Meet Kayla Han: The 14-year-old making waves in USA Swimming
Barely a teenager, the California swimmer is being tipped for a place at the Olympic Games Paris 2024, following in a rich history of female youth swimming success in the USA.
Swimming
Despite barely being a teenager, Kayla Han is already being marked as a future star of USA swimming.
The California-born prodigy first made headlines in 2021, when she qualified for the USA Swimming Olympic Trials at the age of 12.
Han, who turned 13 before the meet began, was the youngest competitor in Omaha, and a clip of her victory in the 400m individual medley (IM) B-final quickly went viral.
She didn't make the team for Tokyo 2020, held in 2021, but continued to lower her times across a variety of events and managed to seal 400m IM silver at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships. The 14-year-old clocked 4.43.60 in Honolulu, putting her third on the all-time list for American girls in the 13-14 age group.
The USA’s 400 IM qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 were Emma Weyant and Hali Flickinger, with 4.33.81 and 4.33.96 respectively.
Han will be 16 at the next USA Olympic Trials in June 2024, and given her rapid year-on-year progression, looks well set to challenge for a place at Paris 2024.
Kayla Han: Following in Katie Ledecky's footsteps
The USA produces world-beating female youth swimmers like no other nation, and Han would be carrying on a rich tradition in competing for her country at such a young age.
Katie Ledecky was 15 when she won 800m gold at the Olympic Games London 2012, while Regan Smith was 17 when she shattered the 200m backstroke World Record en route to gold at the 2019 World Championships.
At Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Lydia Jacoby shocked the world to win 100m breaststroke gold at the age of 17 for the U.S., while her fellow 17-year-old Claire Curzan helped Team USA win Olympic silver in the women’s 4x100m medley relay.
Elsewhere in Japan, 15-year-old Bella Sims won silver as part of her nation’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Katie Grimes was the youngest member of the US Olympic team at 15-years-old, one year before landing 400 IM and 1500m freestyle silver medals at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest.
Claire Weinstein qualified for Team USA at the World Championships at the age of 15, and secured gold as part of the women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
There are no secrets to Han's success.
“I just swim my own race and practice my butt off,” Han told the LA Times in 2022.
She is part of the La Mirada Armada swim club in California, where she often trains with the male middle distance swimmers.
"I honestly kind of like not a lot of rest because then sometimes the boys fall off,” she continued, “and I get ahead of them, and I can beat them.”
The decision to train with boys three or four years her senior was inspired by the early training methods of Ledecky, who is Han's favourite swimmer.
If the California youngster can continue on her current path of progression, Ledecky could well turn from Han's hero to teammate at the next Olympic Games.