Ultra Swim Swimmer of the Month is a recurring SwimSwam feature shedding light on a U.S.-based swimmer who has proven themselves over the past month. As with any item of recognition, Swimmer of the Month is a subjective exercise meant to highlight one athlete whose work holds noteworthy context – perhaps a swimmer who was visibly outperforming other swimmers over the month, or one whose accomplishments slipped through the cracks among other high-profile swims. If your favorite athlete wasn’t selected, feel free to respectfully recognize them in our comment section.
A quiet month for swimming at the collegiate level, September rewards Michael Andrew, one of only a few Americans to take advantage of the World Cup’s pro circuit. While many American swimmers use September as a smooth transition back into peak training, Andrew took advantage of the World Cup’s huge prize money stores to turn the month of September into a packed block of racing.
In Kazan, Andrew kicked off the month with six medals in six races: gold in the 100 fly, silvers in the 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly and 50 free, plus bronze in the 50 breast. The showing earned him $6,000 and enough points to run third on the series.
Following up that meet with the Doha stop, Andrew won 6 more medals in 6 more events. This time around, he upgraded to two golds (100 fly, 50 back) and four silvers (100 back, 50 breast, 50 fly, 50 free). That earned him $7,000 more, plus the most points of any male athlete in Doha. All together, his Cluster 1 points total ranked second overall, yielding a $35,000 payday.
Late in the month, Andrew added two relay medals (bronze in the mixed 4×50 medley and silver in the mixed 4×50 free) and bronze in the 100 IM at the short course Eindhoven stop.
All combined, Andrew made more than $50,000 this month and put himself in the hunt for another massive cluster bonus early next month:
Michael Andrew – September 2018, World Cup
- 3 gold medals
- 9 silver medals
- 3 bronze medals
- 3rd-place FINA performance points – Kazan
- 3rd-place FINA performance points – Doha
- $50,450 in prize money
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Get that paper Michael Andrew
50k for a months worth of work, not too shabby. Who’s saying he should had went to college again?
earning that much at his age is pretty awesome
This is how you make bank as a professional swimmer. Especially when it works so well with your training style, it’s a no brainer
He’ll do pretty well between this and the pro swim series.
I’m curious if his underwaters will improve as they seem week compared to other elites. Curious that he trains in a scy pool, but now seems to be much better at long course.
Not a bad problem compared to never being able to do long course.
Wow! He certainly made a lot of money this month. Still really sad that he won’t be able to compete in the NCAAs especially since it will be in Texas next year.
I’m sure he’s not losing sleep over it…