2016 Olympic gold medalist and NC State Wolfpack team member Ryan Held is making a local meet debut this weekend in his home state of Illinois. Representing Springfield YMCA, 21-year-old Held will be competing at the FAST Spring Fever meet held at Edwardsville High School’s Chuck Fruit Aquatic Center May 19th – 21st. The meet is hosted by Flyers Aquatic Swim Team of St. Louis who is renting the CFAC facility for the event.
Held attended Sacred Heart-Griffin High School in Springfield, Illinois where he was a multiple time state champion and record breaker. In his senior year in 2014 he was named Illinois State Swimmer of the Year. At the Olympic Games in Rio, Held was a prelims and finals swimmer on the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay which won the gold medal. At NC State, Held was a member of the NCAA title-winning 4x100y freestyle relay and earned runner-up status in the individual 50y freestyle.
According to Meet Mobile, Held is entered in the 200m freestyle and 100m butterfly, both taking place the afternoon of Saturday, May 20th.
I wish him the best for this summer – hopefully , he will on that Us real again .
Relay again ….
No problem. He will be in that relay team with Adrian, Dressel, Pieroni and Chadwick. And then Farris or Conger.
Awesome young man that represents himself, teammates and country very well.
The 4×00 was pretty tough
It IS tough, especially the exchange part of relay: one cannot jump off the block before a partner gets on it without moving a single inch forward.
Gonna be there…SO excited to meet him and see him swim