Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Michael Brinegar's Competitiveness Brings New Life to Practice and His Goals
Michael Brinegar regularly turns to his teammates during workouts and prods them to race him. They’ve come to an understanding that the last repeat of sets should be their fastest one.
That a U.S. National Teamer is competitive isn’t surprising. But the fact that Brinegar, a redshirt sophomore at Indiana University, will do this during a warm-up or in the middle of a set in a recovery workout shows how much he enjoys racing, usually against training partners Zane Grothe, a fellow National Teamer, or Marwan El-Kamash, an Egyptian Olympian.
“We really just like racing,” Brinegar said. “It makes workouts more fun.”
Brinegar’s competitive edge has made him one of the top distance swimmers and open water swimmers in the country. He finished third in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle at the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships and 12th in the 5K at the 2019 FINA World Championships.
His competitiveness leads his head coach, Ray Looze, to compare Brinegar to another Michael: Michael Phelps, the 28-time Olympic medalist whose “game face” in the ready room during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics became a viral meme.
Looze recalled chatting with Phelps while the two were riding to the pool for a finals session during those Olympics. When the pool came into view, Phelps’s entire demeanor changed. It was time to get serious and get ready to compete.
“I’ve only seen this out of two people,” Looze said. “On the day of the mile or a 10K, [Brinegar] is just a different person. All business. He’s just like an assassin. You look at him, and you’re just like, ‘I wouldn’t want to mess with him.’ He’s got just everything all ready to go.”
Brinegar admits his competitiveness is more of a strength for him than his technique, an important aspect of the sport for any swimmer, especially distance swimmers, even though he’s had an expert on how to swim freestyle with him his entire life.
His mother, Jennifer (Hooker) Brinegar, swam the 200 freestyle and on the 4x100 freestyle relay for the U.S. at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She was his club coach when he was about 10 or 11 and then coached him during his sophomore year of high school when he worked out on his own.
She sometimes provides her son with technique advice when he’s home for break — she wants him to keep lengthening his stroke — but leaves the coaching to the Indiana staff.
Michael Brinegar and his mother, Jennifer. Photo courtesy of James Brosher/Indiana University.
Brinegar hopes her son will be able to follow in her footsteps and qualify for the delayed Olympic Games Tokyo in either the 800 or 1500. He’ll be going against a field that includes Grothe, Bobby Finke and Jordan Wilimovsky, who finished fourth in the 1500 at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But Brinegar has been building toward this his whole life.
He moved away from home his junior year of high school to train with a club team halfway across the country, and forewent a year of college to focus solely on training heading into what would’ve been an Olympic year were it not for the coronavirus pandemic.
Now he’s ready for his opportunity.
“I want to try to make the team in the [1500] and see how well I can do in the 800,” Brinegar said. “I still want to make the team in the 800, but I know it’s more of a realistic shot in the [1500]. Those are the two I’m really looking forward to racing in June and seeing what I can do.”
That a U.S. National Teamer is competitive isn’t surprising. But the fact that Brinegar, a redshirt sophomore at Indiana University, will do this during a warm-up or in the middle of a set in a recovery workout shows how much he enjoys racing, usually against training partners Zane Grothe, a fellow National Teamer, or Marwan El-Kamash, an Egyptian Olympian.
“We really just like racing,” Brinegar said. “It makes workouts more fun.”
Brinegar’s competitive edge has made him one of the top distance swimmers and open water swimmers in the country. He finished third in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle at the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships and 12th in the 5K at the 2019 FINA World Championships.
His competitiveness leads his head coach, Ray Looze, to compare Brinegar to another Michael: Michael Phelps, the 28-time Olympic medalist whose “game face” in the ready room during the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics became a viral meme.
Looze recalled chatting with Phelps while the two were riding to the pool for a finals session during those Olympics. When the pool came into view, Phelps’s entire demeanor changed. It was time to get serious and get ready to compete.
“I’ve only seen this out of two people,” Looze said. “On the day of the mile or a 10K, [Brinegar] is just a different person. All business. He’s just like an assassin. You look at him, and you’re just like, ‘I wouldn’t want to mess with him.’ He’s got just everything all ready to go.”
Brinegar admits his competitiveness is more of a strength for him than his technique, an important aspect of the sport for any swimmer, especially distance swimmers, even though he’s had an expert on how to swim freestyle with him his entire life.
His mother, Jennifer (Hooker) Brinegar, swam the 200 freestyle and on the 4x100 freestyle relay for the U.S. at the 1976 Montreal Olympics. She was his club coach when he was about 10 or 11 and then coached him during his sophomore year of high school when he worked out on his own.
She sometimes provides her son with technique advice when he’s home for break — she wants him to keep lengthening his stroke — but leaves the coaching to the Indiana staff.
Michael Brinegar and his mother, Jennifer. Photo courtesy of James Brosher/Indiana University.
Brinegar hopes her son will be able to follow in her footsteps and qualify for the delayed Olympic Games Tokyo in either the 800 or 1500. He’ll be going against a field that includes Grothe, Bobby Finke and Jordan Wilimovsky, who finished fourth in the 1500 at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But Brinegar has been building toward this his whole life.
He moved away from home his junior year of high school to train with a club team halfway across the country, and forewent a year of college to focus solely on training heading into what would’ve been an Olympic year were it not for the coronavirus pandemic.
Now he’s ready for his opportunity.
“I want to try to make the team in the [1500] and see how well I can do in the 800,” Brinegar said. “I still want to make the team in the 800, but I know it’s more of a realistic shot in the [1500]. Those are the two I’m really looking forward to racing in June and seeing what I can do.”