Michael_Brinegar
Michael Brinegar
American open water swimmer
Michael Brinegar (born September 15, 1999) is an American swimmer specializing in distance freestyle and open water swimming who swam for Indiana University and competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the 800 and 1500-meter freestyle events.[1]
On September 15, 1999 in Bloomington, Indiana, Michael was born to swimming Olympian Jennifer Hooker and Jamie Brinegar, a former All New England track and field athlete at Yale .[2] His mother Jennifer was a competitive distance freestyler who would swim for Indiana as would Michael. Jennifer competed in the 1976 Olympics in the 200 freestyle and the 4x100-meter freestyle relay. Michael's mother worked as an Assistant athletic director at Indiana in Bloomington, and his father Jamie worked as a business manager for Columbus Parks and Recreation.[3][4][5]
Beginning to swim at age 5, by 9 Michael was competing at the Donner Swim Club in Columbus, Indiana regularly, where he would soon be coached by his mother Jennifer. By 12, he had decided to focus on swimming as his only sport. Michael would attend Columbus Northside Middle School, and later Columbus North High School where he was coached by swim coach Jim Sheridan, who had been an Assistant under Hall of Fame Coach Mark Schubert. At Columbus North, he would earn High School All America honors.[6][2][7] In March, 2012, Michael won the 200 and 500 freestyle in age group competition for 11-12 year olds at the Indiana State Championships. At Donner Swim Club, at 12 he set every club record but the 100 freestyle.[5]
In 2015, he was the Indiana State Champion in the 500-yard freestyle. In the 2017 Junior World Championships, he took a bronze in the 800 meter freestyle and a silver in the 1500 meter freestyle with a personal best time of 15.09.[8][6][1][9]
More significantly, he participated at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships, winning a bronze medal anchoring the mixed 5km team relay.[10] Competing at Gwangju, South Korea, at 19 he nearly caught up with the German first place finisher and the Italian second place finisher in a photo finish.[11]