Over the past few years, there’s been a line of backstrokers who were chasing down, in succession, and breaking all of the backstroke National Age Group Records. 2016 U.S. Olympian Ryan Murphy was their elder statesman, followed by Michael Andrew, then Destin Lasco and Vinny Marciano, with now Ronald Dalmacio chasing them all down.
The breaststrokes are now developing a similar chain – with Michael Andrew and Reece Whitley rolling through together and demolishing the record-books, and now a young Ethan Dang from the King Aquatic Club following through and breaking them all again.
Dang’s latest conquest came at the Pacific Northwest Swimming Long Course Championships where late on Saturday evening, he swam a 2:15.84 in the 200 breaststroke. That won him the race in the 13-14 age group by 10 seconds.
More significantly, it cut half-a-second from the National Age Group Record that had been a 2:16.48 done by Reece Whitley in 2014.
When Whitley broke that record, he broke it by an astonishing three seconds, with it having belonged to 2016 U.S. Olympian Gunnar Bentz.
- Bentz Record (BSS Summer Classic) 1:06.59 – 1:13.15 = 2:19.74
- Whitley Record (MA LC SR Champs) 1:06.50 – 1:09.98 = 2:16.48
- Dang Record (2016 PNS LC Champs) 1:04.99 – 1:10.85 = 2:15.84
Whereas Bentz and Whitley both opened their races with similar pace, Dang blew through the first 100 meters of his swim in a sub-1:05. Incidentally, on a flat-start, Dang is only one of 5 swimmers in 13-14 history to go better than 1:05 in a 100 even if it’s not en route to a 200.
Speaking of, earlier in the meet Dang swam 1:03.62 in the 100 breaststroke, which ranks him 3rd all-time in the age group behind only Whitley’s 1:03.23 and Liam Bell’s 1:03.57 from 2015.
To be fair, most people- even though it doesn’t seem very common – break their PR’s, and/or Records whenever they sprint the first half. It doesn’t actually make sense, but it works. I’m an all-around, but sometimes when I swim the 200 IM, I end up staying head-to-head with some Fly/Back swimmers, and end up barely staying ahead for the rest of the race.
Those of you of you bringing race into this discussion should be ashamed. He is dropping times AFTER being in both breaststroke events at the trials. He placed in the middle of the pack well ahead of a lot of college kids and post collegiate athletes. Moreover, Ethan is a team leader and is a positive influence on the rest of the younger kids on King Aquatics. He is gracious in victory and the same when he comes in second or third in non breaststroke events. Doubt him at your own risk.
Never doubted Ethan. I happen to be a huge fan of Whiley and Dang, who I believe, along with Michael Andrew, will be our stars in breaststroke in 2020 and beyond. In fact, my original post said “hope Ethan will be an exception”. A simple demographic/statistical observation was viewed by some as racist. Not everyone is a racist. Can we just simply get along?
How big is this kid?
He’s about 5ft6
Look for adam Mcdonald a young 12 year old who seems to be breaking dangs records
Seems like he would have to be ranked at the top of his age group for that to occur
I am in full agreement with Braden Keith’s comment in a different article – “…not every 10 & under becomes a U.S. Olympian…but many U.S. Olympians were 10 & under NAG Record holders.” That said, as a fan of numbers and stats, I have a very interesting observation on these over-achieving Asian American kids: they are hard workers and achieve great success in AG swimming. Just take a look at the national top 10 lists published by USA Swimming. But most of them, esp on the boys’ side, start to disappear around college age (17-18) and become almost non-existent in elite swimming. In fact, I don’t see any Asian sounding names in top 50 in ANY event among the US… Read more »
You mean except Nathan Adrian, yes?
Nathan is proud of his heritage but I don’t think he would consider himself Asian American. He is half white and half Chinese.
Chinese is not Asian?
1/2 Chinese.
