Legend has it that Rowdy Gaines never swam until his Jr. year in high school and the first time he ever raced, did a 23 in the 50.
This statement is FALSE. Rowdy swam for a summer swim club team until he was 10 years old. It was not AAU or USS swimming but it was the typical summer club league swimming. I have proof of this because I have a USS Swimming calendar from 1992 and he was featured in one of the months and it shows a picture of him at 10 years old at a swim meet. You are correct in that he started back to swimming in his Jr. year of High School swimming for Winter Haven HS and just missed making an All American HS selection.
He was 2nd at his State Championship to a swimmer named Steve Allbritton from Clearwater HS and swims masters at the present time in Florida with Randy Nutt.
In his senior year he really improved to where he was one of the top high school swimmers in the country. He went undefeated in all his high swim meets for Winter Haven except the Florida State Championship were he was upset by a swimmer named Donald Hornby in the 100 Yard Free in what was a classic race. Hornby won with a time of :45.74 to Gaines is :45.92 and Donald Hornby was from Nova HS and was on the team with USMS masters swimmer and Open Water Man of the Year Randy Nutt. Donald Hornby was a Jr. at the time and ended up swimming for Alabama. Gaines went to Auburn and the rest of his story his history.
It interesting to note that Rowdy's time in the 100 Free this weekend was .67 seconds from his HS time. In the 200 Free he was 2.62 seconds from his HS time.
Legend has it that Rowdy Gaines never swam until his Jr. year in high school and the first time he ever raced, did a 23 in the 50.
This statement is FALSE. Rowdy swam for a summer swim club team until he was 10 years old. It was not AAU or USS swimming but it was the typical summer club league swimming. I have proof of this because I have a USS Swimming calendar from 1992 and he was featured in one of the months and it shows a picture of him at 10 years old at a swim meet. You are correct in that he started back to swimming in his Jr. year of High School swimming for Winter Haven HS and just missed making an All American HS selection.
He was 2nd at his State Championship to a swimmer named Steve Allbritton from Clearwater HS and swims masters at the present time in Florida with Randy Nutt.
In his senior year he really improved to where he was one of the top high school swimmers in the country. He went undefeated in all his high swim meets for Winter Haven except the Florida State Championship were he was upset by a swimmer named Donald Hornby in the 100 Yard Free in what was a classic race. Hornby won with a time of :45.74 to Gaines is :45.92 and Donald Hornby was from Nova HS and was on the team with USMS masters swimmer and Open Water Man of the Year Randy Nutt. Donald Hornby was a Jr. at the time and ended up swimming for Alabama. Gaines went to Auburn and the rest of his story his history.
It interesting to note that Rowdy's time in the 100 Free this weekend was .67 seconds from his HS time. In the 200 Free he was 2.62 seconds from his HS time.
