After more than a decade out of the water, Kim Ruiz returned to the pool last summer in the wake of an injury suffered while training CrossFit.
It had been 12 years since Ruiz retired from swimming following a two-year stint at Division I Gardner-Webb, where she earned Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Freshman of the Year honors in 2010 for breaking conference records in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.58) and 200 breast (2:16.38). She didn’t have any big goals at first, but she quickly regained her old form with the Masters program at New Wave Swim Team in North Carolina under coach Laura Goodwin.
About six months ago, Ruiz set her sights on qualifying for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials at 32 years old. The Raleigh resident lowered her lifetime best from 1:10.63 in March to 1:10.48 in May at the Charlotte Open. During a time trial the next day, Ruiz ripped a personal-best 1:09.86 to dip under the qualifying mark of 1:10.29 and become the oldest first-time Olympic Trials qualifier in the country.
Ruiz’s best time before her comeback appears to have been 1:13.07 from the 2010 Junior National Championships. Remarkably, she obliterated her lifetime best even while working full time as an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter.
Now Ruiz is seeded 50th in the 100 breast for next week’s U.S. Olympic Trials, where Olympic champions Lilly King and Lydia Jacoby sit atop the pre-scratch psych sheets. She won’t be close to the oldest swimmer in the event, though, as two-time Olympian Gabrielle Rose is seeded 27th (1:09.13) at 46 years old, the oldest qualifier since at least 2004.
Ruiz isn’t the only swimmer whose CrossFit training translated to success in the pool. Former Division II standout Kaitlyn Johnson (Clarion University, 2007-11) discovered CrossFit training and began swimming again in 2022 after six years out of the water. Now 34 years old, Johnson is seeded 41st in the 50 free (25.44).
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