Rapidly Rising Chris Guiliano to Take On Critical Freestyle Responsibilities in Paris

Chris Guiliano -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Rapidly Rising Chris Guiliano to Take On Critical Freestyle Responsibilities in Paris

The temporary pool deck at Lucas Oil Stadium is dotted with swimmers who were can’t-miss stars of their respective club and high school competitions, dominating anyone they raced. These are the blue-chippers that college programs most covet.

Chris Guiliano was not that sort of swimmer in high school. Through his sophomore year at Notre Dame, his best results were a pair of consolation finals at the NCAA Championships. Fifteen months later, and Guiliano is an Olympian, headed to Paris to represent the United States in two individual events and both freestyle relays.

Surprised that Guiliano upstaged the likes of Drew Kibler and Kieran Smith to finish second in the 200 freestyle at Olympic Trials? You can be forgiven, since Guiliano clocked 1:49.59 for 30th place at last year’s U.S. Nationals. He arrived in Indianapolis as the 29th seed in the event with a best time of 1:48.75. Three best times later, he is sitting at 1:45.38, just outside the world top 10 in the event.

“Honestly coming into this meet, I didn’t really know what to expect from this race but I think the more that I swim this event, I think the more I get used to it,” Guiliano said. “I think we’ve seen that throughout the course of this year. I wasn’t going like crazy times in season or anything like that but I was figuring out different ways to swim it and really execute.”

Sure, but this is a swimmer with top-end speed and power like few others. He swam as fast as 18.43 in the 50-yard free at the NCAA Championships. Plenty of those swimmers are strong at the 200-yard event, which can be sprinted at an extremely high tempo, but not the long course version of the race. Maintaining maximum tempo for four laps of a long-course pool is nearly impossible. Most who try that strategy inevitably fade. Plenty of swimmers who excel in the 200-yard event, including Jack Alexy, do not even bother with the 200-meter free.

But Guiliano swam like a veteran 200-meter swimmer, using his natural speed to go out hard but saving something in reserve for the last length, where his 27.15 split was tied for second-best in the field. To achieve that sort of improvement in one season requires gains in strength and skill as well as mastery of race strategy, and that was on display Monday evening.

His results in the 100 free were easier to foresee entering this meet given that Guiliano already made his enormous jump in that event at last year’s U.S. Nationals. He never broken 49 prior to the meet, and then he clocked 47.98 for — this might sound familiar — an unexpected second-place finish. In his international debut, he won two relay silver medals.

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Months later, in the midst of a brilliant junior season, he clocked 47.49 in a time trial following the ACC Championships. At the NCAA Championships, he grabbed three individual top-five finishes while helping the Fighting Irish to three top-10 finishes in relays, which was an unprecedented success for a school without a legacy of national success in swimming.

Now, he is off to Paris in a second event, having captured the win in the 100 free final over Jack Alexy. His chances for an individual medal in the 100 free are superior to the 200 free as he currently owns the fourth-fastest time in the world at 47.25, and he has also positioned himself as a key member of a U.S. men’s 400 free relay that has legitimate aspirations of a third consecutive gold medal, perhaps even challenging the 16-year-old world record of 3:08.24.

There have been more surprising qualifiers for the U.S. team this week in Indianapolis but none who have made the leap from relatively anonymous one year ago to central figure of the American team heading into Paris.

“This is a dream come true, like being a kid,” Guiliano said after he initially qualified Monday evening. “Just taking that moment, I saw a couple of my teammates this in the crowd, and you know, that just really made it all worth it. They made the short trek down from school, and it just meant the world to me.”

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