This week’s LumaLanes Performance of the Week goes to one of the USA Swimming’s biggest stars, who made a triumphant return to the competition pool this weekend at the 2017 Arena Pro Swim Series in Austin, Texas. Matt Grevers finished his weekend with a gold medal in his signature event, the 100 backstroke, beating out countryman Jacob Pebley to take the win in 53.31 and marking his return to national competition.
This swim was significant for a few reasons. First, Grevers’ best in-season swim in this event is a 53.05 from the 2010 Austin Pro Series meet, and he has consistently been in the 53-low range at this meet through the years. Speaking to the media prior to his race, he said he has changed up his training this year but still only did a short three-day rest for this meet.
For Grevers to be that close to his in-season best shows that his training is on track and should give him some confidence heading into World Champs Trials this summer. He also went head to head with 2016 Olympian Jacob Pebley, who was the top seed out of prelims and was coming off an impressive win from earlier in the meet in the 200 backstroke. Pebley trains with backstroke star Ryan Murphy out in Cal and should continue to be a force in both backstroke events in the coming years.
But perhaps most significant of all, this was the Olympic gold medalist’s first major meet since the 2016 Olympic Trials, where the 2012 gold medalist finished third in the 100 backstroke, just one spot out of an Olympic berth. As he explained on last week’s episode of Off Deck, lot has happened since this summer for Grevers, biggest of all the birth of his daughter, Skylar, back in November, but it appears that the four-time Olympic gold medalist has no intentions of slowing down in the water. The United States has had a history of incredible depth in the backstroke events nationally and dominance on the international stage, and with Grevers swimming the way he is, we shouldn’t expect that to be changing anytime soon.
Congratulations Matt Grevers on earning Swimming World’s Performance of the Week!
Special Thanks to LumaLanes for sponsoring Swimming World’s Performance of the Week.
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