Year in and year out, the USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Select Camp takes some of America’s best long-distance pool swimmers and helps turn them into open water swimming stars.
Chloe Sutton, Andrew Gemmell, Chip Peterson and Eva Fabian are all examples of select team campers who later emerged as world championship or FINA World Cup medalists.
Last year, established pool long-distance freestylers like Emily Brunemann of Club Wolverine, Sean Ryan of Scenic City Aquatic Club, Alex Meyer of Ithaca Aquatics Club and Emily Hanson of Club Wolverine all participated in the 2009 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Select Camp. After some good swims in Ft. Myers, they found themselves on a flight to Rome to represent the USA in the 5K, 10K and 25K races at the 2009 World Swimming Championships.
The swimmers selected to participate in the intensive 4-day camp in Long Beach, California will be introduced to a wealth of open water swimming information, drills, workouts, techniques, strategies, equipment and tactics for use in world-class open water competitions. Practices are conducted in both Marine Stadium and in the ocean near Belmont Plaza under the guidance of coaches Rick Walker, Catherine Vogt and Steven Munatones.
The athletes include JP Arnold of Swim MAC, Vincent Donnelly of Purdue University, Ryan Feeley of University of Michigan, John Paul Gaylor of Pilot Aquatic Club, Adam Hinshaw of Palo Alto Stanford Swim Club, Ryan Hinshaw of Indiana University, Dan O’Connor of Syracuse Chargers, Jackson Partin of Santa Clara Swim Club, Jason Taylor of the University of Florida, Joey Pedraza of the University of Florida, Caleb Veazey of Arizona State University, Josh Wakeley of Penn State University, Haley Anderson of USC, Allison Arnold of Dallas Mustangs, Tristin Baxter of Clovis Swim Club, Ellie Doran of USC, Katura Harvey of North Carolina Aquatic Club, Eva Lehtonen of the University of Florida, Lynette Lim of Pirahna Swim Team, Lauren Morford of Asphalt Green Unified Aquatics, Taylor Nanfria of Crow Canyon Country Club, Rachel Naurath of NOVA of Virginia Aquatics, Taylor O’Brien of Parkland Swim Club, Nikki White of Indiana University.
These swimmers include the top young distance freestylers in the USA. They have the opportunity to take open water swimming instruction during the camp and then apply it immediately at the USA Swimming National 5K and 10K Open Water Swimming Championships which serve as the World Open Water Swimming Championships Selection Trials for both America and Canada.
We look forward to seeing who will emerge as America’s next open water swimming stars.
Upper photo shows Nikki White. Middle photo shows Ellie Doran. Bottom photo shows Ryan Feeley.
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