Michael Andrew Has a Busy Schedule at Short Course World Championships

Jul 30, 2021; Tokyo, Japan; Michael Andrew (USA) in the men's 200m individual medley final during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports

Michael Andrew -- Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher/USA TODAY Sports

Michael Andrew Has a Busy Schedule at Short Course World Championships

Michael Andrew, a gold medalist on the 400 medley relay at the Tokyo Olympics, will compete at the 2021 FINA Short Course World Championships beginning on Thursday. Andrew’s schedule includes six individual events in six days, all of which have prelims, semifinals and finals. In addition, he is likely to participate on several U.S. relays.

Andrew is known for his unique training style, USRPT. This approach consists of swimming an average of 2,500 or 3,000 yards at race speed, instead of swimming traditional distance-based workouts. USRPT focuses on perfect technique while doing intensive and top-speed workouts. Typically, Andrew races in competition with high frequency, but Andrew has not competed in any formal competition since the Olympics.

Andrew’s schedule looks like this:

Day 1- Thursday, December 16

Andrew will start his participation with the 100 breaststroke. He will swim in heat seven, and is expected to qualify for the semifinals and the final. Andrew will share his prelims heat with world-record holder Ilya Shymanovich (55.28) and Olympic silver medalist Arno Kamminga. Fellow American Nic Fink, who won this event at the International Swimming League Final, is swimming one heat before. Shymanovich, Kamminga and Fink have registered the three fastest times in the season so far.

Day 2- Friday, December 17

During the prelims session, Andrew will swim the 100 butterfly. He will race next to ISL winners Marcin Cieslak, Tom Shields and Matteo Rivolta. Moreover, Chad le Clos will also participate in this event. In the evening session, Andrew will swim the 100 breaststroke final and the 100 butterfly semifinal if everything goes as expected.

Day 3- Saturday, December 18

Andrew will swim two events during the morning session. First, he will swim the 50 freestyle. In this event, Ben Proud (20.40), Szebazstian Szabo (20.72) and Lorenzo Zazzeri (20.87) hold the top times in the world this year. Then, Andrew will race Andreas Vazaios, Thomas Ceccon, Duncan Scott and Kliment Kolesnikov in the 100 individual medley. On this day, Andrew must finish top 16 in both events if he wants to swim in the semifinals.

A few hours later, Andrew will face one of the toughest schedules. If he performs as projected, Andrew will swim the 100 IM semifinal, 50 free semifinal and the 100 butterfly final.

Day 4- Sunday, December 19

Andrew will only race in one event during the morning session, the 50 butterfly, and the field includes co-world-record holders Nicholas Santos and Szabo, Proud, Cieslak, Shields, Rivolta and le Clos. Then, Andrew will again face a challenging evening session. This time he could swim two finals (100 IM and 50 free) and the 50 butterfly semifinal.

Day 5- Monday, December 20

The 50 breaststroke is the last event that Andrew will swim in the prelims session. However, he will need to go fast against the likes of Shymanovich, Kamminga and Nicolo Martinenghi if he hopes to make an impact in this event.

In contrast to the previous finals sessions, Andrew will compete in only the 50 butterfly final and the 50 breaststroke semifinal on this day.

Day 6- Tuesday, December 21

Andrew will conclude his participation with the 50 breaststroke final.

The schedule shown does not include relays in which Andrew might participate.

At the Olympics, Andrew only swam three individual events (100 breaststroke, 200 IM, and 50 free) and the 400 medley relay. But this week in Abu Dhabi, the 22-year-old will face a monster schedule as he attempts to add more Short Course World Championships medals to the three he won in 2016 and his six from 2018.

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