A quicksilver start to the summer
Watson Nguyen arrived at the 50-meter breaststroke with a mission — and a block start. The rising junior, representing the University of Pennsylvania, had spent the summer training with his club team before returning to campus for research. This, after skipping a traditional internship to stay in the pool.
At the national championships, he clocked 26.65 seconds to claim his first gold. It was enough to move him into fourth place on the U.S. all-time list for the event. His time was not just a personal record — it was an emphatic one, shaving nearly a full second off his previous best.
A close call against an Olympian
Michael Andrew, a 2021 Olympic medallist, had entered as favorite in the 50m event. But Nguyen matched his speed and stamina to the wire. The race came down to the final stroke, and the Penn swimmer’s endurance saw him edge out the Olympian in the end.
Nguyen had not finished in the final at last year’s nationals, so this gold came as a surprise. 'I didn’t expect it,' he said in an interview with SwimSwam. 'But I just kept moving.'
A new record in the 100m on the final day
Nguyen didn’t stop there. On the final day, he faced Indiana’s All-American Alexei Avakov in the 100m breaststroke. Avakov held a slight lead after the first lap, but Nguyen caught up in a furious finish. He recorded 59.79 seconds — the first time he had gone under a minute in the event.
It was an emotional race. Nguyen had been aiming for this record since the 2023 World Aquatic Junior Championships, where he touched 1:01.22. This summer’s work, away from Penn’s usual summer internship grind, brought him closer.