Brazilian Olympian Felipe Lima is trying the Turkish waters on for size, as the 35-year-old has ventured to Gloria Sports Arena to join his Energy Standard teammates for a 3-week training camp.
“I was in Jacksonville, Florida before coming to Turkey and decided to come here because the team will be training here before we start the Olympic season in September, the multi-international medalist told SwimSwam yesterday.
Lima, who took 50m breaststroke silver at the 2019 FINA World Aquatic Championships, will dive in next to the likes of French Olympic champion Florent Manaudou, Danish gold medalist Pernille Blume and British national record holder Ben Proud before moving on to Portugal. There, he will join his own Brazilian national team for a subsequent training camp before heading back to native Brazil.
As a former member of LA Current, Lima marked the first new member of Energy Standard to make the move from a Championship team for season 2 of the ISL. Last year, Lima ranked 48th among all MVP point scorers, having earned 78.0 across 4 meets, including the Las Vegas final.
At those Nevada finals, Lima finished 4th in the men’s 50m breast, 5th in the 100m breast, and helped the LA Current medley relay finish 6th.
For season 2, however, he’s decided to take a new path by joining Team Energy Standard, with coach James Gibson looking forward to the addition.
Speaking with SwimSwam’s Lydia Ferrari Kehoe this week Gibson said, “He was exceptional last year during the ISL on the breaststroke – with the new rules on skins with whoever wins the medley relay on the Saturday night can choose the event of the skins, it’s very handy to have a sprint breaststroke at his level short course, and Ilya Shymanovich to cover off those events. So that was very much a tactical decision by me.”
In terms of actual recruitment, Gibson said of Lima, “I’ve known him for a long time. I also had an opportunity for him to come and work with us a little bit and we can support him on his journey through this year as well.
“Also, Felipe is a great guy. He’s really useful to have on the team. Already, it’s been a day and he has integrated very well. He’s a mature athlete and he’s a nice guy to work with.”
Gibson also relayed how Lima has had it tough training-wise, having been out of the water for nearly 8 weeks. The breaststroking ace had been keeping in shape by cycling at home, but finally got wet this week.
You can feel the excitement from Lima’s Instagram post below:
With all the mess going on in the US and Brazil I’m sure glad he found himself an option.