Western Albemarle High School rising senior Thomas Heilman stepped into the spotlight at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in June, where most of the best swimmers in the world competed for precious few spots on the team for the Olympic Games in Paris in July. In races where a couple hundredths of a second make all the difference and only the top two finishers make the trip, Heilman qualified for the U.S. team in not one but two events.
Only 17, Heilman was five years younger than his next-youngest competitor in the 200-meter butterfly Final, an event in which he took fourth place in last year’s World Championships in Japan. Moving smoothly through the preliminary and semi-final heats according to his own non-flashy plan as the race announcers focused on bigger names, Heilman won the Final by a half-second to become the youngest male since 2000 (Michael Phelps) to make the U.S. Olympic Team.
“I felt like I was in a better position to make the team in the 200 fly, so I was a little more confident for that race,” said Heilman at a press conference at the Brooks Y in Charlottesville after the Trials. “The strategy was to try to conserve as much energy as possible in the first couple of rounds, which allowed me to be my best in the Finals.”
The 100-meter butterfly is a quicker, out-and-back sprint of the pool, and after the Prelim heats Heilman was eleventh out of 16 advancing to the Semis, then seventh of 8 going into the Finals. In the final race he was outside in lane 1, lined up against a stacked field including former Olympians Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Murphy, and Zach Harting. Unfazed, Heilman swam a finely calibrated race, finishing second behind Dressel and out-touching third-place finisher Dare Rose by four one-hundredths of a second. He also broke Phelps’ 17-18 National Age Group record, which had stood since 2003.
“Making the team [for the 100m fly] was a lot more exciting,” said Heilman. “Being in the outside lane, I couldn’t really see anyone so I was just doing my own thing out there. I think it worked out really well because it forced me to swim my own race. I’m not really able right now to compete with some of those guys on the first 25 or 50 meters because of their experience in the weight room—they’re a little bit stronger than me right now. So, we’ve put a big emphasis on getting through the turn really well and then trying to carry as much speed as possible into the wall.”
As he showed last year at national and international competitions, Heilman has a talent for stunning the field with a ferocious final 50 meters that simply overpowers his opponents. In the 100 fly Finals he was seventh at the turn but surged home in a relentless, electrifying drive to capture second. He swam the fastest last 50m earlier in the 200 fly Finals as well, even though he was mostly in the lead—it’s just natural for him.
Even after watching years of achievement at hundreds of meets, Thomas’s mom Carrie is still wowed by her son. “I think had he not made the [U.S. National Team] last year, I think I would have fainted when he won the 200,” she said, laughing. “It’s completely mind-blowing in that moment—and then it happened twice!—to know he’ll compete at the Olympics. It’s almost disbelief, but all along he’s been pretty confident, too.”
Friends and coaches have predicted great things for Thomas for more than a decade. “When he was little people would say, ‘Oh, he’s going to be an Olympian,’ and while that’s a great dream, we always knew how slim the chances of that were,” she said. “But as he got older, it was like, ‘Well… maybe that’s possible?’” Carrie coached Thomas in basketball when he was younger and could always see what’s even truer today—he just absolutely hates to lose. “There would be 15 seconds left and they were down by two, and he would put it into overdrive, is how I describe it. He’s got that extra little gear that gets him through.”
King Continues His Ascent
David King, who just graduated from WAHS and will attend UVA in the fall, also competed in the Olympic Trials and exceeded expectations even for the rapidly rising star he already is. King shaved almost a full second off of his 100m backstroke qualifying time in the Prelims, after having just dropped that much time in a meet in May to make the cut for the Trials. He tied for 17th place (the top 16 go to the Semis), which meant he had to swim an additional swim-off race to determine who would be the first alternate. King won the swim-off, which took place only a couple of hours after the first race, but, as luck would have it, none of the semifinalists withdrew.
In the 200m backstroke he sliced more than three seconds off his qualifying time and took fifth place in the Prelims, which meant he snagged a “night swim” in the Semis. He placed ninth in the Semis (where the top eight advance), finishing only 28/100ths out of an Olympic Trial Final that contained huge names like Ryan Murphy, Jack Aikens, and Daniel Diehl.
King ascended an especially steep slope over the course of the Trials. He entered the 100 backstroke ranked 55th and climbed to 17th, and he came into the 200 backstroke ranked 53rd and finished as 9th best in the U.S. Through it all, he remained cool-headed, said his mom, Natalie. “David does really well under pressure—he keeps himself really calm and has the capacity to compartmentalize what’s going on,” she said. “I was floored by how much his times dropped. We were so thrilled.”
David’s parents are excited to see him off to UVA this fall, as they reflect on how far he’s already come. “I attribute our whole area’s swimming success in part to the Jefferson Swim League, getting kids to start when they’re young and having fun with it,” said Natalie. “I’ve gained the utmost respect for the sport and swimmers because unlike other sports that are seasonal, swimming at a competitive level is year-round, six days a week.” Does she still get nervous watching David race? “Oh, sure I do,” she said, “but he’s worked really hard to earn these accomplishments and he has great confidence. So, I know he can do it because he knows he can do it.”
