Andrew Wilson, former Emory University swimmer, makes Olympic history
ATLANTA (BVM) — Michael Jordan: cut from his high school basketball team to later become, arguably, the NBA’s greatest player of all time. Oral Hershiser: cut from both his high school and college baseball teams to eventually win a Cy Young award. Andrew Wilson: failed to make the travel swim team at a DIII university but became an Olympian.
“As a swimmer he didn’t make the travel team at all in the first semester of his freshman year,” Jon Howell, Emory University head swim coach said. “He struggled a little bit to adapt to a change in college and to a new training program and he wasn’t a great swimmer at that point. He was a little bit outside of the competitive range. We knew and he knew he’d have to get better to make a difference for us.”
But that’s what attracted Howell to Wilson throughout the recruiting process. He was someone who wanted to achieve and believed in himself to the highest degree. If there was anyone worth taking a flier on, it was Wilson.
That was further reiterated when Wilson finally stepped on campus. During the year, Howell challenges his swimmers by giving them times to strive for. Some respond, and some don’t.
“I’d say more than half of them are discouraged by that, where Andrew was never discouraged,” Howell said. “He’d say, ‘great, I have no doubt I can do this.’ That confidence in himself and willingness to put the work in to back it up was appealing about him.”
Eventually, the hope that he’d become a good swimmer turned into the fact that he had, indeed, become a good swimmer. Every semester following that first one of his freshman year, Wilson reached a new milestone.
Starting with the second semester of his freshman year, not only did Wilson make the Emory travel team, but he made the all-conference team and qualified for nationals because of it. Then his sophomore season, he fell just short of being a national champion. Finally in his junior season, Wilson broke out in a big way. He won three events at nationals, broke a national record, won CSCAA National Swimmer of the Year and that summer he won his first U.S. national championship.
“When he won that first one (U.S. national championship), that’s really where I believed that he was headed in a great direction because he was still getting better,” Howell said. “When I looked around at the people he was racing, a lot of them had been on the team for a while and hoped to perform but were not making a big stride forward and he (Wilson) was still taking big strides forward.”
Then this year, Wilson took the greatest step of all, becoming the first DIII swimmer to ever qualify for Team USA at the Olympic games. Competing in both the 100M and 200M breaststroke races, Wilson finished sixth and missed qualifying for the semifinals, respectively. However, he did play a role in a Team USA gold medal. Wilson raced in the mixed 4×100 medley qualifying heat, helping the U.S. qualify for the Finals, which they then won, meaning he will receive his very own gold medal.
Yet, individually, Wilson isn’t satisfied. There’s no room to be complacent. If he were, he might not have ever gotten to this stage.
“Andrew is an achiever, I think he wanted more from the 100 and 200 breaststroke,” Howell said. “I think he’s frustrated more than anything else … he would love to have another chance to go after that again. It’s rare to find Andrew satisfied about any swim. In his mind there’s some room for critique and disappointment.”
Thankfully, Wilson having had a coach who knows how badly he wants to succeed, Howell was able to help him reason with the experience. Howell wanted him to understand that no matter the result, he was achieving what every athlete hopes to one day do.
“He sometimes gets so wrapped up in what the outcome is going to be and what he wants it to be that he can get a little stressed so I wanted him to step back and realize where he is and enjoy every moment of it,” Howell said. “To not lose sight of the fact that what he is doing is really special.”
While he may not have individually medaled, the perspective that the journey is better than the destination comes to the forefront here. Not many can say they are an Olympian, let alone the first ever from a DIII school.
