2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS
Right before turning 15 years old, Santa Clara Swim Club standout Shareef Elaydi threw down a new Pacific Swimming 13-14 record in the 100-meter butterfly at the U.S. Olympic Trials last week, clocking a personal-best 54.01 to take down Russian record holder Andrei Minakov‘s LSC record of 54.04 from 2016.
Minakov, a former standout at Stanford, owns the Russian record at 50.83 from the 2019 World Championships, where he won the silver medal.
Elaydi dropped .16 seconds off his previous-best 54.17 from last month’s George Haines International, remaining the 2nd-fastest performer in the U.S. boys’ 13-14 national age group (NAG) rankings behind only Thomas Heilman (53.27 in 2021).
The swim is especially impressive considering Santa Clara Swim Club’s practice facility, the George F. Haines International Swim Center, has been closed indefinitely since January.
Elaydi qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 200 fly, placing 43rd with a time of 2:01.17. The 100 fly marked his fourth 13-14 LSC record after already setting standards in the 100 breast (1:03.75), 200 fly (2:00.38), and 200 IM (2:03.73) records this year. Last month, the Archbishop Mitty freshman won the CIF state title in 200-yard IM (1:45.93) and placed 4th in 100-yard fly (47.60).
Elaydi was the youngest boy to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials at 14 years old, though he turned 15 after posting his record-breaking 100 fly swim last Monday.
Elaydi also logged a 100 breast time trial swim of 1:03.90, within a couple tenth of his LSC record from last month.
