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Ryan Held continued his gold medal swims at the 2019 Phillips 66 U.S. National Championships with his win the 50 free in a time of 21.87. On night 1, Held swam a U.S. Open and meet record in the 100 free (47.39).
Held earned performance of the meet which was a big step in the right direction after reflecting on his races last summer and allowing him to regain confidence.
“I had a great meet overall, so much better than last year. I’ll probably never forget, after last year’s meet, I was sitting at In-n-out Burger with one of my coaches from NC State and I was just feeling so sad and so down,” Ryan Held said.
Held competed for NC State throughout his college career before moving to Indiana and then Alabama which is where he currently trains. All of this moving made things difficult, but Held was able to balance his training and show up his best this past week in Palo Alto.
“It was not easy. It was actually pretty sucky and hard at times. I just left everything I was comfortable with at NC State, my friends, the city, to Bloomington, Indiana where we were a little gritty because we still viewed each other as rivals, not really as friends,” Ryan Held said. “I slowly had to work my way into the social circles but then ones I got in those social circles, the guys were great. It was just right at that time, I had to leave for Alabama, but those Alabama guys are great. They’re really receptive to having a pro-group there.”
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