Tonight’s Theme at 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials – Swimming recognizes and honors the actions and contributions of the military and first responders. 

This week, along with professional, college, club and high school swimmers, swimmers from the three military academies – the Naval Academy, West Point and the Air Force Academy – are competing in the water. 

During the school year, in addition to academics and training, Academy swimmers also make time to participate in military activities that will one day qualify them for specific military posts and careers. 

This week marks the culmination of years of hard work and dedication before recent graduates move on to new posts and locations. Please join us in saluting these athletes and soldiers.

Three Recent Grads Compete from the Naval Academy

At the conclusion of this week’s U.S. Olympic Trials – Swimming presented by Lilly, participants will go in a variety of different directions with different purposes.

A select few will prepare for training camp and the upcoming Paris Olympics while others will return to their hometowns and pools to jump back into training for the next Trials in 2028.

An even fewer athletes – three to be exact – who have been in Indianapolis with their fellow teammates and coaches of the U.S. Naval Academy – will be moving on to military duty stations and futures to prepare to defend our country in a variety of assignments. They are among six swimmers in Indianapolis representing the Academy. 

“These swimmers could have taken some time off after graduation to relax a bit before moving onto new posts, but they wanted to compete one final time at Trials because they earned it,” said Naval Academy Assistant Coach Mark Liscinsky, who accompanied the athletes to Indianapolis. 

Recent graduates and military officers Matt Murphy (breast), Jonah Hauer (breast, fly and IM) and Patrick Colwell (fly, free) will go their separate ways following Trials to new opportunities. 

Murphy is set to become a surface warfare officer, while Hauer will step into training to become a naval flight officer. Colwell will start his journey to becoming a special warfare officer. 

Each designation requires its own timeline for completion. It takes a year to qualify as a surface warfare officer, 18 months for special warfare officer designation and two years to become a naval flight officer.

West Point Sends Five First-Timers to Olympic Trials 

Five Army cadet athletes clocked times fast enough to earn them a spot in the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming this week: Kal Hahn, Kohen Rankin, Owen Harlow, Sam Wesley, and Aurelie Migault. 

Wesley and Migault are both recent academy graduates who will move to new assigned posts after taking some time for rest and relaxation following Trials. 

Migault and Hahn both make history with their appearances for Army at the Trials as Migault stands as the first female member of the Army West Point Swim team to ever compete at Olympic Trials (and the only woman from a service academy at Trials in 2024) and Hahn stands as the first member of the program to compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in two events. 

Wesley, who completed his meet Thursday, will report to Fort Sill in Oklahoma for Basic Officer Leadership Course (BLOC) for 6 months before moving to his Field Artillery branch at Fort Campbell in Kentucky. 

Likewise, Migault, who swam the 100 breaststroke early in the meet, will report to BLOC at Fort Moore in Georgia for at least eight months before moving to a more permanent position as an Adjutant General with Armor Detail at Fort Cavazos in Texas. 

Both Hahn and Wesley earned their qualifications at the TYR Pro Swim Series Westmont in March 2024. Wesley earned a time of 2:01.87 in the men’s 200 IM at the same meet to clear the standard of 2:03.49 while Hahn clocked a 4:24.97 in the men’s 400 IM at the meet. 

“Seeing these athletes every day and watching their dedication to their sport as well as their academics and military commitment has been amazing for me,” said West Point Head Swimming Coach Brandt Nigro.

“At the Commission Ceremony, I reflected on who Sam and Aurelie – who were part of my first recruiting class – have become as people, athletes and soldiers. It was a proud moment for me, as have their swims at Trials.”

Air Force Academy Represented by Two Athletes at Trials

Cadet 2nd Class Tommy Nagle and 2nd Lt. Wen Zhang, who graduated in the class of 2023, represent the U.S. Air Force Academy this week in Trials. 

Nagle started swimming competitively while growing up in Tampa, Fla., and it was his dream right away. He qualified for the Olympic trials during a meet at the University of Texas at Austin in May. 

“It’s something every swimmer dreams about when they’re young,” Nagle said in a story on the Air Force website. “You watch those swimmers in the Olympics, and you look up to them. They’re your role models. It’s been something in the back of my mind since I was six years old. To have that moment of celebration with my team was something I had been working toward for years.”

Zhang, the 2022 Western Athletic Conference Swimmer of the Year, swam in the 100 freestyle.