Bowe Becker Swims First Races Since August in Minnesota Tri Meet

U.S. Olympian Bowe Becker swam his first races on U.S. soil since arriving home from Tokyo last summer over the weekend.

The 24-year old raced last weekend during Minnesota’s triple dual meet against Purdue and Northwestern.

He swam 19.58 in the 50 yard free and 43.10 in the 100 yard free in exhibition competition while wearing a Mizuno tech suit.

Those times are good by his standards – in his last season of college swimming, at an early-February tri meet for the Gophers he swam 19.83 and 43.07 in the 50 and 100 free. Two months later, he placed 4th in the 50 and 2nd in the 100 free at the NCAA Championships.

Becker is currently serving as a volunteer assistant coach at Minnesota. He says he’s been working as a mentor for the sprint group, and is looking forward to traveling to the Big Ten Championships with the team.

At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Becker swam only on the finals relay, where he split 47.44. That was the third-fastest split by an American en route to a gold medal. It also tied for the 6th-best split in the entire field.

He swam one meet for the Tokyo Frog ings during the ISL season in the opening weekend.

Becker told SwimSwam that after the Tokyo Olympic Games, he took about 2 months off for everything before resuming some casual lap swimming. He says he really didn’t start seriously training until after Christmas.

Becker said he has been dealing with a few “minor injuries,” so he’s only been back in the weight room for about 2 weeks.

“I’m trying to get back into it and stay positive with all of the cancellations,” Becker said, referencing recent announcements that the 2022 World Championships are being pushed to 2023, and that the March Pro Swim Series meet has been canceled.

Becker was an unlikely gold medalist: at the beginning of 2021, he was waiting tables at The Lodge in Reno, Nevada. He retired from elite swimming in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, leaving his training spot at Auburn to move home to Nevada. In an interview with Sports Illustrated, he cited burnout and was out of the water for 6 months.

Less than a year after returning to training, he stood atop an Olympic podium.