Chris Guiliano will be under water, a lot, in Paris.
But it’s a situation the Berks County native relishes.
The Daniel Boone graduate, and rising senior at the University of Notre Dame, will be the first American to swim in the 50, 100 and 200 meter freestyles in the Olympics since Hall of Famer Matt Biondi in 1988 at the Seoul Games. He will also do relay duty, swimming for the U.S. in the 4 x 100 and 4 x 200 freestyle relays.
His busy week of swimming starts Saturday and in all likelihood, unless he’s needed to swim on a medley relay Aug. 2, will end on Aug. 1. If he swims in the qualifying heats and finals of the two relays and makes the final in all three individual events, he will swim 13 races in seven days.
“Absolutely. I’m ready for the challenge,” Guiliano said after the U.S. Trials in June in Indianapolis. “I can’t wait. I’m excited for the challenge.”
Starting on Sunday, Guiliano will swim an individual event for six straight days if he makes the finals in each one. On three of those days he’ll swim in morning heats and afternoon semifinals. A grinding stretch that Biondi won two golds and a bronze when he did it 36 years ago.
“I didn’t really know this was like a stat or something like that coming into the meet,” Guiliano said after the Trials of Biondi’s feat in 1988. “I just try to get up there behind the blocks and do my best in everything.”
Guiliano entered the U.S. Trials notably as a speed swimmer, expecting to do well in the 50 and 100 frees. When he started the Trials off by finishing second in the 200 freestyle, he turned some heads in the swimming world.
He sandwiched a win in the 100 free at the Trials around second place finishes in the 200 and 50.
“My dad (Joe) always tells me failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” Guiliano said. “So just being able to go in there and execute and learn from my mistakes in races, it’s just — that’s really what put me in this place.”
Guiliano is used to a busy schedule at big meets, swimming in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyles at both the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Championships. This year he won all three at the ACC meet and followed that up at the NCAA meet by placing fourth in the 50 free, fifth in the 100 free and third in the 200 free, earning First Team All-America status in all three events. His third place 200 free finish was the highest individual men’s finish in Notre Dame history.
His steady progression at Notre Dame set the stage for the Trials last month.
“My love for the sport has grown everyday since coming to college, and I contribute that to the guys and girls on our squad at Notre Dame,” Guiliano said.
Guiliano’s Notre Dame teammates and Fighting Irish fans were out in force at the Trials, giving him rousing ovations.
“It’s a different kind of emotion every single time, and to see their support, to see them come down and really show out, it means the world to me,” he said.
Guiliano won three PIAA swim titles, all in Class 3A, at Daniel Boone and has vaulted onto the national, and now international, stage during his three years in South Bend.
At the Indiana school, he’s majoring in economics with a minor in computing and digital technologies.
His parents are Joe and Cecelia Guiliano and he has one brother, Joseph, who swam at Albright College.
Source: Berkshire mont
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