Olympic 10K Marathon Swim finalist Benjamin Schulte will be competing at the upcoming FINA World Championships in Barcelona, but he is changing his style.
Instead of 10,000 meters of freestyle in the Port of Barcelona, the young Olympian will be swimming the 50m and 100m breaststroke. With his sights set on competing for an American university next year, he is set to showcase his best in the pool.
“I am focusing on pool swimming since the NCAA doesn’t run open water and lower the times I’m going to submit to schools. So at the moment I’m training for breaststroke and I’ll be swimming the breaststrokes in Spain as they’re my highest FINA points events. I’m still going to keep my foot in open water, though, that’s for sure.”
We are hopeful that before Schulte graduates from an American university, the NCAA will add open water to its championship events. The sport of triathlon currently looks to be on its way to be added to the NCAA schedule and open water should not be far behind.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.