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In an Instagram post today, 23-year-old Olympic finalist Jordan Crooks announced that he is taking a break from competitive swimming.
He wrote, “Thank you to the Cayman Islands, the University of Tennessee, family, and friends who’ve supported this swimming journey. For now, I’ll be stepping away from competing. Looking forward to exploring all that life has to offer. Till we meet again.”
In an interview with SwimSwam in early April, Crooks alluded to this break but stopped short of calling it a retirement, saying, “For now, I’m just going to take a step back and focus on school and just live in the NARP (non-athletic regular person) life and relax for a little bit. Get the body and the mind right, and we’ll see what the future holds. No idea what it does hold for now, but just kind of enjoying basking in what we’ve been able to accomplish this year and being super grateful for our four years at Tennessee. Wouldn’t have wanted to do it anywhere else, and we’ll see where life takes me soon.”
When we asked if he would continue swimming and potentially pursue another Olympic Games, he said, “That’s a million-dollar question that we’re still trying to figure out, but we’ll see. We’ll see where it goes. You can never rule it out, and I’m not 100% sure what we’ll do, but I’ll be here in Knoxville for the future, just kind of figuring things out one day at a time. But for now, back to the school grind.”
Crooks had an amazing sign-off to collegiate swimming at the recent NCAA Championships. He reclaimed the NCAA title in the 50 freestyle with a time of 17.91, then improved his lifetime best to 17.82 while leading off Tennessee’s victorious 200 free relay, building on their NCAA record-setting performance from the previous month at the SEC Championships.
His 17.82 was the final 50 free of his college career, adding one more sub-18 second swim to his record of six times breaking the barrier, the most in history. The only other swimmer to come close is Caeleb Dressel, who holds the all-time record of 17.63, having broken 18 seconds twice.
After a 6th–place finish in the 200 free, Crooks exploded during the prelims of the 100. He broke Dressel’s 2018 record of 39.90, swimming a 39.83 and becoming the second man to go sub-40. In the finals, Crooks posted 40.06 and took 2nd to rival Josh Liendo’s own sub-40 second swim (39.99). Crooks also threw down the fastest relay split in history (39.36) in the last swim of his college career, anchoring Tennessee to an NCAA record and the team’s second relay title of the meet.
The Matt Kredich-trained sprinter made history at the 2024 Short Course World Championships, becoming the first man to break the 20-second barrier in the 50 SCM free (19.90)—a feat many of the biggest sprinters in the sport’s history came up just short of achieving. It was a legendary swim from Crooks in the Budapest semifinals as he lowered the 20.08 world record he set in prelims. The next evening, he defended his world title with a time of 20.19, adding a second medal to his haul after taking bronze in the 100 free.
At the Paris Olympics, he made history as the first Caymanian to reach an Olympic swimming final, touching 8th in the 50 free. He set a national record of 21.51 in the prelims, then posted 21.54 in the semifinals and 21.64 in the final. Prior to Paris, he didn’t have much international experience on the long-course stage, but did finish 6th in the 50 free and 7th in the 100 free at the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka.
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