leg on the U.S. women’s 400 medley relay and crushed Kathleen Baker’s 100 backstroke world record. Racing against a field of backstrokers that included two-time world champion Kylie Masse, Smith led the field by more than a bodylength.

Beforehand, Smith had no idea that she was about to make a colossal leap forward. On the other hand, Mike Parratto, her coach at Riptide Swim Team, figured she would be in that range thanks to her training and her mental preparation, but Smith said, “he’s very good at not communicating what he thinks I’m going to do, and I don’t want him to.” Looking back on the leadup to the 2019 Worlds, Smith remembers swimming amazingly well every day in practice and at meets, although she admitted, “I don’t know if that’s warped because of how the summer went.”

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The 2019 success set up Smith for the Olympic year as the overwhelming favorite for Olympic gold in both the 100 and 200 back, and Smith began 2020 still riding a wave of momentum, but the COVID-19 pandemic squashed that when the Olympics were postponed a year to 2021. “I think putting things on hold and putting things at a stop was very strange, and I think I kind of lost my mojo, just because the hype was really building for me but I wasn’t doing anything performance-wise to back it up,” Smith said.

Like most swimmers around the country, Smith was out of training for several months. During the initial post-lockdown buildup, Smith tried to view the delay as a positive, with 12 extra months to improve, but her initial stretch of training was limited, and her confidence, built primarily through her meticulous preparation, gradually eroded. The result was the toughest stretch of Smith’s career.

“By the time August rolled around, training was really rough because we weren’t doing as much as we had been and I wasn’t going as fast as I had normally been going in practice,” Smith said. “Backstroke, in particular, felt really rough. I remember it got to the point where I would avoid backstroke and do butterfly instead, just because backstroke felt so funky. Nobody really wants to do fly in practice.”

Her first national-level meet after the pandemic began was the November 2020 U.S. Open in Des Moines, “where I

honestly kind of tanked.” Her swims at that meet included a 59.95 100 back, 2:11.74 200 back, 58.09 100 fly and 2:08.61 200 fly, nothing awful by any stretch but not close to the level she expected of herself.

For years, Smith’s career had progressed along a straight line sloped upwards, with each season building on the previous as her stock skyrocketed upwards. She went from qualifying for her first Worlds team in 2017 and making a final to winning her first national title and her first international medal at the Pan Pacific Championships in 2018. In 2019, American records in short course yards racing preceded winning world titles and setting world records in the summer. She was constantly knocking chunks off her lifetime bests and even expanding her repertoire of events, particularly into the 100 and 200 butterfly.

Now, for the first time, her momentum was halted, the sense of can-do-no-wrong broken by the pandemic.

After that, Smith’s path to regaining her confidence was through practice. During the fall, she said, “I was killing myself to get back to where I wanted to be,” but she continued missing her practice goal times and struggling in sets. But finally, the long-awaited breakthrough came in December, when a new COVID spike in Minnesota halted all high school sports but a provision in the governor’s order allowed college-aged athletes to continue practicing.

“Practice was super small, one to a lane. They were just awesome. They got really difficult, but it was a lot less stressful, a lot less people in the pool. I really got to focus on me,” Smith said. “I really feel like I found myself again because I’d been struggling for so long, and then all the sudden, it was just like a switch flipped and suddenly, I was just doing really great again and I feel like myself again. I feel like I’ve just been kind of riding that wave ever since Christmas break, and I think that’s what started to get my confidence back where I needed to be.”

Building Back Up After Challenging Year Smith’s father, Paul, who is on staff at Riptide Swim Team, described Regan as “not remotely an extrovert,” and she has a small group of close friends who are mainly swimmers.

Mostly, she’s a normal teenager who is “on her phone too much, looking at TikToks,” and she can be a bit obsessivecompulsive about certain aspects of her routine, like watching the same show over and over.

“She can be as goofy and funny as anyone I know, but it’s selective,” Paul said. “It has to be in a safe place. She has to be in the right mood. And then all the sudden, she can just be a complete goofball. And people don’t really see that side of her.”

Given the one-year delay of the Olympic Games and the state of the world in the fall of 2020, Smith decided to defer her enrollment at Stanford by one year. “I think moving on

without finishing this chapter with Mike just wouldn’t have been the right thing to do,” Smith said. “It didn’t feel right in my heart.”

Smith, now 19, said she has not enjoyed being one of the oldest swimmers in her practice group and feeling like the “old lady,” but she has enjoyed the extra year at home in Minnesota. The year has helped melt away some of the anxiety she felt about leaving.

“Before college last year, before COVID, I every day would wake up and be nervous about going to school in the fall. I was so excited, but I didn’t feel quite ready to leave,” she said. “But I now feel like I’m ready. I don’t feel as scared and terrified as I was last year. I think COVID taught me that the world is very small. You’re not as far away as you think you are. It’s not the end of the world. It’ll be a change, but it’s nothing to lose sleep over and freak out over. It’s just another part of life.”

Now, as the gap year approaches its endpoint with Olympic Trials just weeks away, Smith enters a realm that carries a lot more anxiety than she might have felt in 2020. Even though she has regained confidence in her swimming, in part through a string of recent in-season performances on par with those from the 2019 season, entering the Olympic season as the double world record-holder, the reigning dominant swimmer but now two years removed from that campaign, will bring some tension.

“It’s weird,” Smith said of her position, her solemn, pensive tone conveying her complex emotions. “If this were a year ago, I’d be like, ‘Sick. I just did those times a year ago. I’m ready to do them again.’ And now, I’m two years removed.

We’ll see what happens.”

Smith’s challenge has been preparing herself to handle negative thoughts, the what-if-it-goes-wrong thought that spins through every swimmer’s mind before a significant race or through someone’s mind before an exam or a job interview. Sometimes, Smith will have that thought pop into her head at night, and when that happens, she reminds herself to breathe, that she is ready, and that everything is going to be OK. Returning her inner monologue to a positive framework has been critical.

“This meet’s going to be harder than it would have been in another year, but I think I’m up for the challenge, and I think I’m ready for it,” Smith said. “I don’t want to walk into the meet with that label of world record-holder on me because then I’m going to get too caught up in that and I’m going to let that affect me and add pressure, and that’s the last thing I want. I’m just me. I don’t want to walk in with that label on myself because I think I do better when I just swim as me and not as the world record-holder.”

Smith’s father explained that she has been accustomed to swimming under scrutiny since she was 10 and certainly CONTINUED >>

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through her experiences at national-level meets and World Championships over the past four years, and those situations have never been overwhelming for her. Every human feels pressure, but Smith has been very adept at not letting that diminish her performances. But Paul believes having to wait an extra year between opportunities to race at peak form has allowed more doubt than ever to creep in, specifically the need to prove that her remarkable accomplishments in 2019 were no fluke.

