Meet The 2016 USA Olympic Swimming Team: Jack Conger

Meet 2016 US Olympian Jack Conger from Rockville, Maryland, who will be make his 1st Olympic appearance at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games this summer in the men’s 800 meter freestyle relay. In his video, Conger talks about his relationship with one of his first coaches, Dave Kraft, and the impact Kraft had on his swimming career. He also talks about the atmosphere and intensity of Olympic Trials, and how this summer compared to 2012.

From his bio:

Jack Conger was born on September 26, 1994. Conger grew up in Rockville, Maryland swimming for the Rockville-Montgomery Swim Club under head coach Sue Chen. In his later years, Conger attended Our Lady of Good-Counsel High School in the DC area and represented his school in high school swimming. During his high school swimming career, Conger broke the National High School Record in the 500-yard freestyle by three seconds, the oldest High School Record (30 years old!).

Conger is also the National Independent High School Record Holder in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 42.81. Some other impressive times for Conger coming out of high school are his 46.15 100-yard butterfly, his 45.32 100-yard backstroke, his 1:38.75 200-yard backstroke, his 1:34.16 200-yard freestyle, and his 19.85 50-yard freestyle.

University of Texas
2013-2014
In just his freshman season at Texas Conger finished as a five-time All-American. He placed fifth in the 500 freestyle, sixth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 200 backstroke in addition to his two top-eight performances as a member of the 200 medley relay and the 800 freestyle relay.

Texas Alum and Olympic swim star Aaron Piersol is a big inspiration to Conger.  And after hitting a mental wall his freshman year, it was a conversation with Piersol that changed Conger’s mentality about the sport.

2014-2015
Conger is one of the few athletes who has already achieved his NCAA ‘A’ standard for the 2014 Men’s DI Swimming Championships. He sits at No.2 in the men’s 100 butterfly so far this season in 45.76. He broke the American and U.S. Open Records in the 200 butterfly twice this season, the most recent in a time trial at the Big 12 Championships. At the NCAA Championships Conger advanced to the championship final of the 100-yard fly within a stacked heat all within just one second. He touched in 2nd overall after leading the heat at the 50-yard point, just .04 seconds behind teammate, Joseph Schooling. In the 200-yard fly, which he had recently broke both the American and U.S. Open Records in, Conger finished 2nd once again behind Schooling this time by just .12 seconds.

2015-2016

At the 2016 Big 12 Championships, Texas Junior, Jack Conger, won the 200 butterfly, placed 2nd in the 100 butterfly, and 3rd in the 100 backstroke.  He was crowned NCAA Champion in three relays with Texas, the 400 medley, 200 free, and 800 free. While he may have one of the most difficult roads to Rio, having to knock off American Swimming Stars Michael Phelps and/or Ryan Lochte, Conger and his coach believe he is up to the challenge.

International Competition
Prior to joining Texas Conger was a multi-time medalist in international competitions. Conger brought home the gold in the 200m backstroke (1:57.20) at the 2012 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships and a year later he won gold in the 200m backstroke again at the 2013 World University Games (1:55.47), and at the same University Games he also earned a bronze medal on the 400m medley relay.

At the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials Conger advanced to the final in the 200m backstroke, where he finished fifth, and also in the 100m backstroke, where he came in eighth. Two months later Conger placed second in the 200m backstroke at the U.S. Open Championships, which placed Conger on the 2013-2014 U.S. National Team.

At the 2015 World University Games, Haas earned a silver in the 100 meter freestyle and 400 meter freestyle relay and a bronze in the 100 meter backstroke.

2016 U.S Olympic Trials

Conger secured a relay spot on the US Olympic team with a bronze in the 200 meter freestyle. He had a stunning final 50 split of 26.83 to gain on the leaders and over take Ryan Lochte. He finished 0.11 seconds behind  his Texas teammate Townley Haas who took the gold.