Brady Beyer
A pair of Columbus natives have been swimming on the national and international stages in the past week.
Michael Brinegar, a redshirt junior at Indiana University and 2021 Olympian, is competing in this week’s FINA World Swimming Championships and Aquatics Festival in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Early Wednesday morning, he anchored the Team USA 4×1,500 Mixed Open Water Relay team that just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. The anchor legs from the top three teams — Italy, Hungary and Germany — were the three medalists in the Open Water 10K in this year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Brinegar was scheduled to swim in the Open Water Men’s 10K late Wednesday night. He also plans to compete in the Men’s 1,500 Freestyle Heats at 12:30 a.m. EST Monday, and if he makes it, the 1,500 final at 9 a.m. EST Tuesday. Both of those races will be televised on NBCSports.
Meanwhile, 16-year-old Brady Beyer swam in the 2021 USA Swimming Speedo Winter Championships West last weekend in Austin, Texas. He had major improvements on his seeds in all four of his events and swam lifetime-bests in three.
Beyer’s best finishes were 31sts in both the 400 individual medley (3 minutes, 58.08 seconds) and 200 breaststroke (2:02.09). He also took 71st in the 100 breaststroke (56.73) and 115th in the 200 IM (1:53.68)
Beyer is competing for “The Swim Team” based in Orange County, California. TST is coached by Mark Schubert, who formed the club after coaching Brinegar with the Mission Viejo Nadadores for parts of the past five years.