“I think it’s bothering her now more than in the past because when the clock turned over to January 2020, she was on a roll,” Paul Smith said. “She was aware of that pressure last year, but I don’t think she internalized it and I don’t think she was really worried about it. But now, she’s another year removed from that kind of lightning speed.”

Ratcheting up the tension even more has been following the exploits Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, another 19-year-old who won silver behind Smith in the 200 back at the 2019 World Championship and has challenged Smith’s world records in the 100 and 200 back on multiple occasions this year. In May, McKeown swam a 57.63 100 back, just six hundredths off Smith’s world record, and she also went under 58 in December and has two other 58.1 performances in the past seven months. In the 200 back, McKeown is the thirdfastest swimmer in history after recording a 2:04.31 in May, and she has also swum under 2:06 five additional times since November.

Smith admitted that it was tough to see McKeown begin her hot streak, particularly in late 2020 when Smith was struggling mightily, but recently, she has been able to view impressive results by McKeown and other competitors as motivational and positive. Smith even messaged McKeown after her recent stellar swims to congratulate her.

“It’s not cutthroat competition, even internationally,” Smith said. “I just want to use it as motivation and inspiration. What she’s doing right now is incredible, and it’s very inspiring to see. I think it’s helped me swim better and practice, and I think it’s helped me get better at meets. Just hats off to her, seriously. I really hope that I can make it to the Games, that we can compete against each other because I think it would be really special. I don’t want to be jealous, and I don’t want to be angry that she’s doing so fantastically when it’s been a little bit for me. I just want to use it as motivation remember that I’m capable of that, too. I’ve done that before, and I can do it again.”

The Final Stretch The pandemic year of 2020 challenged every person to adapt to some new normal, to handle and deflect challenges they never could have anticipated. That sometimes meant learning to cope and finding fresh methods of maintaining sanity and new sources of inspiration for pushing through the frustration.

For Smith, that meant getting a puppy, a Pomsky (Pomeranian 20

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husky mix) named Kai that she got in September. That dog became her release and her comfort at a time when nothing felt normal and the future felt more uncertain and daunting.

“He’s been my stress reliever,” Smith said. He’s just been so great at helping me shake things off and distracting me. If I’m ever feeling like I’m not in control of my thoughts and I just need to get away, I go play with Kai. He’s just always there.

He always wants to hang out with me. That dude has been my rock for almost nine months now. He’s just been one of the best parts about this whole past year. All the ups and downs, he’s just been there.”

Now, the eventful and far longer-than-expected journey has nearly reached its natural endpoint as Smith prepares to compete for a spot on her first Olympic team. The Olympic Trials will actually be her second as she competed as a 14-year-old in 2016, and she qualified for the semifinals of the 100 back, placing 13th. Now 19, Smith will return to Omaha to compete in four events, the 100 and 200 back and the 100 and 200 butterfly.

She enters as the favorite in both backstroke events as the world record-holder, but the 100 back projects to be the most competitive event of the entire meet. The field features the previous world record-holder (Baker), the 2019 World Championship bronze medalist (Olivia Smoliga) and three other swimmers who have previously broken 59. Smith also ranks fifth in the U.S. in the 100 fly during the Olympic Trials qualifying period and second in the country in the 200 fly, so she stands a strong chance at qualifying for an Olympic berth in that event, as well.

No, she does not feel quite as poised and confident as she did in 2019, primarily due to the layoff and the competitive nature of her events, but she has gotten herself back to the point where it would be foolish to expect anything but her best over the next two months. Beyond anything else, Smith can be certain that she has done everything possible to be at her best at the right time.

“I’m nervous,” Smith admitted. “I’m sure everyone’s nervous. It’s going to be really tough. Every day, I’m trying to remind myself of what I’m capable of and what I’ve done in the past and how hard I’ve worked. I know how talented I am and I know I can do great things if I believe in myself.”

And even with the challenges and understandable anxiety ahead, Smith wants to soak in the experience of Olympic Trials and hopefully the Olympics as much as possible.

“This is something I’m going to look back on and remember for the rest of my life,” she said. “I just want to look back on it and have fond memories, no matter what the outcome is, just because this is an incredible experience that very few people get to experience. And that’s just what I want to try to remember because if I get too caught up in the stress and the nerves, that’s not what I want to be there for.” ◄

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Charles

Jackson French A HERO FOR OUR TIME

by Bruce Wigo photos provided by International Swimming Hall of Fame

On Jan. 19, 2020, the United States Navy announced it was naming a new aircraft carrier after African American WWII war hero, Doris “Dorie” Miller. The announcement came more than 78 years after the events at Pearl Harbor that earned him the Navy Cross, the Navy’s and United States Marine Corps’ second-highest military decoration awarded for sailors who distinguish themselves for extraordinary heroism in combat with an armed enemy force.

The USS Doris Miller is seen as a belated salute to the contributions of African Americans in the military. But it is just a first step. There is another Navy man who was at least equally heroic and deserves recognition.

T

he world first heard about this story on Oct. 21, 1942, when U.S. Navy Ensign Robert Adrian was in the Hollywood studios of the NBC Broadcasting Company. He was there for a weekly national radio broadcast called, It Happened in the Service.

“For the past week,” the solemn sounding host began, “the prayers of the nation have been turned toward the Solomon Islands, a small group of strategic islands in the South Pacific.

Right now, one of the greatest battles of history is raging there and in the waters of the surrounding islands, and here in our studio tonight is a gallant naval officer who has already tasted the fury of that Solomon battle and who has had his ship blasted out from under him.

“But before we meet Ensign Robert Adrian, let’s listen to his story.”

That was the cue for dramatic organ music and the sound of sirens and explosions. Amidst those cacophonous sounds came a voice calmly announcing: “Abandon ship, all hands, abandon ship.”

Adrian was the junior officer on the bridge when it took a direct hit from a Japanese ship. He was knocked unconscious for a moment, and when he came to, he felt the ship turning on its side and sinking. Although wounded in his legs and with blast fragments in his eyes that clouded his vision, he managed to float over into the water with his life jacket as the ship sank below him. As he drifted, he saw the Japanese ships turn their searchlights and machine guns on the survivors. Then he heard voices and found a life raft filled with badly wounded shipmates.

Upon questioning the men, he found only one shipmate who had not been wounded. It was French, a Negro mess attendant known only by his last name. When Adrian told French that

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>> Charles Jackson French of the U.S. Navy towed a raft full of his shipwrecked mates to safety—through shark-infested waters—after the sinking of the USS Gregory off the Solomon Islands.

the current was carrying them toward the Japanese-occupied island, French volunteered to swim the raft away from shore.

