New Zealand’s 9-member Olympic squad may be chomping at the bit for the 2024 Games to begin just days from now in Paris, but the nation’s rising age group stars are still putting in the work at competitions at home.
12-year-oldĀ Grayson Coulter has been making a name for himself across the domestic junior circuit, recently putting up some head-turning times that would rank among the best at such powerhouse swimming nations as the United States.
While racing at the 2024 Golden Homes Swimfest in Auckland late last month, Coulter of North Short Swim Club registered a new lifetime best of 1:59.68 in the boy’s 12-year-old 200m freestyle.
The youngster split 27.28/30.38 (58.16)/30.78/30.74 (1:01.52) to handily defeat the field en route to clocking his first-ever performance under the 2:00 barrier.
Last March we reported how Coulter clocked a time of 2:01.28 at the New Zealand Age Group & Open Championships, a time which would have rendered the swimmer the 4th-best performer among the 11-12-year-old boy set in the U.S.
His 1:59.68 now would check in as a new U.S. National Age Group Record (NAG), beating the current standard of 1:59.72 Winn Aung put on the books in 2015.
We’ll keep an eye on Coulter as he continues to compete and most likely progresses both at home and abroad.
He went 1.54 today in the heats at Qld States. OMG š±
Coulter has never swam a NZ age group or open champs, as your story suggests. He’s 12.
Fast times for 12 year old boys!
Out of curiosity, how did Winn Aung fare over the span of time between setting the US national age group record in 2015 and now? Is he still competing? I reckon he would now be about 21 years old, which is the point in time that most young men are just reaching their athletic prime.
The author mentions keeping an eye on Grayson Coulter āas he continues to compete and most likely progresses both at home and abroadā.
Why not just say something like ā we hope Coulter continues to have fun and swim fastā rather than imply heāll be competing internationally when heās older.
He peaked
Grayson has not peaked. He’s such a mature kid, you don’t see any other 12 year olds acting like the way he does. He’s so passionate about the sport and what he does, I see it everyday when I train with him. I’m almost fairly certain he’s not done developing, he’s almost 3/4 of a foot shorter than his older brother. Definitely hasn’t peaked yet.
Winn Aung was a very matured 12 year old towering over others, probably near his current height of 5ā10ā
He competed for the University of Tampa. His peak as a swimmer was around 15 y/o 21-46-140 freestyle in scy.