Jordan Wilimovsky advances to 1500m freestyle finals

Jordan Wilimovsky has advanced to the 1500 meter freestyle final after swimming a 14:48.23 in the heats. He won his heat, considered one of the stronger heats in the event, and was the third-fastest overall qualifier. Fellow Team USA swimmer Connor Jaeger finished second.

It was Wilimovsky’s best career time in the event. He swam a 15:05.79 to qualify for the event at U.S. Olympic Trials back in early July, meaning he dropped over 17 seconds between early July and now.

Wilimovsky, our 2015 Student-Athlete of the Year, will swim in the finals of the 1500 on Saturday night. He is also scheduled to swim in the 10k open water swim—his main event—on Tuesday morning, making him the first American Olympian to swim in both the pool and in open water.

Wilimovsky redshirted this year from Northwestern to focus on training back home in Santa Monica, Caifornia with his coach, Dave Kelsheimer. Wilimovsky is seeking Northwestern’s first gold medal since Matt Grevers took home golds in both the 100 meter backstroke and as a part of the men’s 4x100 meter medley relay team, where he swam the backstroke portion.