Michael Andrew, Andrew Wilson Take College Roads Less Traveled to Olympic Team

2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS

There’s no doubt that, historically, the NCAA has been the lifeblood of American Olympic swimming success, and for the part most, that lifeblood has come from Division I colleges and universities. For decades, Olympic rosters have been dotted with swimmers who studied and trained at schools like Cal, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Stanford, Texas, and plenty of others. And not just American Olympic rosters. Swimmers from all over the world come to the United States to train and compete, and many of them end up representing their own countries in the Olympics, the biggest stage in swimming. 

Tonight, though, we saw not just one, but two exceptions to that rule of thumb take the top two spots in the men’s 100 breast, and with that, qualifying for the US Olympic team.

First up – Michael Andrew. He’s been making headlines since he was an adolescent breaking national age group records with reckless abandon. Early on, Michael and his family were known for taking a different approach, as he was coached by his father, Peter Andrew, in a backyard pool, and they went all-in on Ultra Short Race Pace Training, eschewing the high yardage approach that swimmers are known for. 

Then, he and his family made the controversial choice for him to turn professional at the of 14, accepting the money that comes with endorsements and deciding before he’d started high school that he’d be forgoing college swimming. That decision drew a fair share of criticism, especially since Michael Phelps had already made an Olympic team and set a world record before he turned pro at the age of 15, whereas Andrew hadn’t come close yet to that kind of prominence on the world stage.

In the years since then, it occasionally looked like Andrew might have eventually had some second thoughts about forgoing college competition and the camaraderie that comes with training with a full team, although he insisted that he believed he was on the right path. The success was there — national age group records, world junior titles, short course world titles, and national championships, although perhaps not at the level he may have hoped or fans might’ve expected in a sport where, for better or worse, most consider the ultimate measure of success an individual Olympic gold.

Tonight, whatever doubts he may have had, and undoubtedly the doubts of many swims fans who wondered if he and his family knew what they were doing, were likely settled when he got his hand on the wall first in the 100 breast, guaranteeing his spot on the U.S. Olympic team at the age of 22, almost eight years to the day after he announced he was going pro.

A scant 0.01s behind Michael Andrew was another man who’s taken an unusual path to the Olympics in terms of college swimming, and that’s Andrew Wilson. The 27 year-old was only 59 seconds in the 100 yard breaststroke coming out of high school, a time that wouldn’t warrant serious consideration at most major college programs. Instead, Wilson matriculated at D3 powerhouse Emory, and quickly went on a roll, dropping to 55.44 as a freshman, then 54.36 as a sophomore, then 51.72 as junior, setting the D3 record.

At that point, his career took another twist, as he redshirted for the 2015-2016 season and trained with the University of Texas, one of those D1 schools known for pumping out Olympian after Olympian under legendary head coach Eddie Reese. Wilson came up just short of making the Olympic Team in 2016, finishing 5th and 4th in the 100 and 200 breast. He then returned to Emory for his senior year, once again demolishing the D3 record. 

In 2018, however, Wilson qualified for the Pan Pacific Championships, where he won a gold medal as part of the US men’s medley relay, and then the 2019 World Championships, where he picked up a pair of silver medals on the two US medley relays.

The twist and turns of Wilson’s have continued, as he’s been training once again with a more traditional program, the University of Georgia pro group, and tonight, he’s put himself in a position to make history. While 2nd-place finishers aren’t officially named to the USA Olympic Team until it’s definite that there is enough roster space, it’s virtually guaranteed, and when that happens, Wilson will be the first D3 US swimming Olympian.

Does the fact that Michael Andrew and Andrew Wilson are both about to make an Olympic team without having competed for a D1 school mean we’re heading for any sort of seismic shift in the college swimming landscape? Probably not. But with an uncertain future for D1 college swimming, especially in the wake of the pandemic and discussions about what ramifications changes in the NCAA’s Name Image Likeness policies or paying student-athletes may have for D1 Olympic sports, it’s definitely a great reminder that, while there’s a reason popular paths are popular, sometimes the roads less traveled can get you where you want to go, too.

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YMADB
3 years ago

Cookie Skillets on *Olympic Athlete* Andrew Wilson

DLswim
3 years ago

MA’s path is unusual, but he is not the first nor greatest to follow it (Phelps is). Wilson’s story, rising from a run-of-the-mill high school swimmer to an Olympian, is much more compelling to me.

Ross
3 years ago

Dick Blick of North Central College won gold in the 4×200 relay in 1960. Though, D3 was not founded then, NCC did join D3 as soon as it was founded.

Retired Coach
Reply to  Ross
3 years ago

Yes, he and the NCC team swam in the NAIA at that time and later were part of the NCAA College Division (precursor to D2) until D3 was started in 1974-75 season. Dick also held the American Record for a time in the 200 LC free at 2:01.6

SuperSwimmer 2000
3 years ago

I like that these guys’ names combined read like something in a Jeopardy before and after category.

“These two qualified for the US for the 2020(1) Olympics in the 100m breaststroke.”

Who are Michael Andrew Wilson?

Retired Coach
3 years ago

I am not at all dismissing the outstanding story of Andrew Wilson’s swimming success. However, in 1975, the first year of NCAA D3, a woman named Marcia Morey swam on the D3 Millikin University men’s swim team (no women’s team). She finished second in the men’s conference meet in the 200 Breaststroke, but did not make the NCAA D3 national cut time. A few weeks later after the NCAAs she won the USA National meet setting a women’s American Record of 2:18.5 which did beat the D3 men’s cut.
The following year she did make the 1976 USA Olympic team in both the 100 and 200 Breast, so she is really the first D3 Olympic swimmer.

Han
Reply to  Retired Coach
3 years ago

Wow! Thanks for sharing.

Pvdh
3 years ago

Good thing Peter Andrew is a billionaire otherwise MA would have gone 0.07 slower and not made the team right SwimSwam?

THEO
Reply to  Pvdh
3 years ago

Drop it. The way they covered it was totally fine. He has a unique backstory and set of circumstances which is objectively interesting to folks outside the swim nerd bubble and might not know it, and I also think a valid example to leverage to shed light on the topic of resource disparity in our sport

SUNY Cal
Reply to  Pvdh
3 years ago

What does his father do for a living?

Penguin
Reply to  SUNY Cal
3 years ago

Coaches some swimmer

PSB
Reply to  Penguin
3 years ago

Wait until my father hears about this

D3 swawmmer
3 years ago

Huge shoutout to division III swimming! Big congratulations to Andrew Wilson

DCSwim
Reply to  D3 swawmmer
3 years ago

There’s a SS podcast episode with Matt Bowe and he talked about the sports culture and infrastructure that the US has and it was quite interesting to see an outsider’s perspective on what we have here. Listening to what he said, I’m pretty sure no other nation could’ve produce a swimmer like AW

THEO
3 years ago

A fantastic article and it’s a joy to watch this moment in the sport

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