Even After Unprecedented Success, Mallory Comerford Still Humble and Hungry

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Photo Courtesy: Aaron Doster-USA TODAY Sports

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By David Rieder.

It was the most stunning, surreal moment of the NCAA season: Mallory Comerford, the inexperienced 19-year-old from the University of Louisville, was running down the great Katie Ledecky in one of her signature events.

The two ended up finishing in a dead heat that night, tying for the national title in the 200-yard free in 1:40.37. Comerford had dropped her lifetime best by more than two seconds in the span of a month, and she had swum faster than any other woman in history besides Missy Franklin.

It was clear then that Comerford had national-level potential. Admittedly, the NCAA meet was short course, a totally different animal from the Olympic-sized long course pool, and Comerford was very green as far as 50-meter course experience. At the 2016 Olympic Trials, she didn’t make it out of the semi-finals in either the 100 or 200 free.

But with how well she’d performed in the college arena, surely Comerford would be able to figure out long course well enough to grab a spot on a relay at this summer’s World Championships.

Well, she did. Apparently, “just a relay spot,” was aiming low, but Comerford insists that she would have been thrilled with just getting onto her first long course international team.

“Any spot, any step in the right direction,” Comerford said. “I was just hoping for something. It’s always an honor to represent Team USA and even just to be here in a final heat like this.”

With her 53.26 in prelims, a new U.S. nationals meet record, Comerford showed that no one in the field outside of Simone Manuel, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100 free, had a shot at beating her. And as it turned out, even Manuel couldn’t hang.

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Comerford touched in 52.81, well ahead of Manuel in 53.05. Her time ranks third in the world this year, and only Sarah Sjostrom and world record-holder Cate Campbell have been quicker. Her time was just a tenth off Manuel’s American record of 52.70.

“I didn’t know exactly if I was going to go 52, but I knew I had a faster swim in me than this morning,” she said. “I knew this morning wasn’t perfect—I jammed my wall, and I knew my finish could be a little bit stronger. I knew it could be a little bit faster, but I didn’t know exactly what it would be.”

And that’s it—that’s Comerford’s reaction to a swim that is certainly the most impressive of her career.

Internationally, anything she did in the yards’ tank could still be dismissed as somewhat irrelevant since it’s a format only practiced in the United States. She was never going to earn international respect—not to mention international medals—without making the jump to the big pool.

And yet, after the race, she was all about business as usual. Comerford will compete again Wednesday in the 200 free, another key race for her, but the emotions of her big long course breakthrough, her first national championship, her first major international team were all under control.

“It’s like NCAAs—emotions are so high always,” she said. “When it’s a team battle, a team race, you just have to control one day to the next. Move forward with this, use it to motivate me, but there are still more events to swim.”

Ledecky goes into the 200 free as a heavy favorite—she is the Olympic gold medalist in the event, after all—but Comerford now looks like a real threat for the No. 2 spot.

Even if she makes top six in that event, she will go to the World Championships as a favorite to win medals as a member of all three American relays—not to mention in the 100 free, where that 52.81 would undoubtedly put her in the mix. She’s in a position she never would have imagined herself a few years ago.

“A few years ago, I would have been like, ‘Uhh, no way,’” Comerford said. “I’ve been at Louisville for three summers now, and a lot has changed. It’s just been the greatest experience of my life, so many opportunities, such an awesome atmosphere, so many teammates that are so awesome and the coaches and my family.”

Even in the face of such an enormous success, this was the same old Mallory Comerford—always appreciative and grounded, even as she reaches exciting new thresholds of success.

She arrived in Indianapolis hungry with quiet confidence, just like at the NCAA meet three months earlier. Going into the 200 free, she’s still hungry and confident—even if not so quietly anymore.

Success has not gone to her head, and perhaps that’s what makes Comerford the most dangerous.

Sixteen months earlier, Comerford first earned national attention when the then-Louisville-freshman took down soon-to-be Olympic gold medalist Leah Smith in the 200 free at the ACC championships. The time (in the 1:43-mid-range) was nothing record-breaking, but it was the best swim of her career at that point.

Soon after, Louisville head coach Arthur Albiero admitted that during the recruiting process, he had figured that Comerford would turn into the third or fourth-best swimmer in her freshman class. Little did he know.

Watch Comerford’s full interview after the 100 free below:

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