This week’s Performance Of The Week, sponsored by LumaLanes, goes to Zane Grothe for his record breaking swim in the 1650 free at U.S Winter Nationals in Columbus, Ohio, this past weekend.
Unless you were living under a rock, you likely heard about Grothe’s dramatic entrance into the short course yards record books, first with his 500 free (where he became the first man to break 4:08) which he followed up two days later with an even more dramatic 1650 free.
For context, Grothe was gunning for one of the most impressive records to come out of last year’s insanely fast men’s NCAA Championships: Clark Smith’s 14:22.41. That swim was the result of a heated race down to the wire between four men, while Grothe attacked this swim all on his own with nothing but the clock pushing him.
Out in 4:17.41 at the 500 and 8:40.47 at the 1000, the 25-year-old held 26-lows for much of the race to chop an incredible 4 plus seconds off of Smith’s record. Speaking after the race, Grothe said he knew he had a shot of the record for the better part of last year after swimming a 14:29 on no rest last winter and was looking to his coach to make sure he was on pace to break 14:20. You can hear Grothe’s take on the swim following his performance below:
Grothe had a breakout summer this past year that saw him win a national time in the 400 free (3:44.43) and finish in the top 8 at Worlds in the 400 and 800 freestyles. While we’ll have to wait to see how Grothe’s times will translate into long course, you can bet that all eyes will be on the Indiana post-grad as we head into the new year.
Congratulations Zane Grothe on earning Swimming World’s Performance of the Week!
Special Thanks to LumaLanes for sponsoring Swimming World’s Performance of the Week.
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