Records are falling across the country as college swimmers dive into their conference meets, and this holds true for George Fox University’s Freshman swimmer, Adin Williams. Williams (19) is part of the North West Conference and broke three American Paralympic S6 records last week at the North West Conference Championships.
As stated by the International Paralympic Committee, “This sport class (S6) includes swimmers with short stature or amputations of both arms, or moderate co-ordination problems on one side of their body, for example.”
Photo Courtesy: Adin Williams
Williams started off his meet by getting a standing ovation from the crowd when he touched at a 27.59 in his 50 yard freestyle, breaking the old record set by Zach Shattuck in 2017 by 1.02 seconds. The next day Williams broke his own record in the 100 yard butterfly by going a 1:09.14 (the previous record had been set only weeks before at a 1:11.72). On the last day of the meet, the crowd was frozen in anticipation as Williams raced to the wall to just grab the 100 yard freestyle record of 1:03.50, beating Liam Smith’s 2019 record of 1:03:64.
“It was kind of a surprise that I broke all three, I just knew coming into the NW Conference Championships that I had to do the best that I could, no matter what,” Williams told Swimming World.
On top of now holding the 50 yard and 100 yard freestyle as well as the 100 yard butterfly, Williams also holds the American Paralympic S6 records in the 100 meter and 400 meter freestyle. Williams was overjoyed after hitting the wall in the 50 free saying that, “I was just so happy. I knew that I was really close to the previous record and Conference was a great opportunity to break it. It was also just so amazing to see everyone in the crowd on their feet.”
College swimming can be difficult for all swimmers as most of them add more training time in the pool and the weight room, but it could have proven to be even more daunting for Williams going into a team, and a conference, that had no other Paralympic athletes. He has been competitively swimming since the age of 12, and says the uptick in yardage this past year has made a huge difference in this season’s swims.
His coach Natalie Turner told Swimming World: “I think Adin swam really well. He really put a lot into this season, just joining a college swim team, getting into 20 hour a week practices, he is lifting weights, doing yoga with the rest of the team, being a part of our sprint group, he has just adapted to so much in college swimming. To see him be so successful is really rewarding, and seeing all his hard work pay off through out the year, and just being able to finish it off with conference here in the short course pool.”
NWC Championships was just the start of Adin Williams’ competitive season as he and Coach Turner have very high hopes going into long course season with the Paralympic World Series being held in Indianapolis on the 16-18 of April, followed by the Paralympic Trials this summer and hopefully a trip to Tokyo in August.
Great to see Paralympic coverage on here! Way to go Adin!
Great swims, keep it up.
Thank you for including para-athletes in your issue. These are impressive times, and these athletes are as serious about their sport as able-bodied swimmers!