NANTERRE, France – Carmel, which went until three years ago without a U.S. Olympic swimmer, has now produced a finalist in the men's 400-meter freestyle in successive Olympic Games.
Aaron Shackell, seeded 14th, was sixth in the heats and eighth in the final Saturday night at the Paris Olympics . Carmel’s Jake Mitchell was eighth at Tokyo in 2021. He and Shackell both set national high school records, too.
Both swimmers were coached by Chris Plumb, a member of the U.S. coaching staff in Paris.
“That’s not a coincidence, man. That’s Chris,” Shackell said. “Chris knows how to coach the 400, that’s for sure.”
Shackell, after winning the Olympic Trials at Indianapolis in 3:45.46, lowered that by .01 to 3:45.45 in prelims. His time was 3:47.00 in the final.
Germany’s Lukas Maertens won the gold medal in 3:41.78. Australia’s Elijah Winnington took silver in 3:42.21. South Korea’s Kim Woo-min, who trains in Australia, was bronze medalist in 3:42.50.
Shackell said he surprised himself by reaching his first Olympic final. At 19, he was the youngest swimmer in the field.
“I wasn’t feeling great this whole week. I kind of battled through that,” he said. “Me and Chris had some talks, and we showed up this morning. Tonight, legs were hurting a little bit. It just didn’t happen. It’s good experience for future races.”
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Shackell said he had trouble adjusting to the rhythm of tapering for Olympic Trials, resuming training, then backing off again – all in a span of five weeks.
“It kind of messes with your stroke feeling sometimes,” he said. “I should have just trusted myself.”
He said he would once “choke under pressure” in big meets but learned from his mistakes. He also made the final of the 200 freestyle at the trials and awaits word on whether he would swim prelims of the 4x200 freestyle relay.
He comes from a family of Olympic swimmers. His father, Nick, represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. His sister, Alex, 17, qualified for Paris in the 200 butterfly and 4x200 freestyle relay.
Contact IndyStar correspondent David Woods at dwoods1411@gmail.com . Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Carmel's Aaron Shackell competes in 400-meter freestyle, reflects on first Olympic final
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