Wong's BLOG

AJ in 6th grade, Lia in 4th grade, and Anna in 3rd grade

AJ competed in his first year-round competition level swim meet. He had been doing the neighborhood summer team which is a 2-month summer season for a few years. But now he decided to make swim his sport and do it year round. While most of the kids on these year-round teams get much younger starts, AJ made his debut on the official USA Swimming circuit at age 12 -- at boy did he make a splash!

His final standings were:
5th out of 78 in 100y Breaststroke
6th out of 70 in 50y Breaststroke
7th out of 66 in 50y Butterfly
12th out of 81 in 100y IM
16th out of 131 in 50y Freestyle
24th out of 94 in 50y Backstroke

His times in the two breaststroke races already qualified him to swim those events at the regional Junior Olympics at the University of Maryland in March!

Below are some videos and pics from the meet. [Although he is lengths ahead, he doesn't place first overall because he was swimming in slower heats with other kids presumably also new to official USA Swimming and without seeded times.]

Boys 9-12 100M Breast (lane 2, second lane from the top, blue cap)




Boys 9-12 100M IM (lane 5, middle of the pool)




Boys 9-12 50M Fly (lane 4, fourth from top)


Boys 9-12 50M Breast (lane 3, third from top)


Starting Block Practice
Towards the end of warmups, swimmers get a chance to practice their starts off the starting blocks. AJ is in middle/bottom part of the screen in the blue cap. One of his coaches is in the gray shirt and gives him the go.


Warm-ups
These meets are quite an experience. There were over 400 swimmers warming up for the next several hours of events at the same time across three different warm up areas. AJ pushes off the wall from his turn right at the start of the video in the lane where the lady with the red rescue noodle is standing.




Phelps still holds the 200 Fly record at the pool where the meet was held:

Played airsoft (like paintball) for his 12th birthday