Thomas Heilman Does It Again, Sets 100 Free 13-14 NAG with a 51.20

by Robert Gibbs 7

November 14th, 2020 Club, National, News

2020 U.S. OPEN SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS

13 year-old Thomas Heilman has been on a tear all week in Richmond. First, he swam the fastest time we’ve seen from a 13 year-old in the 50 free, going 23.36, making him the 2nd-fastest ever in the 13-14 age group. Yesterday, he took down his first long course 13-14 National Age Group record outright, swimming a 54.45 in the 100 fly, to take the record from Michael Andrew.

He kept the good times rolling today, dropping a 51.20 in the 100 free that clips Andrew 51.30 from 2014. That’s still shy of the 50.49 Olympic Trials cut, but with roughly 8 months until Trials come around, it looks increasingly likely that we could see a 13 year-old boy nab OT cuts in the sprint events, something that may be unprecedented, but something we’ll look into a little more closely when we get a chance.

Richmond has been a great site for US age groupers the last few days. 15 year-old Daniel Diehl, who took down several 13-14 NAG records earlier this year, finished just behind Heilman with a 51.28, putting him roughly 73rd all-time in the 15-16 age group shortly after aging up.

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Patrick Keenan
4 years ago

Good point about whether there have been any 13 yr old boys make qualifying times in what are true sprint races.
When I was swimming, 200 and 500/400 were considered middle distance, with the 1,000/800 and 1650/1500 long distance. If the 200 METERS, even in retrospect is considered a sprint (in that it’s NOT for “drop dead sprinters” and distance swimmers sometimes consider that a sprint for them), research needs to be done to see if there is an entry program for the ’32 Olympic trials. That was the year Ralph Flanagan qualified for the Games in the mile. Given the DOB, and when the LA Games took place, Flanagan is the youngest ever male to qualify for a… Read more »

Swimgeek
4 years ago

Dude. He’s only 13.5. Good chance we see a 13-14 go :49 next year!

JimSwim22
4 years ago

:54.45 in what event?

Guy
Reply to  JimSwim22
4 years ago

100 fly

MX4x50relay
4 years ago

Wow shocker 😂

PFA
4 years ago

Thomas has really been on a roll these past few days. Also congrats to Diehl as well.

Last edited 4 years ago by PFA

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