King of Swim – John Flanagan

In the rough waters of the 2.4-mile swim during the 2009 Ironman World Championships, the biggest threat will not be the taxing currents or the crashing waves. It will be the king of the swim leg, John Flanagan.

Hawaii-native Flanagan enters the October 10th race looking for a repeat of his stellar swim at last year’s 2008 championships. Averaging roughly 1:14 for every 100 meters, he clocked an impressive 47:02 split to lead the entire field into T1. Overall, Flanagan finished in a respective 78th place.

In the past year, Flanagan has continued to build his bike and run skills to help strengthen his transition into a strong competitor on the triathlon scene. His work has paid off, placing him amongst the top of the finishers. At the 2009 Ironman Louisville race, he started out with an outstanding swim leg to set a new course record in 44:54 (averaging 1:10 per 100 meters). Demonstrating his growth in the following legs, he placed 6th overall with a time of 8:53:07

Flanagan’s swim talent, endurance, and mental toughness for the long-haul comes from years of competitive swimming. A collegiate swimmer for Auburn University, he helped the program to a national championship in 1997. He then went on to represent Team USA four years for open water swimming. In that time, he captured gold at the 1998 World Championships, gold at the Pan Pacific Games and became a 2001 National Champion.

When the race starts Saturday in Kona, do not be surprised if the athletes look like they are playing a game of “Follow the Leader”-with Flanagan in front.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 7th, 2009 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Athletes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.