The way David Schlicht tells it, his race picked him.
Schlicht was swimming in the Australian Nationals at age 15, and has won both the 200 and 400 individual medleys.
Now a sophomore at Arizona, Schlicht is considered one of the best in 400IM. His time of 3 minutes, 40.27 seconds is third in the NCAA this year.
Schlicht and the Wildcats will take part in the Pac-12 menβs championships, which start Sunday at the University Houston.
Schlicht said heβs been βall-IMβ since he was a teenager. As a UA freshman, he was named All-American honorable mention and put up a time of 3:40.14 at the NCAA finals to finish sixth.
He spent last year at home in Melbourne training for the 2020 Olympics. When he arrived back in Tucson, Swimming World named him the 14th-best menβs college menβs swimmer in the country.
UA coach Augie Busch thinks Schlicht should be much higher, especially given the event he swims. Every swimmer who competes in the individual medley must swim four different strokes β butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle β well. The 400IM is βone of the three most grueling eventsβ in the pool, Busch says. Itβs why he calls Schlicht both a βsilent assassinβ and a βcourageous racer.β
βItβs Davidβs favorite event,β Busch said. βItβs nice when you are good at the backstroke and breaststroke β the middle portion. Ideally, having these as your best strokes is very rare, and David is a rare guy who has both of these.β
Getting the right βkickβ for breaststroke can be a challenge while swimming so many other strokes. The range of motion for swimmersβ hips, ankles and knees is different from the other strokes.
Busch described the kick for freestyle, butterfly and backstroke more dolphin-like, a flutter or pigeon-toed kick motion.
βThe breaststroke is the complete opposite. β¦ Ideally, itβs a splay like a duck-foot,β Busch said. βBreastrokers always walk with their toes pointed outward. To be good at both kick movements is unique. They are polar opposites. Physically, itβs a rare gift that David has.β
During his year away from campus, Schlicht swam 10 times a week, spent time in the gym and took up Pilates. He said Pilates helped him βengage my core and propel through all the twisting movements and maybe getting a little bit more powerful at certain points in all my strokes.β
When the pandemic hit Australia, pools were closed for between two and three months. Schlicht used his girlfriendβs unheated pool in the winter, wearing a wetsuit βfor about 10 minutes to try and keep some feel for the water.β
Schlicht was then sidelined with bilateral decompression in his shins, an injury that required surgery. He was bedridden for two weeks, then slowly started moving his ankles and quads and moved up to shin and leg strengthening activities.
Getting back in the pool felt odd.
βI was so used to having pain every time I kicked doing breaststroke, it felt surreal β so strange that I was feeling something else,β he said.
The postponement of the 2020 games to this summer may benefit Schlicht, who gets a full, healthy year to improve. Training with swimmers like Brooks Fail in practice every day helps, too.
βBrooks pushes me a lot in freestyle,β Schlicht said. βHeβs obviously a lot better than me, so I try really hard to keep up with him in lots of sets. Sam (Iida) really pushes me hard in breaststroke and IM. Thereβs abundance of guys on here that can sprint really well. When weβre doing a sprint set that Iβm not particularly good at Iβve got lots of guys to chase and to race, which is really good.β
That kind of approach may explain why Schlicht is viewed as one of college swimmingβs best.
βHe has so many great qualities,β Busch said. βHeβs so self-motivated, he loves the nuances of training. I never see a second of attitude and he knows what it means to be a great teammate. He eats the right things, gets the right amount of rest. He really gets the team part. A lot of international guys donβt, and the team component is what itβs all about in college. David is aligned holistically with what we are trying to do here as a program.β
