By Julia Mericle
News Editor
Michael Pilyugin started his swimming career as a fidgety kid whose parents thought the pool would be a good place for him to put his energy.
“I would literally have to be chained to the desk. I mean that. I once had a teacher, as a joke, chain me to the desk, because I wouldn’t be able to focus,” Pilyugin said. “So, they threw me in [to swimming], and that is where all my energy went.”
Fifteen years later, the senior member of the men’s swim team is a qualifier for the Summer 2016 Olympic trials, where the 2016 United States Olympic Swim Team will be chosen.
Pilyugin attempted to qualify for the Olympic trials in the 100-yard backstroke, 100-yard freestyle and 50-yard freestyle. He qualified for the 100-yard backstroke, with a time of 56.04 seconds. The cutoff time is 57.19 seconds.
He was less than one second off for the other two events.
Pilyugin said he put more effort into swimming this year and hoped to hit the qualifying time.
According to Pilyugin, he focused on many different things at practice, including breath control and kick outs.
“I put emphasis on kicking out further, because a lot of my competition would always beat me underwater, whereas I would always kill them on top of the water,” Pilyugin said.
When he thought about all of that and made sure to put it together, Pilyugin said he knew he could do it.
Sean McNamee, head coach of the men’s swimming and diving team, said Pilyugin is one of the strongest individuals he has coached.
“To make the Olympic trials qualification time is a huge accomplishment and he made it by quite a bit. It’s not as though he just made it,” McNamee said. “He made it by a dominating amount early in the season when typically we are not at our peak, so that speaks volumes for what he is capable of doing, not only later in our season, but at Olympic trials and in the future as well if he chooses.”
Pilyugin joins nine previous members of the St. Bonaventure Swimming and Diving teams in qualifying for the Olympic trials, including Garvin Ferguson, who competed in the Olympic Games in 1988, according to McNamee.
Pilyugin said his first priority is to graduate.
“I have to finish my undergrad,” Pilyugin said. “I know if I don’t finish that I will never get back, so I just want to finish school and possibly consider MBA (Master of Business Administration) for a fifth year.”
Pilyugin said he is still considering his options but is 85 percent sure he will attend the Olympic trials, being held in Omaha, Nebraska, from June 26 to July 3 this summer.
To compete in the Olympic trials, Pilyugin would have to continue training past the A-10 Championships on Feb. 22.
McNamee said Pilyugin’s training would be challenging because it is out of his season and a different segment of training than he is normally used to.
“But I am going to imagine that he is going to want to pursue that aggressively and try to perform at the highest level that he is capable of,” McNamee said.
Pilyugin said despite what this summer brings, he plans to continue swimming another four years in anticipation of the next Olympics.
“He obviously has improved to a tremendous level through his time here,” McNamee said. “To be honest with you, I think he needs to keep going. I think the best years of his swimming could be ahead of him if he wanted to pursue that.”
mericlje13@bonaventure.edu
