Who is Thomas Heilman? Swimmer breaks NAG record of Caeleb Dressel in 100m Freestyle

Thomas Heilman has been making headlines since the US Open last year. The 15-year-old has broken countless NAG (National Age Group) records with the most recent being on Thursday, August 25 at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Hawaii.

In the preliminaries of the 100m freestyle event, Thomas Heilman clocked 49.06, thereby breaking Caeleb Dressel's old record of 49.28 set in 2013. Notably, the fact that he managed to achieve it at a younger age group makes his achievement more spectacular.

En route to the finals, Heilman finished runner-up to Australia’s Flynn Southam, who finished in a meeting record of 48.23. Heilman finished in 49.34.

Earlier on the opening day of the Championships, Thomas Heilman claimed the silver medal in the 200m butterfly event.

Notably, Heilman was the first 15-year-old in American history to crack 50 seconds in the LCM 100 freestyle earlier this month. He further went on to better it by breaking the national record.

However, in the same event at the US Junior Nationals, he narrowly missed out on the NAG record in the 15-16 category in the 100m butterfly event. Heilman clocked a time of 52.44, which helped grab second place behind Bryce Halterman, who finished the race in 52.33. Heilman narrowly missed out on the NAG standard of 52.40, which was set by Luca Urlando in 2018.

Overall, Heilman has broken over 10 NAG records. At the US Open earlier this year, he took down the long-course NAG record in four events. Shortly after, he broke NAG marks in four short-course yards events.

Heilman broke records in the 50m freestyle (22.95), 100m fly (53.27), 200m freestyle (1:51:27) and 100m freestyle (51.12). Notably, in the 100m butterfly event, his finals time was 1.2 seconds faster than the second fastest 13-14 boy in US history, Micheal Andrew.

Following that, Thomas Heilman clocked 1:59.87 in the 200m fly event, which was a second less than the age group record held by the legendary Michael Phelps.

This was followed by the 2022 USA Swimming International Team Trials, held in Greensboro, North Carolina. He successfully qualified for the US 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships after breaking records in the 50m freestyle (19.83), 100m butterfly (45.81), and 200m butterfly (1:42.77).

He commented on his performances, saying:

“I definitely had goals to be near those record times, but I even went a little past my goal times, so in that sense, it was a little unexpected.”

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Thomas Heilman at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships

On the first day of the event, Thomas Heilman won a silver medal in the 200m butterfly event, clocking a personal best time of 1:56.52. Doing so, he became the fourth-fastest American in the 15-16 category in history at the event, behind Michael Phelps, Luca Urlando, and Andrew Seliskar.

On the third day, he won a gold medal in the 100m Butterfly Event Championships record with a personal best time of 51.98 seconds. Later, he led the 4×100m freestyle relay to help the team win gold in breaking the world junior record and championship record time in 3:15.79.

Further, he contributed to a new championship record and gold medal win in the 4×100m medley event, clocking a time of 3:36.65.

Thomas Heilman has shocked the country with his records, marking his best at national and international levels.