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Laon Kim, a Junior Pan Pacific Silver medalist for Canada, announced his verbal commitment to the University of Texas’ class of 2030.
“I am proud to announce my verbal commitment to the University Of Texas. After some careful and thorough consideration, I feel ready to take my athletic and academic career to the next level. I want to thank coaches Carl, Dave, Nick, family and teammates for all the support and guidance. Looking forward to working with @coach_bowman, @erik_posegay, @coachmaida in the future! 🤘”
Kim is a mid-distance freestyler. At the 2024 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, he won silver in the 100 free, clocking a personal best of 49.37. This is a massive .85 second time drop from Canadian Olympic Trials at the beginning of the summer. Notably, he also split 48.56 anchoring Canada’s Junior Pan Pac medley relay.
Previously, he broke the Canadian 13-14 age group national record in every freestyle event as well as the 400 IM.
Best LCM times (converted)
- 100 free – 49.37 (43.03)
- 400 free – 3:55.14 (4:23.46)
- 200 free – 1:49.62 (1:35.87)
- 50 free – 22.95 (19.95)
- 800/1000 free – 8:17.16 (9:17.04)
To put Kim’s speed in perspective, if SwimSwam included non-Americans in their recruit rankings, Kim’s converted 100 free time would rank him first in the high school class of 2026 by .8 seconds. He would also rank #2 in 200 free, #3 in 50 free, and top 10 in the 500.
Kim’s potential is displayed even further when comparing his long course times to top American recruits. His 49.37 puts him about 1.3 seconds ahead of Austin Carpenter, the 100 yard free leader in the class. He beats out 200 yard free class leader Andrew Maksymowski by nearly a second when comparing long course times, 1:49.62 to 1:50.51. In the 400 free, Kim’s 3:55.14 trails the class’ best distance swimmer Gabriel Manteufel by about a second (3:54.30).
If he continues to improve, Kim could vie for a spot on all five of Texas’ relay teams. His 43.03 converted PB would put him 5th on the Longhorn’s 2023-24 season rankings. Meanwhile, his 200 free and 50 free sit at 6th and 8th respectively. On an individual level, Kim’s converted best is below the 2025 NCAA B cut, while his 200 free and 50 free are both tenths off the B cut.
Kim joins a Longhorn recruiting class with three top ten American recruits: #3 Austin Carpenter, #4 Rowan Cox, and #8 Andrew Maksymowski. He currently competes for the University of Calgary’s club team in Alberta.
Since Canadians have been in the NCAA system since the 70s, and many have been world class caliber, especially recently, should swim swam start doing top recruits from each graduating class from Canada as well?
would be nice to have top recruits from each graduating class (international edition) orsomething
Yes we all want International version
Ditto. We want to see the international version.
Exactly
Congrats to Laon and Texas!
Related: the rumors about SEC limiting roster size… if true, there are a lot of star swimmers planning on swimming at Texas who won’t be swimming at Texas. I don’t know what the contingencies are, but I hope they’re at least being transparent with recruits.
Currently 41 on the roster, 5 seniors + 1 5th year. Luke Hobson in theory has a 5th year remaining.
Not entirely clear how they’re going to treat divers (as 1 or .5 roster spots).
Probably 8-9 guys on this year’s roster who aren’t really in the hunt for an NCAA appearance.
So yeah, going to have to be some moves to close that gap. Maybe the RTC that we wrote about the other day.
There’s also some talk that Texas might go rogue and go with the 30 maximum allowed by the settlement rather than adhere to the SEC’s 22 (and put them all on full rides).
How does Hobson have a 5th year remaining if he was a freshman during the ‘21 – ‘22 season, and never took a redshirt?
Sorry you’re right, was mixing up him and Johnston.
Wishful thinking
Does anyone know which other schools he was considering?
I heard that he went to Harvard, Stanford and maybe Cal.
Damn, this kid is a stud. Top 3 recruit in the class if eligible, possibly #1. And this is coming from a fan of Cal (who I think just landed Baylor Stanton.)
Pretty sure you’re right on Baylor Stanton
I think Stanton is a clear #1 right now. His strengths and range remind me of Lasco
THE BOWMAN MAGIC JUST KEEPS pulling one rabbit out of the hat of wonders after another.
Will we even need NCAA’s championships after 2025? Ha, ha – sure we will, and it will be FUN to watch.
Mark my words…here it comes the next international sensation courtesy of BB. This is a super-talented swimmer. LAON KIM the male version of Summer McIntosh. I’ve been following this fella for a couple of years and boy oh boy, he can swim anything! HOOK ‘EM!
Lol
Let’s be real here. He’s good, but a Junior Pac Pac silver medalist is not a multi-time Olympic gold medalist and world record holder.
100% this kid is good but don’t exactly know how much upside he has. Should really go to a training centre and get accustomed to Sr international swimming like Liendo did
Exactly! To compare him to Summer McIntosh is not appropriate. Summer at 16 was a Junior WR holder and had already demonstrated world class results.
summer at 16 was not only a wjr record holder, she was also a wr holder. lol
Come back and talk to papa in 2028. Save this post though!
Have you see him swimming? If not do yourself a favour and watch him this kid is on the same trajectory as Monseiur Marchand. Kudos to BB. HOOK’EM!
HOOK ‘EM!
Instead of Leon the Frenchman, we’ve now got Laon the Canadian.