Daniel Roy Takes Round One vs. “Competitor” Reece Whitley

daniel roy, reece whitley, fina world junior championships

Photos Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By David Rieder.

How had they never raced before? They were the two most talented teenage 200 breaststrokers in the country, and somehow, Reece Whitley and Daniel Roy had never gone head-to-head in that event.

At U.S. Nationals in July, they had been in separate preliminary heats before Roy qualified for the A-final at night and Whitley swam in the B-final. At Olympic Trials last year, different prelim heats and different semi-final heats. (Neither made the final.) Even at Junior Worlds, Roy was seeded fourth and Whitley fifth, so—you guessed it—different prelim heats.

But after Roy finished first in prelims in the event at the World Junior Championships and Whitley took second, the duo would swim next to each other in the final—as U.S. teammates.

“It’s kind of poetry,” Whitley said. “I was kind of thinking about it when I went to bed for my nap today. It’s a perfect kind of scenario, lanes four and five, biggest stage.”

In the prelims, Whitley had posted a time of 2:11.85 in heat six, only for Roy to swim just a bit quicker at 2:11.72 in the seventh and final heat. They ended up at around the same final destination but only after taking divergent routes to get there.

Whitley was out in 1:02.99 and back in 1:08.86. Roy, meanwhile, went out in 1:03.94 and came home in 1:07.80. Neither was giving max effort, but Roy’s impressive back-half skills meant that he could run down anyone in his range on the last 50.

In the final, the two would have someone to chase: Italy’s Nicolo Martinenghi, the World Junior Record-holder in both the 50 and 100 breast. A true sprinter, he treated the final exactly like any sprinter might: go out fast and try not to die.

Daniel Roy — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Martinenghi touched first after 50 meters by more than six tenths of a second, and he held the lead through the 150, but Roy was charging, and the 6-foot-9-inch Whitley was looming. Meanwhile, out in lane six, Australian Zac Stubblety-Cook was coming out of nowhere to challenge for a medal.

With five meters to go, Roy took a narrow lead. Whitley stretched into the wall, but it was not quite enough. Roy had won gold in 2:10.77, while Whitley settled for silver, five hundredths back in 2:10.82. Bronze went to Stubblety-Cook in 2:10.90.

Instead of hanging back and then storming home, Roy had swum with the field for the entire race, and it paid off.

“I knew if I stayed with them, I could come back faster than all of them,” Roy said. “If I stayed with them that first 100 and I came back on them hard, I knew I would win.”

Both men had broken 2:11 for the first time, and they had both gone under Kevin Cordes’ 17-18 National Age Group record of 2:10.92—a record Cordes set one year before he established himself as the country’s best all-around breaststroker.

Whitley took almost a half-second off his previous lifetime best after not dropping time in three years, but afterwards, he was still down on his effort, thinking he had more to give at the end.

“I think I just played around too much,” he said. “I train to be a lot faster than even a 2:10. After a 59 (split on the mixed 400 medley relay) for someone like me who’s still a little bit better at the 200, 2:10 is kind of pedestrian. I think I just folded on the last 50, which isn’t something that I’m really used to.

As the men received their medals, Whitley still towered over the 5-foot-8-inch Roy—even if the silver-medal podium was set much lower than the pedestal for gold. For Whitley, seeing two U.S. flags raised and hearing the American national anthem played was some solace after how the race turned out.

Reece Whitley — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

“We still got the 1-2—if it was the Australian or anybody else who would have won, I would have been even more angry with the way things went,” he said. “I still got to hear our anthem play and our fight song play. I couldn’t be more thankful for the situation and how it happened.”

But his silver lining aside, Whitley wanted the medal that Roy won, so does that mean they’re rivals now?

Sort of. Both Roy and Whitley insisted that there’s no bad blood between the two and that they’ve enjoyed getting to know each other better over the course of the week in Indy. As for what happens in the pool, Whitley chose a term that Roy had settled on two weeks earlier: “competitors.”

“It’ll only intensify as we get older,” Whitley said. “There’s no beef at all. I’m proud of him for getting up there and really making a lot of progression over the last few years. Nobody knew who this kid was in 2015, and now he’s a World Junior Champion, and nobody can take that away from him.”

Two years ago, Reece Whitley was deemed the future of American men’s breaststroke. He still looks like a huge piece of that puzzle, but he will have some familiar company in the years to come: Daniel Roy.

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Michael Maloney

6 years ago

Like always…Hyped..then no GO…When will the media learn