Yoo Too: 12 & Under The Minute

A day after we reported the promise of a 58.66 s/c 100m free from 12-year-old Dutch schoolgirl Marrit Steenbergen, news reaches us of Chloe Yoo, a 12-year-old Australian who has cracked the minute three times long-course in the past season and now boasts a best of 59.64.

Even more special than the time itself is the way she did it: 29.48 off the dive, 30.16 on the way home. Perhaps young Chloe has been peering across the lanes in training at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) Swim Team: home of James Magnussen, the Aussie Missile world champ who fires past the lot on the way down the second lap.

Yoo the younger, who clocked 59.99 at a meet last December after that 59.64 in November not long after her 12th birthday, has a journey ahead of her, this season’s party the National Age Championships in April. She is being guided by Michael Meade, head coach of the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (SOPAC) Swim Team led by high performance coach Brant Best, the man who has helped Magnussen find his weapons. 

Yoo, on a 1:03.7 100 ‘fly, is not alone in the ranks of speedy youth: there are two others Down Under who at 12 went a fraction quicker than Yoo but have now entered their teens, while the national age rankings show no fewer than 15 13-year-olds between 57.5 and 59.7.

The US 12-year-old record for 100m free l/c stands at 56.87, a time clocked by Lia Neal in 2008 (when poly suits were allowed, not sure if she was wearing one or not). In 2011 at 16, Neal clocked a lifetime best of 54.90.

One of the most important aspects of the life of young talent is fun, as in “I love what I do”. Says Meade: “Chloe loves her swimming and everything about swimming and being in the SOPAC Swim Team with swimmers just like James Magnussen makes it even easier to love!”

Nothing like daily inspiration a few lanes away.