The United States has known about Carmel swimming for years. It’s really good.
Next month, the world will find out how good the Greyhounds are.
Two Carmel graduates, Drew Kibler of the University of Texas and Jake Mitchell from the University of Michigan, both earned spots on the USA Olympic team that will compete at the Summer Games in Tokyo starting next month after their performances at the Olympic Trials in Omaha. Both men were multiple state champions for the Greyhounds.
Kibler punched his ticket with a third-place finish in the 200-meter freestyle finals. He swam the race in a personal-best time of 1 minute, 45.92 seconds. That earned him a spot on the 800-meter freestyle relay.
Mitchell earned his spot on the Olympic team in a dramatic way. He finished second in the 400-meter freestyle in a time of 3:48.17. A good time, but not close to the FINA Olympic Standard of 3:46.78.
But Mitchell would get a second chance. He was approved for a time trial after all the races were finished. With a loud crowd cheering him on, Mitchell dove into the pool and tried again.
Things went much better the second time. Mitchell blasted through another 400 meters, where he finished in 3:45.86, nearly a second faster than the standard.
“I’m really grateful to get a second chance, to get a time trial,” Mitchell said in a story on the NBC Sports Olympics website. “I just spent the last couple of days training to execute as best I could.”
Video of Mitchell’s swim is available here. The Summer Olympics take place from July 23 to Aug. 8.
