30 Year-Old Austin Surhoff Clocks New 50 Free Best in Richmond Prelims

2021 PRO SWIM SERIES – RICHMOND

• January 14-17, 2021
• Collegiate School Aquatics Center, Richmond, VA
• Start Times (Eastern Time): Prelims: 9:00 a.m. / Finals: 7:00 p.m.
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Info (Both Sites)
• Schedule/Initial Timelines
• Live Stream (USA Swimming)
• Psych sheets
• Heat sheets
• Results on Meet Mobile: “2021 TYR Pro Swim Series – Richmond”

David Curtiss wasn’t the only guy in the Richmond 50 free field dropping personal bests this morning. 30 year-old Austin Surhoff knocked 0.33s off of his best time in the 50 free to take the 2nd seed behind Curtiss with a time of 22.54.

Surhoff, the 2010 NCAA 200 IM champion and University of Texas alumnus, is currently an assistant coach at Johns Hopkins University. Baseball fans might recall that his dad, BJ Surhoff, was an all star for the Baltimore Orioles, while his mom, Polly Minde Surhoff, was a competitive swimmer whose resume includes breaking a Tracy Caulkins national age group record, a Pan Am Games silver medal, and a 3rd place finish at the 1984 Olympic Trials.

The younger Surhoff initially coached at Johns Hopkins for the 2017-18, season, then the University of Virginia for 2018-19, and then moved back to JHU for this season. He’s currently training out on his own, splitting time between Meadowbrook Swim Club (where he grew up swimming for the legendary North Baltimore Aquatic Club) and Johns Hopkins, when the team is in-season.

While the USA Swimming database isn’t totally complete, it’s worth noting that it only shows 18 men who have been 22.54 or faster at the age of 30 or older, with the lion’s share of those being Olympians. Here’s just a few of the notable names from that list:

• Brett Fraser (30) – 22.54
• Matt Grevers (30) – 22.30
• Nathan Adrian (30) – 21.87
• Bruno Fratus (30) – 21.45
• Anthony Ervin (35) – 21.40

One of things that makes Surhoff’s recent career so interesting is that, up until recently, he didn’t really focus on the sprint freestyles. As a freshman at Texas, he won a national title in the 200 IM and scored regularly in both IMs and backstroke the next three years. He also focused on the IMs in long course competition, and he finished 4th in the 200 IM and 15th in the 400 IM at the 2012 Olympic Trials, then placed 8th in the 200 IM a the 2016 Trials.

Surhoff didn’t race officially again until December of 2019, when he grabbed an Olympic Trials cut in the 50 free at Princeton’s Big Al Invite Time Trials. He earned an OT cut in the 100 free this past November at the U.S. Open, with a personal best time of 50.19, and he could be looking at breaking 50.0 for the first time in his career tomorrow.