Polish backstroker Ksawery Masiuk, one of the breakout swimmers of 2022, has decided to stay home and train with his coach Pawel Wolkow rather than matriculating to NC State University in America.
Masiuk, who turned 18 in December, said on the SwimSwam podcast last year that he wasn’t planning to head to Raleigh until after the Paris 2024 Olympics. Now he says that he’s staying home, believing that he’s better off training in long course meters at home than in short course yards in the United States.
“I decided to stay here because in my opinion I can achieve bigger things on international stage here than in (an) academic league in yards,” Masiuk said. “That’s the main reason why I’m staying. I just want to be faster and faster on long course meters.”
Masiuk was Poland’s only male medalist at last summer’s World Aquatics Championships, taking bronze in the 50 back in 24.49 when he was only 17 years old. He also had big performances at junior meets last summer, winning four golds – including the 50 and 100 back individually – at the 2022 World Junior Championships and three – including a sweep of the backstroke races – at the 2022 European Junior Championships.
In total, he has six career World Juniors medals an 11 career European Juniors medals.
Last summer, Masiuk committed to join NC State and his countrymate Kacper Stokowski. The two tied for the win in the 100 back on Thursday at the Polish National Championships, swimming matching 53.74s.
Stokowski was the 2022 NCAA Champion in the 100 back and 2023 NCAA runner-up. He was a senior last year, so only has his COVID-19 bonus year of eligibility remaining – though he hasn’t yet announced if he will take that or not.
Even without Masiuk, NC State is shaping up to have among the best classes in the country in both 2023 and 2024. The 2023 class includes names like Hudson Williams, Sam Flack, Chase Mueller, Will Heck, and Mitchell Ledford.
The 2024 class is one of the best that any school has put together in a while and includes both the #1 recruit in the class Daniel Diehl and the #3 recruit in the class Kaii Winkler. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – #11 Nolan Dunkel and #12 Matt Marsteiner are both also headed to NC State after Paris.
Best Times in Long Course Meters:
- 50 back – 24.44
- 100 back – 52.58
- 200 back – 1:56.62
- 50 free – 22.77
- 100 free – 49.41
- 200 free – 1:48.93
Masiuk trains with the club UKS G-8 Bielany Warszawa in the capital and largest city of Poland.
I might be biased. I am from Poland and swam at D1 university. As much as I respect his decision, choosing to stay in Poland instead of getting a US degree is mind boggling. NC State is a great program but he could easily go to Cal or Stanford. There is no life after swimming in Poland and it just sucks to see another talent not reaching full potential. I truly hope I am wrong but I have seen this happening many times before.
Surely he can go to university in the US after Paris?
Sounds like he doesn’t want to compete in the NCAA at all, in which case it’ll be a lot longer than just after Paris
Going to Stanford would appear (to me) to be the opposite of what he’s seeking. The way I read it implies he doesn’t want to have to be in school full time while focusing on gains, be them technical or strength. Some swimmers are able to pick apart their own techniques well enough that the environment around them isn’t as enveloping (regarding impact on progression) as it might be for a less observant swimmer. Medaling at worlds at 17 shows he’s a unique talent and they often require unique circumstances. However I will add that I’m an international who swam D1 also and I fell in love with the culture and tribal elements of the system. Doing it for your… Read more »
Guys I have a dream to become a swimmer but I need a swimming kit but I don’t have money
I don’t understand why USA swims so much scy. And maintain so many scy records through age groups to elite. No one else in the world knows what they mean or takes an interest.
And NCAA – to non-Americans- it’s like all our best footballers (soccer players) playing 5 aside for most of the year and then a few months in the premiership, and expecting a seamless changeover.
I think underwaters are spoiling swimming anyway, not enhancing or adding anything to it. I want to know who is fastest at BACKSTROKE for example- not who has fastest underwater.
Do age group rankings for other countries not include SCM?
are you equating SCM with SCY?
yes I think SCM and SCY are really not that different lol
In part, the same reason we measure temperature in Farenheit instead of Celsius, speed in miles per hour instead of Kilometers, tools in SAE instead of metric, speak English instead of Chinese or French – its the way things have historically been and its what most people were born into and understand.
Pool facilities are expensive, a 50LCM facility cost a lot more than a SCM or SCY facility, and also takes more land area (a big factor for schools and colleges in urban areas); College sports, especially non revenue sports have a tough time competing for budget dollars – many colleges (and high schools) would simply drop swimming as a sport if they had to have a 50… Read more »
he should go Loughborough U.
Re LCM training v SCY training. I have noticed that some teams. ASU in particular, with both a pro group, international college swimmers (Marchand, Kos, Sarkany, as well as NCAA swimmers seem to have found a mix that works so far for their swimmers. It will be interesting to see how this pans out this summer. I note that ASU is hold an open LCM meet at the beginning of June which should be interesting.
Well done. US College system is hugely overrated, as controversial as that may sound. Lough’ Uni about to recruit Lewis Burras do a better job IMO…
Lewis Burris failed out of two different US colleges from what the story I had heard. Not sure he is the best example you could’ve used.
Said the guy who never went…
OMG! This is glorious…like manna from heaven! I haven’t updated my Indiana poem to include this year’s Olympic results, yet. But God bless Ahmed, God bless the Indiana Hoosiers and God Bless my friend, my mentor and my spiritual advisor, GOAT Coach Ray Looze! Today is a happy day and I will celebrate with beer and Stromboli’s at Nicks tonight while wearing my Ray Looze “Hall of Fame Coach” t-shirt. May all of my friends and detractors experience the joy I have at this moment for my Indiana Hoosiers!
Everyone seems to forget that Europeans also race and train some short course (meters) during the year. Most top US college programs also do some long course training during the year.
I do sorta wonder what the SC:LC ratio is for most places.
I assume it’s like 50:50 tbh, would be surprised at less than 25:75.
Have also wondered this. I think James Guy once mentioned the majority of his tough work growing up was in Short Course Meters.