Thomas Heilman Eager to Follow Olympic Experience By Writing Next Chapter in Fledgling Career
When he won the men’s 200 butterfly final at last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials, Thomas Heilman made history as the youngest American male swimmer to reach the Olympics in 24 years, the first to do so prior to his high school graduation since future Hall-of-Famers Michael Phelps and Aaron Peirsol in 2000.
Of course, it was hard to call Heilman’s success a breakthrough, not after a half-decade of smashing National Age Group records and his breakthrough onto the World Championships team one year earlier. In 2023, enormous drops in both the 100 and 200 butterfly earned him a ticket to Fukuoka and very nearly a medal, with a surging Heilman tying for fourth in the 200 fly final. Entering the all-important 2024 selection meet, Heilman was considered the clear favorite in his main event and a contender over 100 meters as well.
“The expectation was kind of there, and I knew that, but I wouldn’t really say that was weighing on me too much,” Heilman said. “I felt like if I swim how I was capable of swimming, it was pretty confident I was gonna be able to make the team.”
However, this second foray into senior-level international waters and his first in the Olympic spotlight brought some setbacks, the sort of disappointing performances all too familiar to most swimmers but noticeably absent during his yearslong ascension to the sport’s elite.
Four days after securing his ticket to Paris, Heilman swam a 100 fly best time from an outside lane to touch out World Championships medalist Dare Rose for the No. 2 spot on the team behind Caeleb Dressel. He would culminate his summer season with an Olympic silver medal by virtue of his prelims leg on the U.S. men’s medley relay at the Games. But in between, Heilman finished 10th in the 200 fly, a full second short of his best time and out of contention for the final. In the 100 fly, he swam a second back of his Trials performance on the way to an 18th-place finish.
Recalling the performance in his signature event, Heilman said: “When you’re not in your best in those situations, you can’t expect to compete with those guys.” He added: “It was a little disappointing after the previous summer, making the final and getting fourth. I didn’t have my best stuff that day. Tip your cap to the other guys and kind of move on from that.”
The talent and intangibles that have brought about 24 National Age Group records does not disappear after one Olympic appearance, and it’s not as though Heilman collapsed in Paris. Further, his continued ingratiation with the veteran swimmers on the U.S. team brought instruction only possible from other swimmers at similar levels of achievement. The repeated reminders to leave unsatisfactory performances behind stuck with Heilman as he returned to Charlottesville, Va., to plot his next attempt at international achievement, and he feels pretty equipped to handle such situations as he readies for the upcoming selection meet for the 2025 World Championships.
“Some of the older guys were telling us how not everything is gonna go your way at this meet, and you just gotta kind of roll with the punches,” Heilman said. “If you can be better prepared to know that something that stuff is going to be unexpected and not going to go your way, you can be better prepared for that than other people, and you’re going to be in a better position to perform well.
“Going into any meet knowing that you might have a bad swim, you might be late to warmups or whatever, and if you just know that you have a process that you can stick to, then you’ll be able to come back the next day or the next session and continue to perform.”
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Since the Olympics, Heilman has yet to pop off any remarkable long course performances, although he did leave one final brilliant impression on Junior Nationals in December. In short course yards, he became the first 18-and-under swimmer to crack 44 in the 100 fly and 1:40 in the 200 fly, blasting the NAG record in the latter event with a time of 1:38.95. Heading into the upcoming U.S. Nationals, the 200 fly favorite looks to be Luca Urlando, Heilman’s fellow American representative in Paris and the owner of a sizzling time of 1:52.37 from April, but Heilman is expected to reach the global level again while also contending over 100 and 50 meters in his signature stroke.
Heilman hopes to be part of the U.S. search for answers on the men’s side after a relatively disappointing Olympic performance all-around, with only six individual medals and a lone gold. The butterfly events were a particular disappointment as the U.S. was entirely shut out of finals in both the 100 and 200, and Heilman hopes the presence of tough domestic competition combined with the pride of racing in an American cap can produce those quicker performances required for the usual level of contention.
“We expect to dominate. And when we don’t necessarily live up to the to the expectations and the history, it just motivates us to get better. And I think as a country, we have to be better,” he said. “When we wear the USA cap and we’re in these World Championship or Olympic night swims, we know that we have the support of our teammates and then everyone back home. And I think people always talk about how it’s special to have those opportunities to swim for Team USA.”
After the summer, Heilman will stay close to home as he begins his college career at the University of Virginia, where his longtime club coach Gary Taylor is now on staff. With the Cavaliers, Heilman and fellow junior-level standout Maximus Williamson will try to approach or perhaps replicate the success of the Virginia women on their way to five consecutive dominant performances at the NCAA Championships.
“I think the fact that the women have shown us that was the right group of guys and the culture that the guys before us have set, that we’ll be able to like emulate what the women have done,” Heilman said. “Part of it is the challenge of trying to live up to what the women have done and mix up the whole scene of men’s NCAA swimming. I think that’s a really attractive idea for a lot of us, and we kind of want to play spoiler toward a few other teams who kind of have a stronghold on the NCAA.”
Heilman has the physical tools for a long and prolific career; that much has been obvious since the NAG records started falling in droves. He also possesses the mental skills most critical for navigating the emotional swings of elite-level sport. He describes himself as “very, very hyper competitive,” and he said, “I hate to lose. I think those two things kind of helped me get through workouts.” Simultaneously, he has the ability to “not take things too seriously,” a key factor in avoiding the pressure that can derail careers at their biggest moments.
“When you get up behind the blocks for a dual meet or a club meet, we’re here to learn some things and get better, but this is gonna be fun racing some guys,” Heilman said. “It’s a little bit different when you step on the box for at U.S. Nationals, for example, right? I still think there’s a lot of value in having fun those moments and smiling and not taking it too seriously and overthinking that.”