Adrian told him it was impossible—that he would only be giving himself up to the sharks that surrounded them.

But French responded that he was a powerful swimmer and was less afraid of the sharks than he was of the Japanese. He stripped off his clothes, asked for help to tie a rope around his waist and slipped into the water.

“Just keep telling me if I’m goin’ the right way,” he said.

French swam and swam all night, six to eight hours, and pulled the raft well out to sea. At sunrise, they where spotted by scout aircraft that dispatched a Marine landing craft to pick them up, which returned them safely behind American lines.

When the dramatization ended, the host returned to the microphone: “And now standing here beside me is Ensign Bob Adrian of Ontario, Oregon. Ensign, yours was certainly an unusual rescue.”

“Yes, it was,” agreed Adrian. “And I can assure you that all the men on that raft are grateful to mess attendant French for his brave action off Guadalcanal that night.”

“Well, he is certainly a credit to the finest traditions of the Navy,” said the host.

Adrian was then prompted to give a patriotic enlistment appeal and for everyone at home to unite behind the war effort.

GAINING NATIONAL ATTENTION The next day, the Associated Press picked up the story of the “powerful Negro mess attendant who swam six hours through shark-infested waters, towing to safety a raft load of wounded seamen.” The story reached Philadelphia and the War Gum Trading Card Company, which as the name suggests, sold bubble gum with commemorative baseball-like cards

EARLY BACKGROUND In time, it was learned that Charles Jackson French stood 5 feet-8 inches tall and weighed 195 pounds. He had been born on Sept. 25, 1919, in Foreman, Ark. But after his parents

[ PHOTO COURTESY THE ADRIAN FAMILY ]

depicting the war’s heroes and events.

The card, captioned as: “Negro Swimmer Tows Survivors,” was #129 in the 1942 set. It has a beautiful color rendition of French towing the raft of wounded seamen in wavy blue water with two shark fins near the raft. The flip side told the story, without knowing the identity of the hero beyond being a “Negro mess attendant, known only as ‘French.’” It went on to say that because Ensign Adrian was immediately hospitalized, he “never learned the full name of the heroic swimmer.”

Then, on Oct. 30, NBC revealed it had learned about French through the Navy Personnel Bureau in Washington. He was 23-year-old Charles Jackson French of Foreman, Ark. The revelation brought a passionate editorial reaction from the Pittsburgh Courier, one the nation’s leading Black newspapers: “All those who thrill to high HEROISM are paying tribute to a Black boy from Arkansas, who risked his life that his white comrades might live. We did NOT learn about this act of heroism...from the Navy Department.

We learned about it, almost incidentally, from Ensign Robert Adrian, a white officer of the destroyer Gregory...when he broadcast over an NBC national hookup from Hollywood.

“He and other white Americans owe their LIVES to a Black man whom he identified as a ‘mess attendant named French.’

Mess attendants are none too highly regarded in the United States Navy. They are either Negroes or Filipinos, and they are BARRED from service in any other branch of the Navy unless serving in a segregated unit.

“There is not much OPPORTUNITY for heroism in a ship’s galley or an officers’ ward room. But all the men on a ship are in DANGER in time of battle, no matter where they are serving or what their skin pigment may be.... Although Mess Attendant Charles Jackson French of Arkansas was not in a heroic job, he MADE a heroic job out of it. He who had been looked down upon as a caste man, frozen in status, suddenly was looked up to as a SAVIOUR.” The newspaper also described what happened prior to Adrian finding the raft—that French had discovered the raft floating and had swum around with it, piling “wounded white comrades upon it until it had almost sunk.

“All men honor bravery and LOYALTY, and today all America hails ‘A Mess Attendant named French” who risked death that others might live. Americans like Mess Attendant French and Ensign Adrian, mutually undergoing danger to preserve American freedom for all alike, will make democracy a glowing reality in this country for future generations to enjoy.”

>> U.S. Navy Ensign Robert Adrian inspecting his crew.

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and screen-immortalize Messman French, the lad who swam through shark-infested waters, towing a raft of wounded sailors to safety after a Japanese sub had sunk their ship in the South Pacific.”

died, he moved to Omaha, Neb. to live with his sister. On Dec. 4, 1937, French enlisted in the Steward/Messman branch of the United States Navy—the only positions open to African Americans at the time.

He was assigned to the USS Houston, the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. As a Mess Attendant 3rd Class, his job was to serve meals to white officers and sailors, clear their tables and keep the mess...not a mess. While French was onboard, the Houston was stationed in Hawaii and cruised the Pacific Ocean with stops in the Philippines and Shanghai, to name a few.

After his four-year commitment ended in 1941, French returned to 2703 North 25th St. in Omaha, Neb. But four days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, French re-enlisted as a Steward’s Mate 1st Class. He joined the crew of the USS Gregory in March of 1942. Although stewards were a step up from mess mates, they were derisively labeled “seagoing bellhops” by the Black press. Their job was to man the white officers’ mess and clean their quarters.

Back in the USA after the sinking of the Gregory, the “human tugboat” visited relatives in Foreman and received a royal welcome from citizens of all races in Omaha. He appeared before enthusiastic crowds at halftime of a Creighton football game, at war bond rallies, on a calendar and in newspaper comic strips. There was even talk of a Hollywood film.

In early 1943, 20th Century Fox released the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, “Stormy Weather,” with an all-Black cast of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham and Fats Waller. In June, Metro-GoldwynMayer brought to the big screen, “Cabin in the Sky,” another musical with an all-Black cast that included Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters and Lena Horne. Both were hits.

“However,” reported the Pittsburgh Courier, “Warner Brothers has it in mind to go all of the companies one better 26

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LETTER OF COMMENDATION Based on his incident report, Ensign Adrian had been informed that Mess Attendant French was being recommended for the Navy Cross. It was the second highest honor—just below the Congressional Medal of Honor— and it was the medal that had been awarded to Doris Miller.

But it wasn’t to be. All he would receive was a letter of commendation from Adm. William F. Halsey Jr., then commander of the Southern Pacific Fleet. It read: “For meritorious conduct in action while serving on board a destroyer transport which was badly damaged during the engagement with Japanese forces in the British Solomon Islands on Sept. 5, 1942. After the engagement, a group of about 15 men were adrift on a raft, which was being deliberately shelled by Japanese naval forces. French tied a line to himself and swam for more than two hours without rest, thus attempting to tow the raft. His conduct was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Naval Service.” (They were eight hours in the water, but Admiral Halsey reduced it to two.)

