56.87 in the 100m free, breaking the old 11-12 age group record of 58.4 set in 1985.
I’ll bet she owes it all to weights. How else would a 5’7", 115 pound girl swim so fast?
I’ll bet she owes it all to weights. How else would a 5’7", 115 pound girl swim so fast?
really good technique 
COOL! but I think they should have a picture of her swimming, not on a diving board
Is there a minimum age to go to the Olympic swim trials? I know that longtrack speedskaters must be 15 y/o by July 1st the summer before the Winter Olympics even if you have met the qualifying times.
Damn - that’s fast.
No minimum ages for swimming. There’s no international minimum (unlike diving) and USA swimming’s always figured if you were tough enough and fast enough to make it through a selection meet, then you were mature enough to go on an international trip.
And there are always a handful of 13 year old girls at Nationals and one or two really young kids at Trials. Once in a while, they’ll even make the Big Kids team. Current world record holder Dana Vollmer’s first national team experience was as a 13 year old going to Australia for the Goodwill Games.
And she got booed by the Australian fans at that meet. The media there ended up giving a stern lecture to fans about picking on a kid that young, and Vollmer has gone on to some very good swims over the years despite nagging health problems.
As far as Neal goes, it’ll be interesting to see how much faster she does get. It’s kind of a crap shoot with the 12-14 year old girls- some of them are just maturing earlier than others and will plateau by 15, while others like Katie Hoff will continue to improve significantly.
I’d just like to point out that the article starts off by referring to 400 LAPS being done in a workout. That’s 10,000 yards to a real swimmer because one lap = 25 yards. There’s no way they did 20,000 yards in the workout. Now, we have the New York Times agreeing that a lap is one trip down the pool!
I’ll bet she owes it all to weights. How else would a 5’7", 115 pound girl swim so fast?
really good technique
COOL! but I think they should have a picture of her swimming, not on a diving board
Maybe, maybe not (to a 20k workout).
I had the privilege of being in Hawaii during “training trip season” at the same time as University of MN, and University of MI mens teams.
Epic does not begin to describe it.
edit: although they did say it was only a 2.5 hour workout.
Who do you trust? The New York Times or the YMCA.
“… It’s kind of a crap shoot with the 12-14 year old girls- some of them are just maturing earlier than others and will plateau by 15, while others like Katie Hoff will continue to improve significantly.”
As a swim parent and a swim club president I absolutley agree with FLA Jill.
Some girls even seem to peak by age 10 or 11. I know of a state record setting 10 year old girl who quit by the time she was 12. It is very hard on them and their parents when they fail to meet their past times let alone are bested by their peers. The girls often quit and/or the parents start complaining about the coach. The finish clock can be quite cruel to a young girl who is getting slower as she matures into a young woman - in spite of working harder.
A similar but opposite situation can be oserved among 12 year old boys who swim. Some are still young boys and some are almost all adult. Late developing boys often quit before they come close to their full potential.
DK
I agree wholeheartedly. I have three young swimmers. My son who is 9 is struggling with exactly what you stated. Some of the boys at the recent district meet were just a ways ahead of him in terms of development. He was getting frustrated as he works his butt off in practice, works on his technique and is getting beat by kids who are just muscling their way through. I keep telling him that he just needs to concentrate on himself and keep in mind that it is a journey not a sprint.
My daughter is 11 and starting to “develop” (you know what I mean and I hate even thinking about it - she is my oldest). She dominated in the past and the pack is catching up to her.
The number I’ve heard bandied about many a time is that only 5% of the 10& unders that swim national top 16 times will also swim a national top 16 time when they’re in the 15-16 AG.
Females reach their peak strength to weight rario before puberty. 14 is considered the prime age. 5’7 and 115. that’s VERY light for that height! Janet Evans, Mary T set their best times at 14-15 years old.
Interesting to find out if she ever lifted weights… all the swimmers at my college did.
It would odd for a elite college program to NOT lift weights. Weight lifting for swimming works, it significantly increases power while the weight gain is insignificant because you’re moving through water.
Unfortunately for triathletes it increases upper body weight, which is a hinderance for biking and running.
She’s definitely doing some form of dryland, and depending on how physically developed she is she may or may not be lifting.
She may burn out she may continue to grow who knows… my ex girlfriend was nationally ranked when she was 12 at 5’4", but hasn’t grown an inch since then, and times haven’t improved significantly.
thanks for that reply. i have been lifting a bunch this winter (more upper body than usual, partly due to rehabbing a back injury and can’t do much leg stuff). while my arms feel “tired” alot from the weights when i swim, i was baffled that my times are not slower at all, and i feel better than the past few seasons in the pool right now. so i will continue to lift until April.
in college, i dated a 1500M swimmer. he always did weights after his afternoon swim. before i knew him, i would see him in the athete’s gym and wonder why his hair was always wet (i had no clue that swimmers were lifters, doh!). he could do crazy amounts of weight for a tall lanky dude.
Though with more money available to swimmers worldwide to continue their training, the women are hitting their peak later than they used to, and the age range there can vary from 18 to somewhere in their late 20s.
“… It’s kind of a crap shoot with the 12-14 year old girls- some of them are just maturing earlier than others and will plateau by 15, while others like Katie Hoff will continue to improve significantly.”
As a swim parent and a swim club president I absolutley agree with FLA Jill.
Some girls even seem to peak by age 10 or 11. I know of a state record setting 10 year old girl who quit by the time she was 12. It is very hard on them and their parents when they fail to meet their past times let alone are bested by their peers. The girls often quit and/or the parents start complaining about the coach. The finish clock can be quite cruel to a young girl who is getting slower as she matures into a young woman - in spite of working harder.
A similar but opposite situation can be oserved among 12 year old boys who swim. Some are still young boys and some are almost all adult. Late developing boys often quit before they come close to their full potential.
DK When I was an age grouper, some of the 12 & under boys (who might have been 13 because of age cutoffs) were already shaving. But, a few years later, they might only be couple inches taller and getting creamed by kids that just developed a little later. On the subject of girls, I swam with a girl that made senior national cuts when she was 11 during the summer of 1982; it was really weird to notice her being just about the oldest swimmer at the 2004 olympic trials. But, she did not swim as fast as she had swum when she was 13 or 14. Nothing unusual there, lots of girls peak when they are really young. Very few of the girls on my college team swam as fast when they were seniors as they did when they were freshman, either freshman year in college or high school. In fact, most of them quit when they started to slow down while hardly any of the men quit unless they decided to focus a lot more on drinking than swimming.
I asked our doctor about an appropriate age for the kids to do weight training. He said that it is bad for a youth if they do weight training before puberty. It can damage their growth plates. Anyone have any thoughts or experience?
As well as qualify for the Trials at age 40
jaretj
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Did no one else notice that she’s freaking 5’7 and 11 years old!!! If that girl continues to develop she’ll be like 6’8 by the time she’s 20.