2016 Olympian Brandonn Almeida, from Sao Paolo, Brazil, has verbally committed to swim for the University of South Carolina in 2017-18.
“I am thrilled to announce that I have committed to the University of South Carolina due to the great combination of athletics and academics. The coaching staff really reached out to me and made me feel at home. I am excited to see what I can do once I join the program. The team is also incredible and supportive and I have already talked to most of the swimmers. It is a tight group of guys. I am looking forward to joining one of the best training teams in the USA. Go Cocks
Almeida competed in the 400m IM and 1500m free at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. He first represented Brazil in international competition at the 2013 FINA World Junior Swimming Championships in Dubai, where he placed ninth in the 400 IM, 10th in the 800 free, and 15th in both the 400/1500 freestyles. At the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, Almeida won the 400m IM and broke the Junior World Record with a time of 4:14.47.
He was recently named to the Brazilian squad for the 2016 Short Course World Championships that will take place in December in Windsor, Canada.
Almeida’s top times (converted using our Speedo Time Converter) are:
| LCM | SCY converted | |
| 400 IM | 4:14.07 | 3:43.12 |
| 200 IM | 2:08.66 | 1:53.02 |
| 1500 free | 15:11.70 | 14:53.82 |
| 800 free | 7:59.49 | 8:57.24 |
| 400 free | 3:56.42 | 4:24.89 |
| 200 free | 1:58.06 | 1:43.47 |
The Gamecocks finished seventh at the 2016 SEC Championships, about 170 points out of sixth behind Tennessee. Almeida will bring instant points at the conference level, giving South Carolina a potential boost in the standings. Already he would be an A-finalist in the 400 IM (he would have scored 4th at 2016 SECs) and 1650 (5th), and a C-finalist in the 500 free. Current juniors Akaram Mahmoud and Tom Peribonio will provide an excellent training group for Almeida when he arrives in Columbia; they were both top-8 finishers in the 500/1650, and Peribonio was also an A-finalist in the 400 IM.
AJ Ross has also verbally committed to the University of South Carolina class of 2021.
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email to [email protected].
Ok, so when does South Carolina let Bernardino take the reigns down there? Moody clearly is being outclassed in terms of recruitment and performance by the man handling all the D-groupers. While that is his specialty, I don’t exactly see the rest of the team contributing.
Having lost previous potentials to administrative errors and to other programs with greater name recognition isn’t exactly helping either. So…. Why keep him afloat?
Anne, some times are a bit off.Brandonn made 2:02.44 in 200IM LCM last year.In 400free, he made 3:54.62.
He don’t swim much 200free, but he has 1:53.70.
His name is Brandonn in homage at Brandon Lee(yeah, he has a brother named Bruce…).Don’t know the reason about the extra ‘n’.
Bernardino is working his magic. Each year he is turning this program around, especially the D group.
This is HUGE for SC.
Huge pick!!! Compare him to #2 Swimswam recruit Sean Grieshop!!! Their times are very similar.
Except Almeida is two years older and isn’t nearly as proven in SCY…so no
Is his 4:04.85 400im SCM from last month good enough for you? That converts on swimswam to 3:40.58. Same amount of turns than Sean Grishop 3:44 400im SCY…
Just acknowledge it will be a good battle between these two in the years to come!
Please get rid of the “trending now section” this section plagues so many good websites it would be a shame if swimswam were one as well.
SwimSwam, please take Hina’s advice! The “trending now section” is quite annoying.
Agreed these “Trending Now” stories have nothing to do with swimming and make the site look cheap.
Cheap? The site is free. That’s as cheap as it gets, and I like it that way.
If you want to go to a paid subscription-style site, start drumming up support. If enough people are willing to pay money for their swimming news, I’m sure the SwimSwam staff would consider it as an alternative to ads. Until then, just sit back and enjoy the free content.
lol that’s interesting, I hadn’t even noticed that “trending now” section until you mentioned it. I’m guessing that even the many other “good websites” you mentioned need the ad revenue to stay afloat in order to stay that good, but also to stay free but still profitable websites. Maybe there’s just not a big enough market for swim-related stuff, so they had to branch out?
South Carolina!? Why?
I’m more interested in why he has an extra n at the end of his first name
Because we have the best distance group in the country.. As easy as that!
Tennessee? Texas?
Probably because of Bernadino. Has a proven track record of good distance/mid distance swimmers. A unconventional, but actually not a bad call at all if you analyze it a little bit.
Was a wise choice, I’m sure he’ll do very well there and he has a lot to offer to USC.
He had offers from Georgia and Cal. Not 100% sure why USC, but I know I will be a great fit for him.
Man South Carolina is opening a nice little boutique distance factory. Nice pickup!