United States age group phenom Luca Urlando dislocated his shoulder in practice last weekend, he announced in an Instagram post Monday night.
Urlando wrote that recovery will take “a couple of months,” but that he has resources available to him at the United States Olympic Training Center that will help with the process.
“I am optimistic that I will be able to reach my goal of swimming well at Olympic Trials,” Urlando wrote.
Urlando, 17, hails from Davis, CA. He swims club for DART and is committed to swim for the University of Georgia next fall.
In Irvine at 2018 Summer Nationals, he had a breakout meet, highlighted by a third-place finish in the 200 fly. With that swim, he qualified for the U.S. Junior Pan Pacs team. In Fiji, Urlando won gold medals in the 100 and 200 fly as well as the 400 medley and mixed medley relays.
He rode that success through early 2019, then in June at the Mel Zajac Jr. International meet, Urlando clocked a 1:54.35 lifetime best in the 200 fly — it was also the fastest time done by an American since Michael Phelps’ gold medal winning swim at the 2016 Olympic Games. He followed that swim up by breaking Phelps’ 16-year-old 17-18 national age group record with a 1:53.84 at the Pro Swim Series stop in Clovis. The performance made Urlando the third-fastest American in history, only trailing Phelps and Tyler Clary.
Last summer, Urlando was voted as one of five captains for Team USA’s World Junior Championships roster.
On day one, Urlando swam on the 4×100 free relay in finals, where he split 48.73 on the second leg to help break the world junior record in a time of 3:15.80. On day two, he won his first individual gold of the meet, touching first in the 200 free in a time of 1:46.97.
On day three, Urlando helped USA to gold once again, this time leading off the mixed 4×100 free relay in 49.66 en route to a new world junior record of 3:25.92. The next day, Urlando was second on the 4×200 free relay, which broke another world junior record; he split 1:47.13 en route to a final time of 7:08.37.
Urlando rounded out his individual swims with a win in the 200 fly, touching for a gold medal performance in 1:55.02.
Ouch. Poor kid. I hope he sits out this year and rehabs.
Assuming he makes it it Tokyo, he should avoid warming up in a lane with a certain international swimmer known for getting in altercations with people…
Luca comments beating the Fina swim meet comments handily. Wish it was better news tho.
Hoping for a speedy recovery and even speedier times at trials !
Conger and Shields just woke up.
Them and a dozen other guys. Anyone that has been sub 1:58 has a least got a shot. I’m gonna say Sam P. has got to be one of those guys. Smachlo is another. Dressel could medal in this thing if he wanted out in 51 back in 1:02
Dressel went out in 51 and back in 102…he’d be top 10 performers ever!
The Dressel comment was just to tease Ol’Longhorn. He could probably go a 1:54 if he focused on it.
The man stole my cattle. Isn’t that enough for you?
Do people “like” IG post of such a nature?
Get well soon!
Yes, usually to show support.
stay away from pain killers…
If he can still kick, this could even be a blessing in disguise. Can’t tell you how many stories I’ve seen of swimmers being limited to kicking only and having breakthrough seasons….not just salvaging their season, but making a quantum leap forward.
Stay positive, Luca! Keep working hard. You can do it!!
This happened to me. I had elbow issues when I was in high school and could only kick for months. I ended up with massive drops in my 100 Fly that season. Which in turn got me onto a D1 college team.
I am a Masters swimmer now but my kick is still very strong and I think it all goes back to that season where all I could do was work on my kick.
Luca is already an amazing swimmer but imagine if he had Shields-like underwaters.
Happened to me my senior year of college. Months of only kicking led to huge improvements in my sprints. I was a middle distance swimmer though and those races suffered. Wait…. that doesn’t really help to boost him up.
If he can’t kick, that’s one HELLUVA shoulder dislocation.
Seem to recall MP kicking a lot after his broken wrist, & he said in an interview that it made his kicking & walls both much stronger. Anyone else recall it more precisely?