Kevin Cordes Returns to the 100 Breaststroke with a Bang

Photo Courtesy: Annie Grevers

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By David Rieder

For Kevin Cordes, last year’s World Championships was the long course breakout meet he had been waiting for.

Over the past two years he had put forth some promising performances but been unable to put it together on the biggest moments as circumstances got in the way. There was the false start that doomed the American 400 medley relay squad at the 2013 World Championships and the failed attempt to remove leaky goggles that got him DQed in the 100 breast at Pan Pacs a year later.

Cordes had originally made his name as a 100 breaststroker when he finished third behind Brendan Hansen and Eric Shanteau in the event at the 2012 Olympic Trials, but he did not even qualify to swim the 100 breast at Worlds.

With just the 50 and 200 breast on his slate, Cordes made the best of his opportunity.

Cordes won a surprising bronze medal in the 50 breast and then put together a complete race in the 200 breast final, touching in 2:08.05 win a silver medal behind Marco Koch.

With neither Nic Fink nor Cody Miller having qualified for the 100 breast final at that meet, the U.S. coaching staff inserted Cordes on both the men’s and mixed medley relays, and he came through with splits as fast as 58.33.

But Cordes had no opportunity to actually swim the 100 breast rested last year. He admitted he had a little extra motivation to do something special in the 100 breast this time around.

In prelims this morning, he got his chance.

He won the final heat in 59.05, the second-fastest time in the world this year, trailing just world record-holder Adam Peaty.

It was a breakout morning for American breaststrokers, with Miller finishing second in 59.33 and Andrew Wilson, Josh Prenot and Michael Andrew all getting under the 1:00-barrier.

Cordes surely made a statement with his race, but he said after the race that he didn’t go in with any expectations as far as being the top seed, even seeing he quick times in the earlier heats.

“I wasn’t paying too much attention to what the other swimmers were doing—I was kind of in my own zone,” Cordes said. “It’s going to be a fast race, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Cordes first made a name for himself when he demolished the American records in the 100 and 200-yard breast during an excellent collegiate career at Arizona, but his long course has improved under the tutelage of Sergio Lopez in Singapore.

“He’s really helped me learn about my stroke, about my strengths and my weaknesses, especially in long course,” he said. “Hopefully going through this meet from prelims to semis to finals I’ll be able to adjust and progress well.”

Does Cordes have anything more in the tank? He hopes so, as it will almost certainly take under 59 to medal at the Olympics and possibly even to make the team Monday night.

You can’t overlook Miller at this point, as his 59.33 already ranks sixth in the world, with plenty of potential for faster swims from him, Prenot, Wilson, Andrew and Fink in the next two rounds.

Peaty is certainly in another stratosphere as far as the 100 breast, but everyone else in the world will certainly take notice of this morning’s results. No American not named Brendan Hansen has won an Olympic or World Championship medal in the 100 breast since Ed Moses in 2001, but right now, stock in American men’s breaststroke is surging.

*Sure, Kelsi Worrell probably expended a bit more energy in this morning’s 100 fly prelims than Dana Vollmer did—she went out just two tenths off of world record-pace before coming home in 56.84. Vollmer qualified second for the semifinals in 57.50.

Worrell has been known to go fast in the morning, having recorded times faster than anyone else has ever swum in in the 100-yard fly prelims each of the past two years at the NCAA Championships. But both times she has gone faster in finals—this year in Atlanta, she dropped all the way from 49.88 to an almost-unfathomable 49.43.

Worrell and Vollmer entered as favorites to make the Olympic team in the 100 fly, and after this morning, that only looks more likely. Only one other athlete even got under 59, and that was Cassidy Bayer with her 58.91.

And even if Worrell and Vollmer don’t get under 56 and approach Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 55.62, these two look like definite medal contenders in Rio. Worrell would only have to improve her time by three one-hundredths to move into second in the world this year, and Vollmer put up a 56.94 in April.

The two will be in separate semifinals tonight, but definitely look forward to them going head-to-head in the final tomorrow. Sure, it doesn’t really matter who gets first or second, but this matchup of the returning veteran versus the upstart challenger hitting her stride should be a good one.

*Cordes was asked this morning about his favorite thing about returning to the U.S. after his stint training in Singapore.

“It’s good to have some normal food options,” he said.

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