Ensign Adrian was outraged, but the Gregory episode was complicated by the issuance of a posthumous Silver Star to Lieutenant Commander Harry F. Bauer, the ship’s commanding officer. Wounded and dying, the skipper had ordered Adrian and the signalman on the bridge to leave him and go to the aid of another crewman who was yelling for help. He was never seen again. By Navy standards, it would be nearly unprecedented for a subordinate to receive a higher decoration for an act of heroism comparable to that of a superior. In addition to the Silver Star, a destroyer-minelayer was named the USS Harry F. Bauer in 1944.

French was probably manning his mop or carrying food trays on the USS Endicott when he heard the news. At the time, his destroyer was escorting convoys in the Atlantic theater along the African coast and in the Caribbean. With the Endicott needing repairs in May of 1944, French was assigned to the USS Frankford, a destroyer that provided support from its 5” guns for the successful landings on D-Day, along with rescuing survivors of mined ships and downed pilots and driving off enemy E-boat attacks. In August, the Frankford arrived in Naples, Italy for the invasion of southern France.

FRENCH’S SIDE OF THE STORY Little is known of French after the war ended, and he was soon forgotten. But sometime after the Korean War, he was

>> True Comics, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1943

at a friend’s home in San Diego and told his side of the story.

One of those listening was Chester Wright, who repeated what French said in his book, “Black Men and Blue Water.”

French told it pretty much as Adrian had done years earlier, but with a few twists. He laughed when he told how he almost peed himself when he felt the sharks brush against his feet, but guessed they weren’t hungry for a scared Black man.

As he told of the raft being rescued, his mood changed from jovial to anger and tears. After the badly wounded men were taken to the hospital, French and the others were taken to a rest camp where authorities wanted to separate French because he was “colored.”

The white boys from the raft and some of the other survivors from the Gregory refused to have him separated. He was a member of the Gregory’s crew, they said, and they were going to stay together. Anyone who thought different had better been ready to fight.

There was a standoff that lasted some time, with the crew of the Gregory—all covered with oil and grime and looking like madmen—facing off against the masters at arms in their clean and pressed whites. Eventually, they realized the Gregory’s crew meant what they said and backed down. As French told this part of the story, his shoulders shook and tears coursed down his cheeks as he told how the white boys had stood up for him.

According to Wright, French had returned from the war “stressed out” from seeing too much death and destruction. He was probably discharged with mental problems and left to fend for himself. He died on Nov. 7, 1956 and was buried in the Fort Rosencrans National Cemetery in San Diego, an almost forgotten hero.

ISHOF EXHIBIT The name of Charles Jackson French resurfaced in 2009, when his story was part of an exhibit on Black Swimming History at the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale.

The irony of French’s heroics was that it came at a time when African Americans were prevented from swimming in virtually every swimming pool and public beach in America.

When he was being celebrated in Omaha in 1943, there was no pool in the city where he could have taken a dip. So one of the questions that remains is where and how did he become such a powerful swimmer? Unfortunately, his surviving relatives don’t have the answer. The best guess is in the Red River and stone quarries near Foreman, Ark. About 10 years later, the exhibit came to the attention of a retired Navy couple that began some research of their own.

They found the family of Robert Adrian, who had passed away in 2011, but his family had their own story to tell of CONTINUED >>

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Charles Jackson French. Their father rarely spoke of his war experiences, except for French—for if it were not for a Black man named Charles Jackson French, he would tell them, neither he nor any of them would be alive.

For his 75th birthday, Adrian’s children had found an old record among their father’s treasures. It had been given to him

by NBC back in 1943. It was the recording of It Happened in the Service. Hearing it after all those years brought him to tears.

Adrian had tried to locate French after the war with no success, but he also had suffered another trauma. It was almost exactly a year after the sinking of the Gregory, and he was the gunnery officer on the destroyer USS Boyd when it came under attack.

As the crew was helping to rescue a downed pilot, two enemy shells crashed into the ship, destroying the forward guns, and exploded in the engine room, bursting the steam pipes. One officer and 11 men were killed and another eight seriously wounded.

It was Adrian who led the rescue team, and he had recurring nightmares the rest of his life about seeing the bodies of those men burned alive by 800-degree heat.

>> Charles Jackson French honored at halftime of a Creighton football game in Omaha. (Pictured with his sister, Viola)

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ADRIAN’S DYING WISH Adrian was at sea for much of his life, which was followed by a successful career as a banker. After his second retirement, he began writing, and one of the stories was published in Tin Can Alley, a newsletter that appealed to men who served on destroyers. It was called, “Our Night of Hell off Guadalcanal,” and it told the story of the Gregory and French and his recommendation for the Navy Cross. He spoke about French to Navy brass, but social justice was not the issue it is today.

He had hoped that before he died, French would receive the commendation he deserved, but since it wasn’t, he told his children to carry on with his dying wish.

Then in April of 2021, an online post about French from the International Swimming Hall of Fame caught the attention of Rear Admiral Charles Brown, the Navy public affairs officer who said the Navy will see if “it can do more to recognize Petty Officer French.” In Washington, Nebraska Congressman Don Bacon said that he believed French deserved the Congressional Medal of Honor. *** Let’s hope the naming of the aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller is just the first step in recognizing the contributions of African Americans in the history of our great country. The second step would be to honor Robert Adrian’s dying wish by recognizing the heroics and powerful swimming of Charles Jackson French—from a time when most white people thought Blacks couldn’t swim. ◄

Bruce Wigo, historian and consultant at the International Swimming Hall of Fame, served as president/CEO of ISHOF from 2005-17.

[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

Reece Whitley Putting Pieces Together to "Set Myself Up For a Good Swim" at Olympic Trials

BY DAN D'ADDONA

W

hile many swimmers get more tense and feel more pressure heading into the Olympic Trials, Reece Whitley is feeling more relaxed.

It isn’t because the Trials aren’t stressful, but Whitley has finally gotten to the point of his year where Trials aren’t just his main focus, but his only focus. It sometimes is easy to forget that college swimmers, while at the top of their sport, are also students with major schoolwork and pressure in the classroom.

“This year has not been an easy one academically. I have been managing to train well throughout that. So I think this last push could feel actually refreshing as opposed to hectic,” Reece Whitley told Swimming World. “The vibes are good.”

where I put too much pressure on myself.”

Whitley was out-touched by Minnesota’s Max McHugh in the 200 breaststroke.

“Max is obviously very good and he knows I am good. We push each other. I think I settled a bit too much up front and I didn’t have enough to push through that in the back half the way I wanted. If I let things flow a little more and let things fly at the 75 instead of 125, maybe it is different,” Whitley said. “But it is all information. I got fifth as a freshman. I got to swim in the 200 IM final this year. To finish second after a long week of racing, I can’t really complain. Of course you always wish things go better.”