Interesting we instantly call a person with 1/2 or 1/4 or even less African heritage “black,” but we might not call a person like Adrian “Asian” or anything but American or white. Like Obama, who’s half white and half black, for instance. He’s always referred to as a black man or man of color. Anyway, young Mr. Dang will need plenty of support from his teammates, his coach, and his family to succeed as fully as other NAG-to-Olympians have. It would be interesting to research the pressures within Asian families that might influence the decisions talented young Asian-American swimmers make along the way to college and beyond and see how they compare to nonAsians and other ethnic groups in our… Read more »
It is a stereotype (partly justified, partly unjustified, but largely impolite to state) that Asian swimmers tend to peak earlier than swimmers of European or African descent. Also a stereotype (same thing) that 100-200 fly, back, and breast strokes have more top-tier Asians than the sprint freestyles.
I think both are related to the statistical observation that Asians tend to have smaller frames, while European or African descendants are more likely to develop big, muscular frames well after their height maxes out. (Again, I said statistical – it’s an average observation, not true entirely).
Tea Rex – thank you for you honest comment. Some may view it “unjustified” or political incorrect, but I believe it’s statistically significant. My observation is mainly based on the AG top 10 lists and 2016 US OT qualifiers. As a statistician, I would love to get some data on how Asian American kids rank in different strokes (sprint free, distance free, technical strokes and IM) vs non-asian american kids, again esp on the boys’ side.
yeah… thinly veiled racism right there. Eugene Godsoe, Nathan Adrian, Jay Litherland, Lia Neal, Tara Kirk,… and others I can’t think of off the tope of my head. All of them are Asian-Americans. All of them are or were studs. All of them have been on US national teams. All of them are or were top 50 swimmers. One need not have an Asian-Sounding last name to be asian. And that’s not to speak of the numerous Asian athletes abroad who have found major success: Sun Yang, Park Tae Hwan, Hagino, Irie, Joe Schooling, Yi Shiwen, Rikako Ikee… etc. I’d do my research before applying wide-sweeping assumptions of what Asian-American kids can and can’t do.
Thank you for calling out the thinly veiled racism. Look at the swimming success China, Japan and Korea have shown over past two decades. US swimming is a historically a very “white” country club sport so more diversity will likely result in greater talent development and ultimately more popularity with participants and fans.
People are so sensitive these days regarding race issues! My post is purely an observation from a statistical perspective. I don’t have precise #s but, based on observation at local meets, I believe Asian Americans in our sport is but quite the national demographic %, but significantly higher other non-white American groups. I would love to see more diversity in US swimming and more studs like Whitleys and Dangs.
In my view, the main reason of our sustainable success in swimming is the popularity (and competitiveness) of the club system, plus high level competition at both HS and College levels. Asian countries only produce a handful top tier swimmers, a significantly smaller % in light of their much larger population… Read more »
All of the swimmers you mentioned, Eugene Godsoe, Nathan Adrian, Jay Litherland, Lia Neal, Tara Kirk, are NOT asian american by definition (both parents are asian). They are bi-racial – half asian and half white (like Nathan) or half black (like Lia). As for top swimmers from other asian countries, please read my original post carefully – my observation is on ASIAN AMERICANS only, especially on the boys’ side. I clearly stated “There are many outstanding swimmers, male or female, in Asian counties like Japan, China and Korea.” Please finish my post before you comment.
Can we stop downvoting every comment so much? People can have their opinions but if you’re just going to downvote without chiming in, you’d be better off without downvoting at all.
The current Men’s World Record in the 200 Breast (LCM) is held by a full blooded Japanese swimmer. Just sayin’…………
Been watching this kid for a few years. Beautiful stroke and not a big kid at all. He looks like a typical 14-year old.
Great. Dang is on the right trajectory to win breaststroke double in 2024 Los Angeles Olympics.
Is it your point that it is not worth writing articles about athletes unless they’re projected to win an Olympic medal?
He’s making fun of Bobo and how Bobo will make bold statements like that
Pvsfree, it’s been a very long time since I’ve done such kind of comments. I let the troll have fun.
When I smell a giant talent I just tell it. Nothing more. But it’s about 10 or 20% of the NAG record breakers.
I let the cop of swimswam have fun. The guy who thinks he knows everything about swimming and gives lessons to everybody! 😆
Normally I’d say a NAG is not necessarily an indication of Olympic greatness but I’ve seen this kid swim his breaststroke is beautiful and he’s only gonna improve. him and Daniel Roy are two people to watch in my opinion.
Dang, that’s fast! 😉