My Signature: Fynn Minuth on Repeating as SEC Champion

South Carolina senior Fynn Minuth won his third straight SEC title in the 500 freestyle at the SEC Championships in Athens, Ga., on February 20. A two-time All-American in the 500 freestyle as well as the 200 butterfly, Minuth offers his personal account of what it took to bring home the gold again.

Before the race I’m looking at it and saying it’s another year. It’s another season. I’m not looking at it as if I have to win because I’m the defending champion. Every year is different. Every year has different challenges. Obviously, I wanted to win, but what happened last year, happened last year. This year is a new season, and we’ll see what happens.

The 500 free is my best event because I train for a lot of distance. I’m in between the true distance guys and the true sprinters. So, I’m a mid-distance guy. I have a lot of front-end speed, which means I can take it out very fast. In the 500, I feel like it’s the right distance where I can take it out and hold on.

Once I hit the water, there’s not much going through my head. It’s my regular routine of racing. You do the same things that you do every day in practice. There’s a lot of adrenaline, which helps you, but I’m not thinking about whether I had a good start or a bad start. It’s just the same routine as in practice.

When you’re in one of the middle lanes, you can have a pretty good idea of where you are in the race. Because I’m one who usually takes it out pretty fast at the beginning, I’m usually far ahead right then so I can see where other people are. I see them slowly catching up at the end.

“Winning the SECs gives me confidence going into NCAAs.”
 – Fynn  Minuth

I saw I had a pretty good lead coming into the last turn. I was in a lot of pain. In swimming we have a saying, “fly and die,” which means you take it out very fast and towards the end, you die a lot. There’s a lot of pain from exhaustion and over-kicking and over-swimming. So, I closed my eyes for the last 25 and tried to finish.

When I touched the wall at the end, in the first moment I was in so much pain, I couldn’t get out of the water. I had teammates helping me go from my lane to the medal stand. Afterwards, when I realized what I accomplished, it was a big relief.

For me, every year got harder because you go from being the hunter to the hunted. When I won it the first time as a sophomore, I was not the favorite to win. It’s much easier to perform when you’re the hunter. The second time, I was actually freaking out before the race because I was telling myself that I had to win, and if I don’t, I’m a loser because I had won it the last year. Every year is more difficult because when you’ve won it the previous two years, everyone expects you to win.  That’s when I realized I had to tell myself that every year is different.

My best finish at NCAAs is fifth place, two years ago. Winning the SECs gives me confidence going into NCAAs. The SEC is by far the fastest conference in the country, but there are a lot of people who have been swimming fast.

To medal at NCAAs would be a great finish for my career here. I came on campus as a not-so-great freshman. The development I have had over the last four years, and the experiences I have had, have all been so great.

All the work has been worth it. Not just the swimming. The overall challenge in the classroom and the community with everyone around us has been very rewarding.