Whitley is coming off of an NCAA Championships that didn’t go as well as he had hoped for himself or Cal, which finished runnerup to Texas.

Whitley said he will take all of that information he learned at NCAAs and put it to good use at the Trials, where he will be swimming against some of the same athletes, as well as professionals, in the 100 and 200 breaststroke events.

“None of my swims felt good. That is the way NCAAs goes. It is about grinding through that. Nobody feels good,” Whitley said. “In the 200 breast, the morning swim was fine. I think it was just me getting excited for the day. There is also a team race that is at the forefront and you get nervous because each swim is more important. Every swim, every stroke matters.

That is more to think about. I think that put me in a spot

“I will take a lot,” he said. “The mentality of going out there regardless of how you feel, not caring about time and just racing the dudes next to you. Nobody knows the exact time it will take to make it. But you know the winner of the race will go to the Olympics. It is about getting your hand on the wall first or seconds. I am focused on putting myself in position to be in the hunt. Breaststroke is pretty loaded. There are

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probably 10 guys good enough to make the team.”

That is how the field is in most elite meets, something Whitley has prepared for by watching.

That training has helped Whitley into position to contend.

He is also working on fine-tuning anything that could mean a hundredth of a second.

“We have our opportunity,” Reece Whitley said. “Trials is our Super Bowl. It is the biggest meet ever. Every race you are just going out there trying to have a good one. That is what it is about.”◄

SWIMMING On The Wall

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“It has definitely been different than in years past. We didn’t have much long-course availability last year. We frontloaded our season with long course, which helped. We haven’t raced much long course. It was interesting to go to these meets and get these long-course races in, even an intersquad. You can’t replicate that environment.”

poised for a strong meet.

www

That hard work started as soon as last year’s NCAA meet was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitley and his Cal teammates were out of the water for a bit, but started preparing for what was ahead.

[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

“Watching Europeans got me in that mindset. It is such a big stage,” he said. “Watching guys that you go to work with and see them do well is really inspiring.

You are watching them take advantage of their opportunity.

They have worked their butts off in a similar way to what you have done and that is exciting to see.”

“I wouldn’t say it is anything differently in terms of technique. There are things about my strength in both long course and short course, like body posture, core stability and where my kick is finishing. It is more stroke mechanics. The real difference is just tempo training, which takes care of itself because it is muscle memory,” he said. “It is working on those pieces to set myself up for a good swim.”

It was the same attitude in 2016, when Whitley was a young teenager.

“I always have believed in myself and making semis in 2016 was really helpful. It put things into perspective for what the stage actually looks like,” Whitley said. “I can remember watching the 200 final very vividly. I can remember exactly where I was sitting. Since that meet, it was like OK, this is it.

Semifinals is pretty intense. I think going through that process and not swimming well and learning from that definitely has put me in a better position to tackle the meet a little better this time.”

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[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

Abbey Weitzeil Working on "Taming Mind" Before Unleashing Everything at Trials

BY DAN D'ADDONA

W

hen Abbey Weitzeil steps onto the block, she puts everything into her race — body, mind and heart — to get to the wall first.

In the sprint events, the roar is unleashed with everything on the line in a matter of seconds.

On the mental side, the key is to have everything blocked out and be ready to roar.

Overthinking is an issue for many swimmers as they build to the moment on the blocks, no matter how elite the athlete.

“Experience helps because you know what to expect and how to calm your nerves and work with your mind behind the block a little bit,” Abbey Weitzeil told Swimming World.

“That has been a struggle for me, to tame my mind behind the blocks. I have been working on it. Being a veteran allows you to be more excited and enjoy the process more. When you are younger and it is new, you are caught up in everything. You don’t know how to control your mind or nerves, and that is where being a veteran comes into play.”

There is no secret formula. And just because something worked once doesn’t guarantee it will work again.

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“I don’t think there is a specific answer, just having the experience of going through the motions enough and learning to not overthink,” she said. “I just want to dive in and race.

I do my best when I am racing and overthinking. I definitely have not perfected that. It takes a lot. I feel like I know where my mind will go and that helps me.”

Once her mind is tamed and her blinders are on, it just takes a short burst of clarity and focus before Weitzeil bursts into the water. Her focus is trained on her race alone, and her face shows her ferocity as she readies to at the start.

“I try not to pay attention to it,” she said. “I am going to dive in and do what I can do. I can’t control what anyone else does. I can do my best and race as hard as I can and the outcome will be the outcome.”

That is not to say Weitzeil isn’t aware of who is around her.

For most of her highest-profile races the past five or six years, she has been in a middle lane next to Simone Manuel, who qualified for Rio in 2016 with Weitzeil in both the 50 free and 100 free.

While they are rivals, it’s a friendly competition that seems to bring the best out of each other. They swam with and

against each other on national teams at national events and were college rivals in the Pac-12 across the Cal-Stanford divide. The road to international events for Americans over the last half-decade has gone through that duo. [ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

“Simone is an amazing competitor and I think we have only gotten to race once this year. We usually race a lot and we just haven’t,” Weitzeil said. “We swim the same events and are rivals, but I am always pulling for her. It is nice to have someone you are comfortable swimming next to, but also pushes you to your best.”

Weitzeil made her mark in college as well, breaking the American record in the 50 free, the first woman to break 21 seconds (20.90). She said that performance took a while to sink in, but now that others have broken 21 seconds, she appreciates it a little more.

“The fact that I don’t have it any more made it sunk in a little more,” she said. “I missed my last NCAA season and wanted to get the barrier lower. Watching from afar has made it sunk in a little more.”

Weitzeil was hoping to have another shot at breaking that barrier last year but the NCAA Championships of her senior season were wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic. She turned pro, signed with Speedo and swam for the LA Current in the International Swimming League.

But her last major college meet was one of the most stunning performances in NCAA history, something that continues to be talked about in swimming lore. At the 2019 NCAA Championships, Weitzeil injured her arm in the finish of the 200 medley relay, with still a day of the meet to go. She had to anchor the 400 free relay, since the injury prevented her from exiting the pool fast enough on one of the earlier legs.

With her arm heavily wrapped, Weitzeil anchored Cal’s NCAA-record 400 free relay that finished in 3:06.96 to close the meet. Only the arm wrap prevented it from being counted as an American record.

Weitzeil anchored in 46.07. Earlier in the meet, she won the 50 free in an American record 21.02. But even with an American record in the 50 and three NCAA relay titles, the question of how fast could she have gone healthy will always remain.

“That was the best meet of my college career,” Weitzeil said.

“I feel like I have always been super competitive in general.

