OSHKOSH — One Neenah athlete hasn’t even finished his junior year yet, but this weekend he’s hoping to qualify for the 2024 Olympic trials.
- Last summer Neenah junior Drew Gaerthofner missed the qualifying time for olympic trials in the 100 meter breaststroke by just fractions of a second.
- He'll have another chance to qualify for the olympic trials this weekend.
- Gaerthofner is committed to swim for the Wisconsin Badgers after he graduates.
“Breast stroke is a huge anatomy thing,” said Neenah Junior Drew Gaerthofner. “If you have the right knees, the right hips, your kick can be really good and I think I was just born with the talent to have a really good breast stroke kick.”
For Gaerthofner, swimming wasn’t something his family had really participated in, but he had a knack for it once he started.
“Got put in swim lessons at a young age and just kind of got good at it and thought might as well pursue it and just keep swimming, I guess,” he said.
Right around the time COVID hit Gaerthofner had kind of lost his enthusiasm for the sport. Turns out, that was the time off he needed.
“COVID hit, kind of just stopped (swimming),” he said. “After that I kind of rediscovered my love for it and thought hey maybe I could do something good here and I pretty much rediscovered my love after the break and getting back at it everyday.”
But first, he had to shake some rust off.
“Coming back out of the like September of 2020, I was pretty bad at swimming, I was struggling to get through practices, but I just (kept going)” said Gaerthofner.
Three years later, he had put in the work to almost qualify for the Olympic trials last summer when he was at the YMCA Nationals. He missed the qualifying time in the 100 meter breaststroke by just fractions of a second.
“I just kind of had a breakout meet I guess, I kind of just discovered like hey, these are legit times where I can actually qualify for the trials and knowing that, I wasn’t broken down,” he said. “That was awesome to know like hey this is reachable.”
Besides the weight room, he credits his teammates for helping improve. He isn't a big fan of swimming alone and has his best meets when he’s surrounded by his friends.
“What I love about swimming is just the teammates, if you get around really good friends and teammates that push you, I think it just circles back around to everything,” Gaerthofner said.
Now, he has a chance to qualify for the Olympic trials once again this weekend down in Iowas, but the Wisconsin commit knows there can be much bigger things ahead.
“Who knows, anything can happen at that meet and with enough training I don’t see why I couldn’t have a shot at making the Olympics at (2028),” he said.
