Blake Pieroni is an American sprint freestyle specialist from Indiana. Pieroni is a 2x Olympian, 3x Olympic champion, and 5x world champion.
At Chesterton High School Pieroni helped his team to state titles his junior and senior year before deciding to stay close to home and attend Indiana University.
Indiana University
2014-2015
In his freshman year in Bloomington, Pieroni was named Big 10 co-freshman of the year. At the NCAA Championships his highest finish came in the 200 yard freestyle with a 4th place. In the relays Pieroni helped Indiana to a 5th place in the 800 yard freestyle relay, 14th in the 400 yard freestyle relay, 17th in the 200 yard freestyle and 400 yard medley relay.
2015-2016
At the NCAA Championships his sophomore year, Pieroni placed 8th and 10th in the 200 and 100 yard freestyle. In the relays, Pieroni helped indiana to a 4th place in the 400 yard freestyle relay.
2016-2017
Pieroni picked up his first NCAA medal in his junior year at the meet. He tied for the silver medal in the 200 yard freestyle with USC’s Dylan Carter in 1:31.16 behind Texas’ Townley Haas.
Earlier in the week, Pieroni posted the second fastest 200 yard freestyle of all-time in the lead off leg of the 800 yard freestyle relay. He lead Indiana off with a 1:30.87 split. Indiana went on to finish 9th in the event.
Pieroni earned All-American First Team honors in the 100 yard freestyle, finishing 8th in 41.85; the 200 yard freestyle relay, tying for 7th and 400 yard freestyle relay touching 8th. He also finished 23rd in the 50 yard freestyle.
2017-2018
With the first swim of the 2018 NCAA Championships, Blake Pieroni marked his name in the history books. Leading off Indiana’s 800 free relay (which ultimately got 2nd in 6:06.01), Pieroni swam a 1:29.63, breaking the NCAA, U.S Open, and American record by over half a second and marking him as the first human ever to break the 1:30 barrier in a 200 free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8Ngm0EnA_M&t=3s
International Career
Pieroni made his international debut at the 2013 World Junior Championships where he won a bronze as a member of the 800 meter freestyle relay. He also took 16th in the 200 meter freestyle. A year later, he was back in the stars and stripes uniform, this time at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships. With some experience already under his belt, Pieroni found himself a regular on the podium. He earned silver medals in his individual events, 100 and 200 meter freestyle and took gold as a member of the 800 meter freestyle relay.
2016 U.S Olympic Trials
Pieroni qualified for his first Olympic Games with a 6th place finish in the 100 meter freestyle, earning him a spot on the 400 meter freestyle relay. He also swam the 200 and 50 freestyle finishing 12th and 36th respectively.
2016 Rio Olympics
Pieroni won his first Olympic medal, a gold, in Rio for his heat swim in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay. He took over for the third leg a swam a 48.39 split to help USA qualify first for the finals. Caeleb Dressel, Michael Phelps, Ryan Held and Nathan Adrian went on to take the gold in 3:09.92.
2017 World Championship Trials
Pieroni qualified for his first senior World Championships with a 6th place finish in the 100 meter freestyle to earn a place as an option for the 4×100 meter freestyle relay in Budapest. A day later he cemented his spot on the roster with a silver medal in the 200 meter freestyle to give him an individual and another relay. He swam a new best time of 1:46.3o to finish behind Townley Haas.
Team USA 4 x 100 free relay 2017 World Championships Budapest, Hungary (photo: Mike Lewis)
2017 FINA World Championships
Pieroni helped Team USA (Caeleb Dressel, Townley Haas & Nathan Adrian) to a gold medal performance in the 4×100 freestyle relay on day one of World Championships in a time of 3:10.06. Teammate Caeleb Dressel leadoff the relay in a new American record 100m freestyle – 47.26.
He backed that relay up with a bronze medal in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay. Pieroni lead Team USA off in 1:46.33 to put them in second place behind Russia. Townley Haas, Jack Conger and Zane Grothe followed to combine for the bronze medal in 7:03.18.
2018 U.S. National Championships
Pieroni won the 100 freestyle (48.08) and was runnerup in the 200 freestyle (1:45.93) and at the Phillips 66 National Championships, both personal bests. He finished fifth in the B final of the 50 freestyle (22.56), and 13th overall, after swimming a personal best 22.50 in the prelims.
