Andrew opened up about the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo getting postponed to next year due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. “It was definitely inevitable,” he said. “I actually see it as a blessing in disguise. As an athlete, I will be 22 years old. I will be stronger than ever, and I’ll be a smarter athlete. I will change my training plan to add more weights and get stronger in the gym. When the pools start to open again, I will translate that to the water and I will get faster. I think it will be really good for me.”
Most recently, Andrew secured three personal bests at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Des Moines, Iowa. “Iowa was amazing for me. I swam really well. It was a nice tune-up. That was my last race as a 20-year-old,” he said.
While he is in quarantine, Andrew has more time to post vlogs on his YouTube channel. “I have more freedom to create, which is cool,” he said. “I am going to speak about how my training plan has changed, and how my focus will shift going into 2021. I will do a race analysis video and go through my 200 meter IM race, and talk about what I learned and what I will improve on when it comes time to get back in the pool.”
He shared that his main events going into the Olympics will be the 200 meter IM race, the 50 meter freestyle, and the 100 meter breaststroke.
Andrew described the International Swimming League (ISL) as a “fun atmosphere,” which motivates the athletes to swim a lot faster than they typically wood at that time of the season. He served as Vice-Captain of the New York Breakers. “We want to create a team spirit where the athletes don’t want to leave,” he said. “Being the New York Breakers, we want our team to be very diverse.”
He has a special affinity for the backstroke since it was one of the first events that he made any team in when he was little.
A moment that stood out to him during the ISL season was speaking at a middle school in Budapest, Hungary with Ryan Murphy and Katinka Hosszu, affectionately known as the “Iron Lady.” “Katinka is amazing. I love her,” he said.
“She is a good friend of mine and a very smart businesswoman. She is very invested in her sport, and she is one of the hardest workers you will ever meet. She embodies the ‘Iron Lady’ title 100 percent.”
Andrew spoke highly about the technology Lumen. “It is great. It is all about tracking my metabolism and understanding what my body is doing with the fuel that I have been putting in it. It has been really cool to experiment with. Lumen is great and it’s a company that I will continue working with in the future,” he said.
He also took time to answer a few “Rapid Fire” questions, which is something he is known to ask swimmers in his own YouTube videos:
Waffles or pancakes? Waffles (“Waffles are good”)
Flying or driving? Driving
City living or country living? In between
Summer or winter? Summer (“100 percent”)
Library or museums? Museums
Bath or shower? Shower
Pepsi or Coke? Coke
Texting or calling? Calling (“I appreciate a phone call more”)
Half-full or half-empty?
Curly fries or normal fries? Normal cries
Skydiving or scuba diving? Scuba diving
Indoor pool or outdoor pool? Outdoor pool
Tea or coffee? coffee
Rain or snow? Rain
Singing or dancing? Singing (“I am bad at both, but probably singing”)
Burgers or tacos? Tacos
Long course or short course? Long course (“big time”)
Money or fame? Money (“With money, you can have a purpose and you can use it to help others. It’s all about how you use it”)
To learn more about Michael Andrew, follow him on Instagram.
