The Mr. Worldwide of swimming seems to have found a new destination.
28-year-old Santo Condorelli, who is less than two years removed from winning an Olympic medal with Italy, will be training to vie for a spot on the 2024 U.S. Olympic team—according to an Instagram post from swim coach Alex Pussieldi, who spoke with Condorelli’s father. Pussieldi also confirmed the news to SwimSwam.
“This week, Santo returns to compete after a long break at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Westmont IL 🇺🇸 this time he will try out for Team USA for Paris 2024,” Pussieldi wrote (translated from Portuguese to English).
SwimSwam has reached out to Condorelli for further comment.
Condorelli, who was born in Japan and raised in the United States, represented America in the early stages of his career. He competed at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials and the 2014 Phillips National Championships, but began to represent Canada in 2015—being able to do so because his mother is Canadian. As a Canadian, he won bronze in the 4×100 mixed free relay at the 2015 World Championships and placed fourth at the 2016 Olympic Games in the 100 free. Then, in 2018, Condorelli switched to Italian sporting citizenship, and that time he was able to do so because his father was Italian. In his time representing Italy, he swam at the 2020(1) Olympic Games, where he won a silver medal as a prelim heats swimmer on his (then) country’s 4×100 free relay.
In order to represent a country at international competition, World Aquatics requires a swimmer to either be a citizen of the country or reside in that country for at least three years. To change sporting nationalities, a swimmer must wait three years from when they last represented a country before competing for a new country in international competition.
- Read more about World Aquatics’ new policy regarding nationality changes here.
Condorelli holds U.S. citizenship and has been living in America for over two months. However, since he last represented Italy in July 2021, he will not be eligible to compete for the United States until July 2024—a month before the start of the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Last week, it was reported that Condorelli’s 18-month suspension handed by WADA back in June 2022 was lifted in October. He had been suspended for “whereabout failures” pertaining to anti-doping tests, but he claims that “there was a mistake with the filing,” though he declined to offer additional details besides noting it was a “communication error.”
Condorelli is set to compete at this week’s TYR Pro Series in Westmont, Illinois, being scheduled to swim the 100 fly, 50 free, and 100 free. His best times in the events respectively are 51.62, 21.83, and 47.88.
Will he be eligible for US Olympic Trials in June 2024?
Yes, he needs to wait until July 2024 to represent the US in International competition not domestically.
uhhhh… can he just pick one team, please?
The gift that keeps on giving !
Kind of reminds me of Mitch D’Arrigo or Darian Townsend opting to represent USA after repping other countries. Works out great IF you make a relay (or just want to swim as “an American”), but it’s definitely not the easiest way to get Olympic rings.
He should go for a gold medal with Canada. If he returns to Canada and convinces Brent to train for two months leading up to Paris, they will have 4 guys who can split 47 with Ruslan Gaziev (OSU) going 40.9 at NCs! Immediate gold medal potential! Brent is already in the water for clinics, so he’d only need a few weeks of race training then taper quite frankly.
😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
He’s gonna miss the team. Would’ve been better to pick Canada or Italy with Italy having a strong chance of winning a medal.
Yeah he should have gone USA, Italy then Canada. Would have potentially got a medal at all 3 Olympics.
While I love the symmetry that would have provided, pragmatically, that would have required him to be living and training in Canada right now, which I don’t think would have been ideal.
That’s true, most male sprinters left. Before trials I would have thought University of Calgary would have been his best bet because Calkins in season times improved a ton but that whole group folded at trials.
Lol love it. Putting my comment from the Ledecky post here:
Damn, I thought he’d go for Japan next but I bet they’re weird about that kinda thing. (Though they might make the most sense as a 2028 nationality, given he’ll be like early 30s by then.)
I do love to see it.
Would be great if he made the 4×100 free relay team….though feels like that would somehow doom the US to lose to both the Canadians – Brent Hayden comes back and splits a 47.98 – and Italians.
Japanese citizenship process would require him to naturalize after living there for 5 years