By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Three swimmers stood on the podium following the 100 butterfly final at the U.S. Winter Nationals.
Everyone knew two of them. Tom Shields had won five NCAA individual swimming championships and Michael Phelps eclipsed Mark Spitz in winning 18 Olympic gold medals.
Auburn sophomore Luis Martinez was the man nobody knew going into the meet. But the Guatemala native will be known as an Olympian next year after turning in an A cut qualifying time to place third in the event.
An “A cut” is the highest standard for Olympic qualifying.
Auburn has a strong tradition of Olympic swimmers and had four medalists at the 2012 Games in London. Martinez was the first of Auburn’s current swimmers to qualify for the Rio Olympic Games; former Tiger Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace qualified in March.
Tigers coach Brett Hawke said Martinez, who may be the first man from Guatemala to achieve an A cut, seemed to come from nowhere.
“They’d never heard of him,” he said. “I think they were like, ‘Who is this kid?’”
Hawke said his swimmer went to Federal Way, Wash., for the AT&T Winter National Championships with the hope of earning a berth in the 2016 Summer Olympics. But the coach couldn’t imagine the slightly built sophomore doing what he did.
“He dropped so much time to even qualify and be in the final,” Hawke said, “and dropped more time in the final. He dropped about half a second.
“He didn’t flinch next to Michael Phelps and he executed the perfect swim,” the coach said. “He made the adjustments he needed from the morning swim and got the cut by 1/100th of a second.”
Martinez entered the finals after posting the fifth-fastest swim in the morning at 52.77. He then lowered it by 0.42 seconds in the finals, going out in 27.65 and covering the final 50 meters in 24.70 to finish at 52.35 behind Phelps (51.38) and Shields (51.41).
“He’s just improved dramatically over the last 18 months,” Hawke said. “I think he surprised even Michael. The guys on the podium even asked who he was when he received his medal.”
It was Shields who struck up a conversation.
“‘Well who are you man? What’s your name?’” Martinez recalled. “He just wasn’t sure it was me that was third.”
The mechanical engineering major doesn’t look the part of an Olympic swimmer. Hawke says the sophomore looks like a skinny 14-year-old.
“That’s not me,” Martinez said of stereotypically tall, muscular swimmers. “I’m 6 foot, 158 pounds. Pretty small guy. I ask myself. How is it that guys who are at least 3 inches taller than me and 25 pounds heavier than me can’t beat me? I don’t know.”
Martinez began his collegiate swimming at Missouri S&T but left there when he realized the Miners didn’t share his goals and aspirations.
“They trained for the college season and after that it was done,” he said. “For me, it’s not done. That’s when the most important part comes, the summer meets. The coach (Doug Grooms) was just not into it.”
Grooms was in Washington when Martinez earned his Olympic slot.
“I can tell he definitely understands now what it takes,” the Auburn sophomore said. “It’s not just showing up at practices. It’s showing up and performing every single day.”
This article originally appeared on the Alabama NewsCenter and was reposted here with permission.
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.