Everyone at this level hates losing, even little games. I love to compete and I hate doing things I am not good at because I like to be good at things. I love to step up behind the blocks and race. I am a decent in-season swimmer, but when it is go-time, I am ready to go. I just get in this mode. I would have loved to have seen what I could have done at NCAAs. I hadn’t swam the 100 free healthy in a couple of years. I don’t even know what I could have gone.

“I was prepared for that meet. I knew I was going to go fast.

I didn’t have a choice. We were so close to winning that meet that I had to get in there. I swam not for me. I swam for the points for the team. I didn’t want to just quit, so I wanted to see what happens. I definitely know I could have gone way faster without a thing on my arm. In prelims, no one knew what was going to happen. I dove in and went straight down and was immediately in last place. I had to just kick and I made finals. At night, I just had to rip it with my legs.”

Weitzeil is healthy and ready to rip it at Trials, hoping to make her second Olympic team.

“I am feeling decent in the water,” Abbey Weitzeil said. “I am excited to go out and race.”◄

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[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

Katie McLaughlin Finds New Perspective Heading into Olympic Trials — From Coaching

BY DAN D'ADDONA

K

atie McLaughlin was starting to struggle as a professional swimmer.

She hadn’t felt the same purpose since being on Cal’s team, contending for NCAA championships.

After being a key member of Cal’s team, things were different as a professional.

“I struggled not having a team and being on my own. It is just different when you are not on the college team. I was trying to find my purpose. I felt kind of selfish swimming on my own to go best times. I asked myself why I was doing it.

Having the coaching the senior group at North Bay Aquatics gives me such a purpose. That really got me through the double Olympic year,” she said. “What would I want the kids to take away from a bad race and it helps me have perspective on what to take away myself.”

Sure, she was training in the same pool as the current Bears, but as a graduate, the situation is different. While some of the Bears were her former teammates, they simply aren’t anymore after graduation — at least not in the same way.

McLaughlin, like most pros, found the situation difficult to adjust to at first. Swimming for the team is the focus of most college athletes, and the vibe just changes after graduating.

Then the pandemic hit, which didn’t help either, but McLaughlin found some new perspective from what seemed like an unlikely source. She started to coach.

“A big thing I feel like has really helped my swimming in general is starting to coach. That honestly got me through the pandemic. I was going to only do it over the summer, but I am still doing it now. I go 6-7 hours a week,” Katie McLaughlin told Swimming World. “It got me through my pro life struggles. Just having a different perspective on swimming. It has given me so much more gratitude and better appreciation for what I get to do and more of a purpose.”

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There have been plenty of transitions for McLaughlin, who had shoulder surgery last year, which changed her training and recovery. She also competed in the International Swimming League (ISL) season shortly after, which went well considering the injury, though McLaughlin was nowhere near the times she envisioned for herself pre-surgery.

It was a big step in the road to recovery as she prepares for the Olympic Trials with hopes of making the team.

“I feel pretty good. I have been training well and racing well.

If I were to give myself a little test, I am where I want to

be,” she said. “The past year, I have really focused on taking care of myself and finding things that bring me joy.”

That includes coaching. But also doesn’t include the 200 butterfly.

“It really got hard to perform in that race and stepping away has transformed me,” she said. “I did it in 2016 and it was fine, but I would rather focus on having one swim per session. It is really hard to train for that and something else. When I swim the 200 fly, I focus only on that.”

Now, she can spread her focus out.

“It has been nice. I feel like I can just train a little bit more what I like to do. I like more aerobic freestyle training. I don’t have to worry about energy conservation,” she said. “Having my fly focused on the 100 is a different way of training. My endurance helps be be ready for the end of the 100 fly and 200 free. Teri (McKeever) is really creative and finds ways to get us to train at our race speeds.”

Being on her own as a pro, McLaughlin has taken the time to relearn and reiterate lessons she learned as a college swimmer, especially on the mental side of things.

“I think that something we do a good job of in the college season is not riding the highs or the lows. You are at NCAAs at a business trip. For me that would be after a race and I do well, or not, giving myself 15 minutes to mull over whatever feelings I have, then move on to the next thing,” she said.

“We have all been there where we have a horrible practice or race, then turn it around and have a great practice or race the next day. Little tools like that to manage emotions are really important. The same thing can happen with a good swim. You can relax too much and check out after a good race. I am trying to have fun and enjoy, but knowing that if I want to achieve more, I have to roll with it. I have the perspective of it just being a swim meet. If it doesn’t go how I hope it goes, there are still so many things I am grateful for.”

McLaughlin kept that mentality at the 2016 trials as she

[ PHOTO BY BECCA WYANT ]

McLaughlin was a swimmer with a shot at making the team in the 200 fly, but she decided to focus on other races like the 100 butterfly, 200 free and 100 free.

struggled to recover from a serious neck injury and did not make the team.

“I didn’t make the 100 fly, I didn’t make the 200 free, not make the 200 fly. Not making the 100 fly, I didn’t even make the final, but I had to focus on what was next,” she said.

“I didn’t want it to crush my dreams before the next race.

I wanted to wait until the end before feeling that. It wasn’t that fun. I remember after trials, and just knew that I took some time off with my neck, I really wasn’t in the best shape to race. I needed to train a little more to get into swimming shape. I didn’t want to start back at Cal out of shape.”

It wasn’t easy.

“I took a couple days after being crushed. I took the rest of the summer and trained backstroke and IM and ended up going to futures that summer. Then my career kind of took off,” she said. “I would have loved to have made it in 2016. I do think it gave me a little extra push to force myself to want it a little bit more. I was definitely upset, but I bounced back … but I really don’t know how.”

Now, McLaughlin is a veteran on the national team looking to put together her best race at the right time.

“I can really only control myself and put myself in the best position. I can’t control how other people are going to swim so I have to make sure I can do my best. That is where I have to live,” Katie McLaughlin said. “The U.S. is just so deep, which is why it is so cool to swim for the U.S. If you made it, you really made it.”◄ BIWEEKLY

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[ PHOTO BY COONOR TRIMBLE ]

Brooke Forde Riding Momentum of NCAA Title in 400 IM Into Olympic Trials; Will Take Fifth Year at Stanford

BY DAN D'ADDONA

B

rooke Forde is looking forward to simply having a healthy swim at the United States Olympic Trials.

a bunch. I went to the ER and they pieced it together. They did a spinal tap so that is why I had to be out of the water.”

It is a simple goal, but one that was far from reality at the 2016 Trials when the Stanford national champion was recovering from viral meningitis.

Somehow, Forde was able to swim and qualified for the Junior Pan Pacs team.

It was devastating.

“I think I cried after every race. I passed out in the hallway at the end of the meet,” Forde told Swimming World. “I had meningitis two weeks before Trials. I had been out of the water for a while and was pretty sick. I was also a nervous wreck. I somehow picked it up at a Pro Series meet. A week later I was in the hospital.”

