For Team USA’s Brendan McHugh, the corporate world can wait. Until September of 2016.
McHugh is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Washington and Lee School of Law, and has accepted a job with the Washington, DC law firm, Drinker Biddle & Reath, with whom he interned during the summer of 2014.
McHugh deferred his start date at Drinker Biddle & Reath in order to train for the 2015 World Championships in Kazan and then to try to make the 2016 US Olympic Team for Rio. His LinkedIn profile reads:
From May 2015 until August 2016 I will be training to make the United States Olympic Team. I have accepted a position at Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP that begins September 2016.
McHugh finished 18th in prelims this morning at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan with 27.62, a half-second off the 27.10 he went in prelims of the 2014 Phillips 66 National Championships to set the U.S. Open Record.
McHugh told SwimSwam in an interview earlier this summer:
“Unless swimming becomes extremely profitable for me, I think 2016 is it. I think the qualifying system for the national team this year is great. I like that it considers a lot of swims rather than just nationals.
“I personally would love to see the 50 strokes become Olympic events. Why should only freestylers be the ones able to make a living that way? And personally I think sprints are what the general public likes to see. People always watch the 100m in track because drop dead sprints are all-out and exciting.”
The 50’s will come in someday at Games. The Europeans love it. The problem forvUs is unless they allow larger team totals of swimmers then you have to get to selectivity. The U.S. is the only country fills every slot with swimmers doing doubles. We always have full teams others around the world don’t so that for them doesn’t put a crimp into having two every event as they don’t always as they have there own decision point . Getting into preference of strokes causes great problems in selection. The U.S. system has always been the best and fair without people making decisions. Other countries can keep you off even if you are the best. Can’t do that in US.… Read more »
Drinks Biddles & Death .
Swimming already has too many medals . There is a lot more involved in winning the team sports yet they get just one medal for all of them.
But also , the world has too many lawyers .
Why did NJ get the rubbish dumps & NY the lawyers?
NJ had first choice .
Not enough good lawyers 🙂
400 Fly and the 800 IM!!! The more swimming the better. I am not a big fan of the 50s but thats okay you can always channel surf or get up and get a snack. I also think they should have B finals to give more second swims to the athletes that travel so far.
Olympic events I’d like to see added: Women’s 1500 free, 4 x 100 mixed medley relay. 4 x 100 mixed free relay, 4 x 50 free relay.
Olympic events I’d like to see dropped: 200 IM, Women’s 800 free
You want the 200IM dropped?! Are you out of your mind?
That’s like the best event lol all four strokes combined..
Honestly, there is no real possibility of the 50 stroke races becoming Olympic events, so it’s a moot point; however, I wish the IOC would see reason and at LEAST make the events equal so that the men AND women swim the 1500 free!
Also, since the relays are so popular, I think it would be a good idea to add the mixed medley and free relays to the mix and change the schedule so that each session ends with a relay (3 for men + 3 for women + 2 mixed = 8 relays, one for each day of the swimming schedule). It would not be necessary to increase the number of athletes to add these relays, which I… Read more »
Interesting article in the NYT a couple of days ago:
…Maglione said that it made more sense to add the 50-meter distances in the butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke “because we have 50 meters only in freestyle and we need it in all the styles. We can do this competition with the same swimmers as the 100 meters, and now it’s very difficult to include new competitions or include more athletes.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/10/sports/rethinking-an-olympic-format-in-light-of-katie-ledeckys-1500-feat.html
Thanks, Anne! Great article. I like Ledecky’s comment that she would like the 1500 in the Olympic program, but not at the expense of the 800, “…because of the historic aspect…” That’s a good point. I would hate to see Janet Evans and Brooke Bennett’s efforts relegated to the “events no longer competed” file. Anyway, why is it OK for track to have a 200/400/800/1500, but not for swimming?
Organizers could make it clear that the 800 free (women) and 1500 free (men) competitors be chosen from the competitors already entered in other Olympic events with the same being said for the 50 breast, fly and back events.
My only beef with the 50 fly event (especially) is… Read more »
Good luck Brendan! Philly (or south jersey, whatever…) represent! I’m pulling for you!
Agreed that 50s of strokes should be given more stock. Why should a 50 freestyler be able to swim in the Olympics but a 50 breaststroker can’t?
Why should they take 6x 100 and 6x 200 freestylers but only 2 breastrokers in 100 and 200?
If they add 50’s of strokes then FINA will take away some events….guaranteed. My problem is 50 people don’t have to actually train. There is NO aerobic base needed for 50 swimmers. Sorry not a fan.
Completely right. Prior to World Champs, Florent Manadaou hadn’t been in a pool since the last Olympics.
My point was not to necessarily add the 50 breast to the Olympic events (although I would like to see that), but rather have the 50s of other stroke events recognized for swimmers to get a spot on the US National team roster to allow them the training and other benefits associated with that spot. Again, this is to recognize that Americans do swim the 50 of stroke events at competitions such as Worlds.
50 is plenty long enough a race to require some aerobic ability. Not to mention all sorts of other training. I don’t love them more because all the top swimmers swim more or less the same speed when watching with the naked eye.
Agree that it does look like a long straight line across the pool on the 50s most of the time. I do like the 1500 though since it gives me time to go to the bathroom and get a coffee and a snack and get back in time to watch the finish. I thought I had missed the finish the other day with the women’s 1500 and that they were just showing the warm down pool, but then I realized it was just Katie swimming one way while everyone else was swimming the opposite direction.
I listened to a British swimming podcast, and a female announcer made a similar comment about the 800. She thought she had missed most of the race because she came in and Ledecky was so far ahead, but it was just Katie jumping out to a big lead.
You’re right, and I also think that we should drop the 800 freestyle, the 1500 freestyle, and the 400s free and IM. There’s almost no strength and power training, let alone start practice involved with those distance “swimmers. ”
Also, come to think about it, there’s no reason to have breaststrokers too. At the world stage they all have flexible knees. I dont want to watch a competitive knee flexibility race!! Drop breaststroke.
200s are also another thing that needs to be eliminated. 200 swimmers barely ever need to train their hand-eye coordination. Who wants to watch a bunch of people who cant even catch well swim in a pool?
Backstroke? Backstrokers barely even train their bicycling base. Eliminating… Read more »
Lol!