Saints Peter & Paul High School senior Tyler Christianson is chasing his Olympic dream. Christianson has dual citizenship. His mother was born in Panama and he’s aiming to represent that country at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
He’s already represented Panama in international swimming events. His success is putting him on the path to an Olympic roster spot.
“Representing them internationally certainly helps my resume for being selected,” says Christianson, who commutes an hour from Easton to Annapolis to swim for the Naval Academy Aquatics Club six days a week. “In order to be selected you have to make a certain cut. I just missed the Olympic cut by two hundredths of a second in the 200 (meter) individual medley.”
The 6-foot, 185-pound Christianson got another shot to reach the qualifying time at the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Greensboro, North Carolina, in November and will again at the U.S Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, this year.
Even if Christianson, who will attend the University of Notre Dame on a swimming scholarship, doesn’t make the cut, he still is in the running for the Olympics. His times are so good that he is in the running for one of the team’s final roster spots. “I think I have a pretty good shot of qualifying,” Christianson says. “I remember in the second grade, writing down what my dream was. Even back then, it was to make the Olympics.”
Christianson had a ball swimming in international events representing Panama last spring. He won three medals during April’s 18-and-under Youth South American Championships in Chile, including a gold in the 200 IM.
Christianson also captured four gold medals (400 IM, 200 IM, 200 breast stroke, and 100 breast) in the Central Caribbean games in Barbados in July and competed in August in Peru’s Pan American Games, where his best finish was sixth in the 200 IM.
“It has given him a different level of maturity and exposure,” Naval Academy Aquatics Club Head Coach Hilary Yager says. “He has been able to handle himself at that level swimming against Olympians and world and American-record holders.”
Swimming for Saints Peter & Paul, Christianson has dominated the competition.
He won the 200 IM and the 100 breast in the National Catholics Swimming and Diving Championships last March and the 100 breast in the same tournament the previous season.
Christianson also has six Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association B Conference championships in the same two events.
“He is a once-in-a-generation talent for the Eastern Shore,” Saints Peter & Paul Swimming Coach Josh Remaniak says. “You don’t come across someone like him often that competes on the national and international state and has done as well as he has.”
One of the keys in Christianson’s development has been practicing with the Naval Academy Aquatics Club. He swims for 12 hours across six days and works out another four hours on physical fitness on two of those days.
“It’s been a long journey there every day, and it’s really motivated me to really work hard,” Christianson says. “The workouts are really intense. We swim up to four miles a day.”
Christianson is a good role model for Naval Academy’s veterans and younger swimmers.
“He is really proficient in the water and he is a very hard worker,” Yager says. “We see a lot of kids that are proficient in the water, but don’t want to do the work. Most of the best swimmers are home sitting on the couch during the Olympics because they didn’t want to do the work. He just grinds it out.”
When Christianson isn’t swimming, he stays busy with rigorous homework load and extracurricular activities at school.
He carries a 4.75 weighted grade point average, takes three advanced placement classes, serves as Student Government President, and belongs to the Short Classics Book Club, National Honor Society, and the Investment Club.
“A lot of it comes down to time management,” Remaniak says. “He’s got it down to a T. When he goes back and forth to Navy swim practice, he is doing his homework in the car.”