It quickly got worse.

“At first, it just felt like I had the flu, then I got a 107-degree fever. Then it got better, then I started practicing and I couldn’t do backstroke because of the sun being so bright,” she said. “Then I started getting really bad headaches and my neck got stiff. Then I got a fever again and was throwing up 36

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“I did qualify for Junior Pan Pacs. That was the positive that came out of it,” she said.

Now, Forde heads to the 2021 Olympic Trials stronger, wiser — and healthier.

She is coming off of a strong senior season at Stanford, winning the NCAA title in the 400 IM. “That meet still feels weird to think about. It was a bizarre meet after a bizarre season. It for sure helped give me confidence going into long course. I was happy to see that focus pay off,” she said.

Forde will be in contention to make the Olympic team in the 400 IM. It is something she has been focused on for most of her swimming career.

She started IM training at a young age, then chose Stanford to be with the best IM training group in the country.

“I have always been an IMer since I was really young. I attribute that to my club coaches. They made everyone train IM, which I am really grateful for. I wasn’t pigeon holed in one stroke,” she said. “I won Junior Nationals in the 400 IM as a junior. It has really always been my go-to. I like that I can train for it and be prepared to race other strokes, which I enjoy. Obviously the Stanford 400 IM group was the perfect place for me to keep that going.”

Forde is looking for a strong transition from short-course to long-course.

“It felt really rapid, the transition coming off of NCAAs. I went to Mission Viejo two weeks later, so I immediately switched gears into long-course mode,” she said. “I have been becoming more and more confident.”

That confidence gets her through the grueling 400 IM. “Long-course 400 IM just feels so much different,” she said.

“In training, it is just doing some longer stroke work. In short course, I can get away with more sprinty stroke work, but in long course I really have to work on endurance backstroke and endurance breaststroke. I have to focus more on building my 100s as they go. I can’t rely so much on underwater to help me shift gears. I have to work on my tempo in backstroke for sure.”

“I try not to let it affect my mentality. Everyone swims that race so differently, so I can’t try to base my race off of someone else. I am usually not even close to the lead at the halfway point. If I looked at it differently I would take it out too fast,” she said. “You know the goal is your place, so it is really hard to swim your own race when you know that in the middle of the race. But all of the girls I have swam against, I have swam against many times, so I am used to that and that definitely helps.”

Forde has had to shift several aspects of her life around because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which postponed the Olympics.

“It has been pretty challenging for me because I expected to be retired at this point. That took a lot of reshifting my mindset. I am going to miss graduation because I will be at Trials. When it first got postponed, it was finding that motivation to keep going. It is still something I really care about and really want to go for,” she said. “It has been the goal for a long time — longer than I was expecting. I am just trying to be optimistic but also reasonable with myself. I will be happy if I can put together a race that I am proud of. Even if that doesn’t result in making the Olympic team, I want to be proud of my race.

It is hard not to think about it with being this close.”

She will duel with the likes of Melanie Margalis, Madisyn Cox, Ally McHugh, Hali Flickinger and Emma Weyant for a trip to the Tokyo Olympics.

“I am hoping to swim collegiately next year while I do my masters,” Forde said. “So that is nice to know that 2021 won’t be my last race.” ◄

[ PHOTO BY COONOR TRIMBLE ]

Forde said keeping the focus on her own race is the key, especially since everyone swims the 400 IM so differently.

But no matter what happens, Forde will have at least one more year in the pool despite what happens at trials. She has decided to take the NCAA’s extra year of eligibility offered because of the pandemic.

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Mallory Comerford: "Finally Feeling Like Myself in the Water" Heading Into Olympic Trials

BY DAN D'ADDONA

M

allory Comerford rose to become one of the world’s best swimmers through regimented training, a clear focus and planning ahead.

other personal health issues that weren’t allowing my body to recover. We did a full reset in March and that allowed my body time to heal.

But since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Comerford, like most swimmers, lost her regular routine with the everchanging circumstances. For someone who relies on routine, it was an extremely difficult situation, something that Comerford is still dealing with more than a year later as she prepares for the Olympic Trials.

“We started with swimming an hour a day then built things up until there. It was hard but it was good to see my body recover throughout the process. Knowing how my body has adjusted has been really encouraging.”

“It has definitely been a different journey than I expected it to be. There have been a few extra road bumps,” Comerford told Swimming World. “But I am at the best place I have been in a while. I feel really encouraged going into Trials. I am looking forward to racing.”

It took a while to get there, however.

“I have had to make some adjustments of things through some injuries. We have come up with a new plan. The hardest part of it for me is it not going as planned,” she said. “I am someone who likes to plan ahead in my head.”

It didn’t help that she was going through some physical ailments.

“From October until March or so, I was really struggling in the pool, mainly practice-wise,” she said. “I started off getting some bloodwork done and going through some things. We are pretty sure I had mono in the fall. I had some 38

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But it was the mental toll that the ailments and the lack of routine began to increase.

“It is definitely challenging at times, especially mentally.

The most important thing I have learned is keeping things in perspective. I was struggling in the pool and didn’t understand why. That was really frustrating,” she said. “The hardest part especially being so close to trials, swimming is so regimented, especially the way I train, that breaking that routine — especially one that has been working — was something different and in swimming, different can be scary.”

It started with the pandemic. Different forms of exercise and less time in the pool were dynamic changes for a professional swimmer.

“I did not get out of shape at all. I have done so much work and my body was still processing it as work. It was just a different stimulus and different recovery,” Comerford said.

After a few months out of the water Comerford slowly picked up pieces of her routine.

“We got back into the water in June. We got to swim outside, which was great. We started off once a day, then had some doubles. We had a time trial at the end of the summer and I swam well but nothing crazy. A 1:44 was pretty good considering how the year went.”

Comerford’s Coming of Age At the 2016 Olympic trials, Mallory Comerford was a relatively unknown swimmer. She won some state championships in Michigan before heading to Louisville for college.

“In 2016 at trials, I knew nothing. I had been to nationals, but didn’t really know about anything. I have learned how those meets work and how to handle the nerves that go along with it,” she said.

After a year at Louisville, Comerford’s career skyrocketed, leading to multiple NCAA titles and a spot on the U.S. national team.

“In 2017, I swam really well because I had nothing to prove. I have nothing to prove this year. I am just going to race. There are some really talented girls and to have the opportunity to be in contention for the Olympic team is amazing,” she said.

“I think it was great that (my rise) came after the Olympic year so I had time to build all of that.”

That transformation began with weight training at Louisville, a relatively new part of the process for Comerford.

