Michael Andrew’s 50 meter freestyle National Age Group Record as reported by Braden Keith, June 1st:
It didn’t take long after his 14th birthday for Michael Andrew to get his first National Age Group Record as a 13-14.
This week at the CRAA Summer Long Course Kick-off meet in Iowa City, Iowa, Andrew was a part of a unique bracket-style 50 free that saw him get four cracks at the record.
In the third of those four swims, Andrew swam a 23.47 in the long course 50 meter free to break the National Age Group Record in the event. That went .03 under the time of Bolles’ Caeleb Dressel from 2011.
Andrew, who for so long has thrived on his size, is now in a 13-14 age group where there are plenty of tall swimmers, and not only is he thriving, he’s beginning to take many more of his records in the more technical long course events. Out of his now 11 National Age Group Records that are still standing, this is only the 3rd in long course.
In other swims so far at this meet, which he’ll conclude on Sunday in the 100 free, Andrew also swam a 57.78 in the long course 100 fly.
Andrew only turned 14 in mid-April, so he’ll have a full season of long course and short course to go after more records.
This swimming video was provided to SwimSwam. SwimSwam edited for distribution with an open embed code.
I wonder how much time he gets to train in a 50m pool and if his dad will even introduce some distance training? He had a great 400y IM a few months back…I think 3:58 which has to be tough considering his short sprint based training.
His training is not all “sprint based” as most people seem to think – he replicates the exact speed and intensities of EVERY race he competes at in training. I mean, I understand that his training is uncoventional in the traditional swim training sense (as it includes a massive amounts of race pace work) but to me it actually seems substantially more logical from a scientific perspective.
I am fascinated to see just how this “race replication” training pans out. So far its been working wonders for Michael. The thing I am concerned about though is for how long will it work? How long will he keep improving? I wonder if and when he will start doing heavy yardage with a taper once or twice a year.
While he seems to be able to handle various distances in SCY (great in the 50 yard free and the 400 yard IM), his LCM times are not up to par. Sure he is great in the 50 LCM free and pretty darn good in the 100 LCM FLY. The rest of his events though leave A LOT of… Read more »
39 strokes.
The person next to him in the yellow cap took 40.
His stroke is so short…stretch out man, swim big!!! He would have been 23.3 had he finished on a full stroke.
Agreed on the stroke. Maybe not-so-much on the time prediction. For a big “recent” 14 year old, his stroke seems very tight. I have not seen him swim many longer distances. Perhaps this is his sprint technique, but for a “big” guy, I think we would all like to see him stretch it out a bit.
My comment is meant to take nothing away from his accomplishment. I simply recall seeing Popov, Biondi, Thorpe, and Phelps at young ages making much more of their length and relative physical advantages.
Nonetheless, good job young man. I can see him dropping another second in the year to come…and putting his NAG record in the Chas Morton echelon.
Same thing I was thinking, looked off.
Andrew is fortunate to have great publicists!
Yes, the music made me think I was about to witness the Resurrection but it was a much more important event – a 13 – 14 50 Free!!
“Andrew, who for so long has thrived on his size … ”
So what’s his height/weight?
On another post his height is said as 6´2 already… but I recall seeing that his maximum estimated height will be around 6’6.. we will have to see how he will fare when his growth spur stops..
Currently 6’4″
6’4″ as a (young!) 14 year old would lead to believe that he’s going to be substantially taller than 6’6″ as a fully grown adult.
Swimmer next to him was Mark. Twitched on the start.
Don’t know if he did or not, but twitch false starts seem to be on the rise last few years at a number of events. Alot of spirited discussion on that subject in the CollegeSwimming message boards. It’s supposed to take two officials to verify the false start but appears doubltful that’s the common practice.
That is a common practice at least here in Tejas.By the way, “twitching” does not necessarily DQ you. According to (relatively) new rules, you have to twitch forward to get DQ-ed.
I was coaching at the CRAA meet and witnessed all the tournament style 50 Frees. Mark (who I formerly coached as an age-group swimmer) is usually a bit slow off the blocks so it was noticeable (and obvious if the sound was lined up with the video).
The other two athletes were a post-grad from BLAST-IA (former Univ. of Wisconsin @ Milwakee) and a current Univ. of Iowa athlete (NCAA qualifier in relays).
Very promising swimmer! I just hope his 100 free LCM will start to reflect his 50. A 23.4 for the 50 he should be able to produce a 51.9 in the 100 free this summer. 54 is way off.
Great swim. Who is the guy next to him in the yellow cap? Another 13-14 guy? He was right with Andrew.
Not sure, but probably Mark McGlaughlin, 15, who has been disqualified.
Results of the meet
http://www.craa.org/iacraa/UserFiles/File/long%20course%20kick%20off%20results.pdf
It was Mark. He was disqualified for a false start in that race.