Ed Moses’ journey to the Olympic swimming trials has been truly unique

IF ED Moses somehow manages to scrape onto the US Olympic swimming team, the story of how he got there will be one for the ages.

Surely not.

SWIMMER Ed Moses is already an Olympic champion, having won gold with the US 4x100m medley relay team at the 2000 Games, but he’ll add another amazing achievement to his resume if he makes an appearance in Rio this year.

The 35-year-old last swam competitively in 2012 at the Olympic trials for London. In fact, that was the last time he swam at all — before a couple of weeks ago.

Completely out of the swimming loop, he hadn’t even thought about the sport when fellow Olympian Ryan Lochte asked him what his plans in the pool were. That sparked him into action, and he decided he’d like to try out for the Olympic team going to Brazil later this year.

“When (Ryan) Lochte asked me if I was going a few weeks ago, I realised I had to do something,” Moses was quoted as saying by Swim Swam. “So last week I posted on social media asking what the time to qualify in the 100 breaststroke was and what the last day (for qualifying was). Someone said 1:03.69 and June 20th.

“So I looked up to see if there was a meet and (the meet in) Irvine was 10 days away. So I called up and asked ... if I could join them at the Irvine meet.

“(Coaches) Mario (Marshall) and Mike (Lucero) welcomed me out, registered me on the team, and called up the meet director and asked if they could get me entered.”

Moses came in fourth in the 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:03.35, securing him a spot at America’s Olympic trials.

Not only had Moses not swum in the previous four years, but his preparation for his latest race was equally as lax. He claims to have practised only twice (covering a total of 1500m) before he arrived at the meet, then only warmed up with a cruisy 200m before deciding he was ready to go.

“I was in heat one, lane eight, and I took off. It felt real smooth the entire 100 and when I turned halfway the only person I could even see to my side is (Syrian Olympian) Azad (Al-Basari), and I knew he would be quick, so I got excited and just raced the second 50, and saw a 1:03.3 when I finished,” Moses said.

“I was pretty damn excited, honestly. Everyone loves cheering for the old guy.

“It was great to be on deck and see some old faces and coaches, memories and stories were coming out ... I’m sure I’ll be sore tomorrow because I didn’t warm down, but it’s still pretty cool to be going to my fourth Olympic trials as a competitor.”

Moses had some pretty decent reasons for not finding time to jump into the water recently. He’s been studying for an MBA, running a consultancy company and he also launched a sports statistics app last year.

Moses won silver in his pet 100m breaststroke event at the Sydney Olympics to go along with his relay gold.

Realistically, his chances of getting to Rio are slim to nothing. His time was impressive for a man of his age who hasn’t put the swimming togs on in four years, but considering the world record for his event is 57.92 seconds, he’ll need a miracle to get on that plane to Brazil.

Still, stranger things have happened.

Originally published as Ed Moses’ journey to the Olympic swimming trials has been truly unique