“I think the main thing is I did nothing in high school. I did a little bit of dry land here and there. I never really lifted or knew how that affected swimming. It started when I got to college. That got the ball rolling and I have kept the ball rolling.I like lifting and I like working out outside the water.

I liked playing other sports. I like the challenge that brings,” Comerford said.

“I don’t ever remember a point from year to year that I increased my bench by X amount of pounds, it was a gradual process.

I have been challenging my body in different ways. I definitely got stronger over quarantine. I was lifting a lot and really heavy since I wasn’t swimming.”

It was all Comerford could do at times to remain in shape and with a high level of strength, especially in her legs.

“I was doing lot of lower body stuff, running, cycling. My legs were the best they have ever been. I really enjoy that it gives me a break from the water or adds something to being in the pool,” she said. “It is definitely a huge factor. A lot of it has to to do with being able to transferring the power into the pool and also being aware of how my body is connected.

A lot of it comes from my core and how that connects to everything.

“A lot of what we focus on is how is this going to translate into the water, not just getting stronger. It has been huge.”

And has led to huge performances.

Pro Life In a Pandemic Part of what has helped Mallory Comerford have the time to focus on her strength and preparation is the fact that she is a professional swimmer.

She is not worried about classes or work or anything else, though that path has its ups and downs.

“I love that swimming is my job. Some days are harder and more stressful than others. I have learned to admit that it is challenging. This is the pressure that I feel. If I keep it inside of me, it just explodes,” she said. “It is a process and something I am trying to work on. I think it has given me an opportunity to learn so much from so many different people, which has been huge. I have build a support team with Louisville, USA Swimming and my best friends on the national team. I am pumped to race with them and be surrounded by that. I want to swim for as long as I possibly can. It has been great to me and I have the resources to do it. Moving forward I know I need to do something else as well, whether that be classes or a hobby. School used to take this place.”

Comerford is now focused on the Trials with a goal of making the Olympic team.

“Obviously the thought is there. I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about it. It is my goal and my dream. It is the greatest honor, but I have a lane and I have a chance. I want to be the best Mallory I can in that moment,” she said.

Comerford will swim the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles as well as the 100 butterfly with the 100 and 200 free the best of her races. Those events also have relay spots, but Comerford knows her best race could be more than just getting a relay spot.

“My goal is to make it individually. But being on the team is being on the team. It is more exciting to me. Relays are my favorite thing about swimming. Knowing I could be in a relay at that level is exciting,” she said.

Adding to the excitement is the fact that Comerford feels back to form in the water.

“The past three-four weeks, I have been crushing practice. It has been really hard work. I have had the best practice I have had since pre-COVID. Getting out of a practice like that is so encouraging,” Mallory Comerford said. “I finally feel like myself in the water. For a long time, I felt so heavy and like there was a parachute holding me back in the water. Now everything is moving in the right direction.” ◄ BIWEEKLY

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[PHOTO BY MIKE LEWIS, USA SWIMMING]

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“Dave Salo and I recruited her to USC at the end of 2008, and she subsequently qualified for World Champs in the 800 the summer of 2009,” says Kase. “I got her to do an open water select camp in 2010, and she soon qualified for her first open water World Championships in the 25K. “She continued to compete in both open water and pool throughout college.

During that time, she was not only a leader on the team, but an NCAA champion, Olympic silver medalist, Pac12 champion and Olympic Trials finalist.

“Over the past 10 years, she has developed a passion for the sport and has consistently gotten stronger and faster, enjoying sustained success at the highest levels. Haley has competed in different bodies of water all over the world (rivers, oceans, lakes, varied courses) and has won races in water hot and cold. She is flexible, adaptable and responds to everchanging circumstances in a race.

“Haley is tough and can handle just about anything in workout. She thrives in competition, can handle short-rest sets, loves racing-quality sets and has an ability to descend any distance. My job has been to stay attuned to her needs,” says Kase.

“Dave Salo and I liked to vary practices, keep things interesting and challenge swimmers with different distances. We rarely repeated sets. However, at training camps or a few days before a competition, I often had Haley repeat a set of 3x (8 x 50). The results would give me a good read on how fast she was swimming. I could then tailor training to what I thought would build her confidence leading into the race.

“Sometimes I would change intervals—i.e., 1 round on :40, 1 round on :45, 1 round on :50. Other times I would look for descending 1-4, holding each round faster, or 1 easy/1 fast and really get her going with a good kick. At a venue, I wanted to see her on the course, adapting to the environment—landmarks, buoys—just taking it all in. We would also practice turns and finishes.

“In 2016, she had speed, endurance and was training better than ever. She used her fifth place in Rio (1:57:20.2, just 28.8 seconds out of third) to motivate herself and to continue to pursue her goals,” says Kase. “To her credit, she used that experience to grow and to ultimately produce two of her best career years in the pool (she posted her fastest times in 2018) and winning international open water races.” 

HOW THEY TRAIN HALEY ANDERSON

BY MICHAEL J. STOTT

O

pen water competition is a take-no-prisoners endeavor.

Meteorological conditions (wind, weather, etc.) and elements such as waves and water temperature present physical and mental pressures unlike those found in shorter aquatic contests. Then there are seasoned opponents—e.g., the average age of female 10K competitors at the 2016 Olympics was 25.03; for men, 25.64.

Among those in Rio was 24-year-old Haley Anderson. Her credentials include being an 11-time NCAA All-American (USC), three-time NCAA champion, 2012 Olympic silver medalist (10K) and five-time open water World Championship medalist (two gold, 2013 and 2015 5K; two silver, 2017 team event, 2019 10K; one bronze, 2019 team event).

The Granite Bay, Calif. native also has four U.S. open water championships, two Pan Pac gold and two World University Games gold medals. A USA Swimming national team member since 2009, last season she wore the colors of the International Swimming League’s Cali Condors.

In short, Anderson is decorated and determined. And at age 29, on her third U.S. Olympic team, she is headed for the Aug. 4 10K starting line at Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo after an extended stay in Mission Viejo, working with Mark Schubert.

Through it all, her main open water coach and training director has been Catherine Kase.

“Haley is competitive, loyal, coachable, independent, adaptable, a DIY project lover and a great traveling partner,” says Kase. “She is extremely aware and observant of all things.

Every day she brings her best to the pool, trains hard, smiles and leaves it there. Haley makes those around her better in training and pursues excellence in everything she does. She loves her snorkel, can train every stroke in workout, mixes it up and is great at changing gears.

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Michael J. Stott is an ASCA Level 5 coach whose Collegiate School (Richmond, Va.) teams won nine state high school championships. A member of that school’s Athletic Hall of Fame, he is also a recipient of NISCA’s Outstanding Service Award.

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PARTING SHOT