The Little-Known Legend of Randall Bal and Hayley McGregory

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By Jason Tillotson, Swimming World College Intern.

It is an unfortunate reality that, in the United States, only a few swimming names are known across the nation. Beyond Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky, I seriously doubt many outside the swimming community could name more than one or two others.

Why is that? Is it because the sport of swimming doesn’t get as much national coverage as many other American favorites such as football, basketball or baseball? Maybe, but every sport’s enthusiast knows a little bit more about their sport than the general population. For example, I would bet few swimmers know the entire roster, season stats and records of Orlando City Soccer Club, but a soccer-nerd probably would. That being said, I believe people’s lack of knowledge of many tremendously talented swimmers stems from the fact that if you don’t make an Olympic team, you simply don’t get the same recognition as those who do make an Olympic team.

Randall Bal is victim to this conundrum. Bal has 13 major-international swimming medals (five gold, six silver and two bronze), along with an absurdly long list of World Cup wins. Bal has held the world record in the 50-meter backstroke multiple times, in both short-course and long-course versions of the race. He is the fifth fastest performer in history in the 50m backstroke. Perhaps his most impressive achievement was winning the FINA World Cup Series overall title in 2007.

Yet, whenever I am caught deep in the depths of YouTube’s swimming video archive, watching Bal break the world record in low-resolution 480p, I am met with some confusion. “Who is Randall Bal? I’ve never heard of him”, they ask. Many people don’t know who he is largely because he never made an Olympic roster. Bal’s highest place was third in 2000, followed by two back-to-back fourth place finishes in 2004 and 2008, then a ninth place finish in 2012. Bal continued to race in Europe, though with numerous championship medals and records still to his name, with little recognition from the general public.

Photo Courtesy: AFP

Similarly, and, perhaps a bit ironically, 100m backstroke standout Hayley McGregory is not widely discussed in the swimming world either. The same question arises: why not? She was a standout NCAA swimmer at both The University of Texas and University of Southern California. She broke the 50m and 100m backstroke records in 2008 (the latter of which was previously held by Natalie Coughlin). She competed in the LC World Championships in 2009 and the 2009 Mutual of Omaha Duel in the Pool. She was third in the 100m backstroke at 2008 the Olympic Trials…Is that it? Is that what defines who gets noticed in our sport?

The list of names is endless; Robert Margalis, fifth in the 1500m at the 2004 Olympic Trials, third in the 400 IM behind Phelps and Lochte in 2008. Becca Mann, fifth in the 800m freestyle in 2012 at the age of 14 but no one paid attention for longer than it took her to swim the race. I could go on and on but the point still remains, swimmers get recognized and judged based on their ability to make the Olympic team.

What does this mean for our sport? In short, it means we have a long way to go in terms of getting recognition for all the swimmers who deserve it, not just the Olympians. David Marsh, Head Coach and CEO of SwimMAC Carolina, has hinted at a possibility for a Pro Swim League in the U.S. where our athletes can be treated like the professionals they are. The Arena Pro Swim Series is a good start and the U.S. Olympic Trials attendance has gone from a meek 4,400 in 1996 and 2000 to a 160,000 in 2008 and 2012 to cracking 200,000 this past summer.

Moving forward, we all need to come together to help recognize athletes who may have fallen short of making an Olympic squad, but certainly have the credentials to be mentioned in the same sentence of those who did. It all stems from the American idea that those who don’t make the team, don’t matter. While we all may agree that this is false, the rest of the world puts their entire national team on a pedestal and sends entire squads to multiple World Cups, FINA Grand Prix meets, among others. Meanwhile, here in the US, we value our Olympians, forget everyone else and pretend the World Cups don’t exist.

When will we see the Randall Bals and Hayley McGregorys of the swimming world have their spot in the limelight?

All commentaries are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Swimming World Magazine nor its staff.

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Anne P.

7 years ago

Actually I believe Haley McGregory placed third in the 100 back at both the 2004 AND the 2008 Trials!

David Rieder

7 years ago

McGregory was actually third at Olympic Trials in both the 100 and 200 back in BOTH 2004 and 2008. In 2008, she broke the 100 back WR in prelims (Coughlin took it back in the next heat), and then she finished third in the final.

David Plummer would have been another great candidate for this list had he not gotten on the team this year. Another one was Mary Descenza, on every World Championship team for a decade (2001, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009) but never an Olympic team.

Dunc1952

7 years ago

Reply to David Rieder

Thanks, David. I recalled the same about Hayley, but reading your note saved me having too look up the results to confirm a sometimes fading memory. Good work.