One of this year’s youngest Olympic swimmers is now looking ahead to 2028
By RICHIE HALL
When an Olympian speaks, many people listen to him. Especially the young people.
Noblesville’s Luke Whitlock returned home from competing in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this week. The Fishers Area Swimming Tigers star qualified for the men’s 800-meter freestyle and finished in 15th place.th in the preliminary round with a time of 7 minutes, 49.26 seconds.
Whitlock is only 18 years old, making him one of the youngest swimmers in the Olympics, but for the young people who were among the 100 or so who attended Whitlock’s homecoming event in the Fishers High School cafeteria on Wednesday, he is already someone they look up to.
Whitlock steps into the pool to swim the men’s 1500-meter freestyle event at the Paris Olympics. (Photo provided)
Whitlock and FAST head coach Joe Keller spoke for about 40 minutes at the event, after which Whitlock answered questions from the audience. After finishing his speech – and signing autographs and photos with his young fans – Whitlock said that now that he’s taking a break from training and competing, he’s been able to process the last few weeks that have seen him go from being a hometown favorite in the Olympic qualifiers to competing in Paris.
“I still don’t think I realized I was an Olympian when I was competing in the Olympics,” Whitlock said. “After the prelims, I went right back to preparing, so I was focused on that and didn’t really think about how I did it. But now it’s definitely sunk in a little bit and it’s still kind of unreal to me.”
It was also surreal for Kara Whitlock, Luke’s mother, who spoke to the reporter after the event.
“When I went into probation, I really thought, ‘Okay, maybe in 2028,'” Kara Whitlock said. But she said she was “pleasantly surprised that he made it this year.”
Luke Whitlock told the crowd there was no “specific moment” that made him believe he had a chance of becoming an Olympian.
“It’s all about the overall training and consistency, training hard and training well,” he said. “If you train well just once, it doesn’t mean much. If you train better than you ever have before, you can always train at a higher level.”
“I definitely noticed that in April and May. Once I’d had a good practice, I’d think, ‘I don’t know if I can do this again. I was really good.’ But then I’d surprise myself and have several good practices in a row. That really gave me confidence. They were my first attempts, but when I got there I knew I’d worked hard and I wasn’t nervous at all and knew I could compete against anyone there.”
Luke Whitlock’s name is seen here on the scoreboard before his swim. (Photo provided)
Whitlock qualified for the Olympics by placing second in the 800-meter freestyle.
“I was notified right after I swam the 1500m heats,” Whitlock said. There weren’t many people there when he found out, and he admitted he was “not exactly in the best mood” after finishing his 1500m race.
“I wasn’t very happy with how the swim went,” Whitlock said. But he said it was “fun to be officially named to the team and notified at that point, it kind of lifted my spirits.”
Whitlock attended the national team training camp in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he trained with Bobby Finke, who won gold medals in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and won gold again in the 1500-meter freestyle in Paris. He also trained with Katie Ledecky, the most decorated swimmer of all time; Ledecky added two more gold medals to her total in Paris by winning the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle.
“It was really fun to be able to train with Bobby and Katie and under coach (Anthony) Nesty and just see what I’m going to do over the next four years,” Whitlock said.
Kara Whitlock was happy that her son was now on first-name terms with the world swimming champions.
“He texted me, we didn’t talk on the phone while he was gone,” Kara Whitlock said. “He texted me and said ‘Katie,’ and I was surprised. I immediately thought of (marathon swimmer) Katie Grimes because she was younger and I know he’s met her before and talked to her and stuff like that. Then when he said it was Katie Ledecky, it was funny.
“And I met her family in Paris. I met her mother before, I met her at the US Open in December, ended up sitting next to her and didn’t know until she told me that her daughter was Katie Ledecky.”
Luke Whitlock said there is great camaraderie on Team USA, noting that “everyone respects each other” and that the swimmers are very committed to doing their best.
“Yeah, we’re going to have fun, but people are going to do their business too,” Whitlock said. “And I think it’s really nice to just be able to see that and watch other people do what they do and try to learn from it.”
“Part of it is believing that you can achieve something at an exceptionally high level,” Keller said. “I think the camp showed Luke that he can swim with the best athletes in the world.”
Whitlock will swim at the University of Florida, where Finke swam from 2018 to 2022 and still trains today. Keller said this should help Whitlock continue his progress and give him a good chance of qualifying for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
