Peirsol’s World Tour Begins Here

Aaron Peirsol will test himself against the best swimmers in the United States this summer. For now, he will toy with kids his own age.

Peirsol, a sophomore at Newport Harbor, is focused on the Olympic trials, which will be held in August. He has the nation’s third-fastest time in the 200-meter backstroke.

Only one high school male swimmer has made the U.S. Olympic team in the last 25 years.

With so much ahead for Peirsol, high school swimming might seem a little dull.

Not so.

“This is going to be fun,” Peirsol said. “It’s a lot less nerve-racking and I get to see all my friends. I’m training for this summer, so I’m going to try to take [high school swimming] a little less seriously than I normally would.”

With his ability, that should still be enough.

Peirsol easily won the 100-yard backstroke at the Southern Section Division I finals last year. He also won the 500 freestyle.

Nice moments, to be sure, but they pale when compared to his international work.

Peirsol finished second in the 200-meter backstroke at a World Cup meet in Edmonton in November. At the Pan-American Games in August, he was second with a time of 1 minute 59.75 seconds, the third-fastest among U.S. swimmers competing for a spot in the Olympics.

“College coaches are foaming at the mouth,” said Dave Salo, coach of the Irvine Novaquatics, Peirsol’s club team. “They can’t wait to recruit this kid. He’s a tall, skinny kid. They know if you slap some muscle on him, he is going to be tough to beat.”

Peirsol’s chances of making the Olympic team are good, despite a history that leans against a high school male.

While under-18 female swimmers have flourished in the Olympics, their male counterparts have stayed in the shallow end.

Joe Hudepohl was the last high school boy to make Team USA. He swam on the 800 freestyle relay team in the 1992 Olympics. Before that, you have to go back to Brian Goodell and Tim Shaw in the 1970s.

Male swimmers are staying in the sport longer because it has become more profitable. They are bigger and more mature.

Peirsol’s main competitors have both graduated from college: Lenny Krayzelburg (USC), who holds the world record in the 200 backstroke (1:55.87), and Tate Blahnik (Stanford), whose best time of 1:59.17 is a shade better than Peirsol’s.

“Aaron has definitely demonstrated that he can handle that level of competition,” Salo said. “He is tremendously respectful of guys like Lenny. But, without being cocky, he knows that he may get beat for a couple more years, but not many more after that.”

Peirsol has been a comer for years. Swimming was just one of many sports he tried as a kid. It didn’t take long for him to figure out it was his best.

“I always felt comfortable in the water,” Peirsol said. “I wasn’t that competitive at first. It was just another sport. By the time I was 12, I realized it was my sport.”

Peirsol set his first national age-group record when he was 10. Of course, that isn’t always an indication of things to come.

“You see 9- and 10-year-old kids break records and then you never hear from them again,” Salo said. “Usually, it is some kid who is muscular and has developed faster. The other swimmers catch up.

“Aaron didn’t have any muscles. We still hold up his arms and look for them. Yet, he continued to break records when he was 13 and 14. That was an indication that he was doing it with natural skill.”

Which could take him well beyond high school swimming.

“Hopefully, I’ll get to go to a lot of places in the world,” Peirsol said. “It would all be paid for, like a job. A real nice job.”