2018 Pan Pacific Championships
On the first day, Pieroni qualified for the B-final of the 200 free, where he barely beat out USA and Indiana teammate Zach Apple for the win in 1:46.68. Day 2 was similar, with Pieroni making the B-final in the 100 free, and narrowly clipping Nathan Adrian for the win in 48.21. That same night, Pieroni earned his first medal by going 2nd (1:47.63) in the winning men’s 4×200 free relay. On day 3, Pieroni went 3rd in the 4×100 free relay, splitting 47.72 to aid USA to the gold, but they would ultimately be disqualified for swimming in the wrong order.
Signing with Mizuno
Mizuno, the global specialty sporting goods company, furthered its commitment to the U.S. swimming market and on December 12, 2018 announced it had signed American freestyler, Blake Pieroni, in his first professional contract. Pieroni was the first sponsored swimmer for Mizuno USA.
2018 Short Course World Championships
On the first day of competition, Pieroni scored double gold, first individually in the 200 free, his first ever international individual gold. Next, Pieroni took the second leg of the men’s 4×100 free relay, where the USA won in world record time. Pieroni led off the men’s 4×200 free relay, which wound up placing 4th, just outside of the medals. On the final day of competition, Pieroni swam prelims of the 4×100 medley relay, which went on to win gold in finals. He also placed 8th in the final of the 100 freestyle.
ISL – LA Current
On June 18, 2019, Blake Pieroni was announced as a member of the LA Current ISL team, headed by GM Lenny Krayzelburg.
2019 FINA World Championships
Pieroni started his world champs off with the 4×100 free relay, where he split 47.49 on the 2nd leg to help Team USA win it’s first gold of the championships. Pieroni continued his momentum in the 100 free, where he placed in the final with a time of 47.88, just .06 outside of medaling and .01 off his lifetime best, which he recorded in the semi finals. Pieroni returned on the 4×200 free relay, splitting 1:44.98 on 2nd leg to help USA earn bronze.
2021 Olympic Trials
After finishing 7th in the 200 free earlier in Omaha, Pieroni qualified for his 2nd Olympic team on day 5 of Trials, finishing 3rd in the 100 free at 48.16.
2020 Olympic Games
Swimming in his 2nd Olympics, Pieroni started things off in the 4×100 free relay, where in the final heat he swam the 2nd leg in 47.5, helping propel the US to gold in 3:08.97. Pieroni was back in the 4×200 free relay, anchoring the prelims relay in 1:46.21 to help USA secure a spot in finals. In the final, USA would go on to finish 5th overall.
Pieroni finished his Games by swimming prelims of the 400 medley relay, splitting 48.25 to help USA to the final, where they won gold in world-record fashion.
2024 US Olympic Team Trials (Indianapolis, Indiana)
Pieroni announced his retirement from swimming in August 2022 after a knee surgery in May 2022. Back then, he said that he “didn’t feel a burning passion to be the very best [he could] be.”
He lived the life of an average Joe, working his 9-5 job in private equity at a real estate company. He developed the new hobby of rock climbing, and he’d go to the rock climbing gym near his office with his coworkers two to three times a week. Since he lifted weights regularly, he was still able to maintain shape in retirement.
But even though Pieroni loved his job and had plenty of things to do in his free time, there came a point where he started to miss his old life. And in March 2023, he decided to come back to swimming. “As time went on, I just really wanted to get back and train again,” Pieroni told SwimSwam. “I don’t really miss waking up at 4:45 in the morning for practice, but I miss racing and I miss the day in and day out of training.”
Pieroni showed solid form throughout his comeback but came into Olympic trials as the 15th seed in the 200 free with a 1:47.02. In prelims, Pieroni showed his best form in 6 years with a 1:46,09 for the 2nd seed into semis. There, Pieroni was a bit slower with a 1:46.60 but made the final in 6th. Pieroni was 7th off the blocks in the final and 7th at the turn with a 24.80. He pushed his middle 100 with splits of 26.55/27.08 to move into 5th at the 150. Down the stretch, Brooks Curry Surged past him but Pieroni touched the wall 6th with a 1:46.48, potentially qualifying for a 3rd Olympics depending on how the roster shaped up.
