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St. Clairsville High School Grad Michael Eaton Aims for Rio 2016 Swimming Berth

Eaton to swim in 100 breaststroke today at Olympic Trials in Omaha

EATON

OMAHA — The time has arrived for Michael Eaton.

The St. Clairsville High School graduate has known for several months that he’d be competing in the United States Swimming Olympic Trials, but when he steps on the platform this morning for the 100 breaststroke, the accomplishment and goal has become a reality.

Eaton, who currently competes at Ohio State University, will be amongst the some 150 competitors in the breaststroke preliminary heats this morning at the CenturyLink Center as swimmers’ quests to Rio and the Summer Olympics get under way.

“I am definitely excited and ready for this opportunity,” Eaton said early last week. “I have a lot of emotions right now, but I am treating this as an experience. I am not going in with any unrealistic expectations, but I would like to surprise myself.”

The trials of the backstroke are one of five events to be on the schedule for this morning’s session, which begins at 11 a.m.

“I am looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Eaton said. “At the heart of everything, I am just trying to have as much fun as I can, watch some extremely fast swimming and take it all in.”

Most of the Buckeyes delegation to the Olympic Trials, which measures 34 in number, departed Friday morning to Nebraska. They worked out Friday and Saturday and competition begins today.

According to Eaton, the Buckeyes broke up their travel party based on where the athlete’s event fell on the schedule of events. Each athlete is permitted to stay in Nebraska through the conclusion of his or her event, regardless if he or she qualifies to the final.

“I am looking forward to soaking as much of the entire experience in as I can,” Eaton said. “It’s cool cause I’ll get to watch the other events that are going on while I am there, too.”

Eaton, who will be the first Buckeye to hit the water, hopes to extend his stay — as a competitor — for as long as he can, but he also knows that’s going to be a big challenge. On the psyche sheet, Eaton is seeded 124th with his time of 63.57 that he posted during an event in Columbus late in the collegiate season.

“I do better at long course swimming, which is what the Olympics utilizes, because of the sheer fact of my height,” Eaton, who is just 5-9, said. “There are fewer turns in long course, so I don’t lose half a foot (of distance).”

While Eaton admits that making the team for Rio is an extreme long shot, he does have legitimate goals set for himself entering today’s meet.

“I have had the time of 61.38 written on my whiteboard in my apartment since I qualified for the trials,” Eaton said. “I didn’t have much experience on long course when I qualified because I had been training for short course since the previous summer.”

Should Eaton achieve his time goal, he believes it may put him in position to qualify for the semifinals, which are slated for this evening. However, a student of the sport of swimming, Eaton is well aware that the competition is bound to step up and times are going to come down.

“I looked at the 2012 trials results just because I was curious to see what it would take and what times made the (Olympic) team,” Eaton said. “Like any sports, I guess, but it just seems more prevalent in swimming, the times are so much faster and everything is so much more competitive. There’s so much more depth because the popularity of the sport has increased and training methods have come a long way.”

More than half of the field has entered at 1:03 or above, which creates a total logjam. There are four swimmers who’ve gone sub 60 and 12 who’ve dipped under 61.

“There’s a possibility that this thing is unbelievably fast,” Eaton said. “I’ve had a really good summer of training and working on my stroke. I am going into the meet nice and relaxed and trusting my training as a formula for success.”

Eaton has been training rigorously since punching his ticket to the Olympic Trials. In May, he worked out twice a day, five days a week. He lifted four days a week, too. Since the calendar has flipped to June, the training has been backed off, considerably.

“It’s not been as intense,” Eaton said. “I’ve not gone for longer than an hour. I am really starting to feel stronger in the water. It’s the magic art of the taper, but how that works is based on the individual person because there are so many factors you can’t equate for.”

Eaton, who has been watching the Olympics and the Trials since he was a kid, admitted that he never believed he’d actually get the opportunity to go to a trials as a competitor.

“The furthest the scope of my goals went was making it to YMCA Nationals and doing the best I could in the high school season,” Eaton said.

However, as he checked those goals off his list, he began being recruited and specifically by Ohio State which has opened many more doors for him, which he has since walked through.

“Opportunities like this are a whole different realm of competition,” Eaton said. “When I first got to OSU, coaches were talking about Olympic Trials and I wasn’t that far off the (qualifying) time and then last summer it really started to hit me that it could happen. I am a product of the system at Ohio State and goal setting.”

Michael’s parents and brother are making the trip to Nebraska, too.

Since Eaton has spent the entire summer training in Columbus, he is making the most of his time academically, too. He’s enrolled in two classes during the summer session and he’s been chosen to represent the men’s swimming program in the Wolfstein Leadership Academy.

“We’ve had two sessions so far and it’s a pretty cool thing,” Eaton said. “I think, by the end of it, it’s going to be very beneficial. I am just trying to pull every little nugget I can from each speaker.”

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