Cody Miller Is On a Roll. Can He Make the Paris 2024 Olympic Team?

2023 PRO SWIM SERIES – WESTMONT

31-year-old Cody Miller, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke, finished 3rd in the event on Thursday evening at the Pro Swim Series meet in Westmont, Illinois. His time of 1:00.04 was his best swim at a Pro Swim Series meet since May 2019 in his home pool in Bloomington.

Since that swim, Miller has had two children with his wife Ali, missed the finals in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke at the 2021 US Olympic Trials, and last broke a minute at the 2020 US Open, where he went 59.65.

It wasn’t clear where Miller’s future in the pool was heading. He excelled in his YouTube channel, with 182,000 subscribers, but his times in the pool started to slip.

He took an extended 7-month break after last summer’s International Team Trials, raced at the World Cup stop in Indianapolis, and then took another 4 months off before racing at the Pro Swim Series in Ft. Lauderdale in early March. There, he booked a 1:00.12 in finals, which besides securing his trip to a fifth-consecutive Olympic Trials meet in 2024, was .44 seconds better than he was at last year’s International Team Trials.

That was a little bit of a spark for him, and he proved it by going a little faster on Thursday in Westmont.

What does this mean for Miller’s future? Seems like he should at least get back into 59-second territory later this year. And that makes things really interesting for the World Championship Trials. He has said in his videos that he doesn’t really have the same goals as he did earlier in this career, but if he starts cracking a minute in-season while training as a “masters swimmer” (in the words of his coach Ray Looze), his motivation factors could change in a hurry.

Resetting the Field For the Men’s 100 Breaststroke

Since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Miller ranks 4th in the 100 breaststroke. He’s only a few hundredths behind Nic Fink (59.95) and Michael Andrew (59.98) so far this season.

As things sit right now, Fink is the clear front-runner: he’s only about 18 months younger than Miller, but is doing his best swimming.

Andrew is always the wildcard. If he’s where he was in 2021 or 2022, he’s a big favorite for top 2, and could challenge Fink for #1, but he only swam 1:01.30 in Thursday’s final. But he was also 59.98 in Ft. Lauderdale. He’s clearly not employing a “fast every meet” training program that he made famous, but that also makes it really hard to know what, exactly, those results mean.

Miller’s training partner at Indiana Josh Matheny is the best young talent in the US in the event in long course. At 20-years-old, he’s more than a decade younger than Miller, three-and-a-half younger than Andrew, and nine-plus years younger than Fink. And he dropped .66 seconds in yards during the collegiate season.

Times since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games:

  1. Nic Fink – 58.37 (April 2022)
  2. Michael Andrew – 58.51 (April 2022)
  3. Josh Matheny – 59.44 (July 2022)
  4. Cody Miller – 1:00.04 (April 2023)
  5. Charlie Swanson – 1:00.06 (April 2022)
  6. Kevin Houseman – 1:00.24 (July 2022)
  7. Tommy Cope – 1:00.25 (April 2022)
  8. Jason Louser – 1:00.30 (July 2022)

In context that Miller’s time above is the only one that’s not from a national championship meet, and thus presumably the least-tapered of the bunch, means he could be right in the mix come June.

The rejuvenation of Miller, who regardless of his results in the pool is one of the most popular swimmers in the US, comes at a time and in an event where an opportunity exists. His presence means that a race that could have been a bit of a drag domestically becomes a little more interesting over the next 14 months.

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Dmswim
11 months ago

Just an FYI, he posted on Instagram that he will not be reading the article and he’s just looking to continue to have fun. Good for him!

DMSWIM
11 months ago

What may be happening here is Cody is on an extended taper after putting in 10 years of grind with Looze. I think people are underestimating how fast swimmers can be when they are relaxed and having fun instead of totally dialed in. Being totally dialed in brings a lot of pressure. Cody has an enormous training block over the years to feed off of. If he focuses on details, there’s no reason why he can’t throw down a 100 breast without doing Indiana style heavy training.
While not the same, I was able to put up times as a masters swimmer that weren’t that far off my college times for 6+ years after graduating while swimming 3-4 days… Read more »

Mozart
11 months ago

As long as MA doesn’t make it

Stevieswim
11 months ago

Man, we (US) are slow…

Amokmad
11 months ago

Fink and MA..
Tho im very sus of MA.. he doesn’t seem to train so ferociously as he did before.

Scot
11 months ago

Anyone know what’s up with Kevin Cordes these days? Has he retired?

Snarky
11 months ago

Answer: Talented enough to do so? Yes, especially in light of how shallow the field is right now in the US. Is he doing the work to get there? I have my doubts.

commonswimfan
11 months ago

Miller said on his YouTube that he is focusing on other things- so isn’t him pursuing an Olympic team in the manner that many of the others will rather unlikely?

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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