Mitchell Schott '22 made a splash recently as he set personal bests in three events competing in the U.S. Olympic swimming trials.
Despite missing out on making the games, Schott credits much of his success to his years at Culver Academies, where he honed his swimming skills and developed into a competitive athlete. Schott found pride in competing at the Olympic trials hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, just a little more than 100 miles from the Culver campus.
"Now that my family resides in Culver and we call Indiana home, it was really cool that it was essentially on home turf," he said. "And it was cool that I had some Culver people come out and support."
Not only did Schott receive support but he also showed support to his brother, Hayden '18, at a Texas A&M College World Series game in Omaha, Nebraska, just two days after swimming.
Schott's time in Indianapolis was marked by significant achievements that got him there in the first place.
"I was very fortunate that I started seeing pretty serious growth in my swimming about six months before the trials," he said.
Schott earned five Olympic trials cut times, qualifying for the 200-meter individual medley, 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter butterfly, 100-meter freestyle and 200-meter freestyle. Of the five events, he focused on the 200 butterfly, 200 IM and 400 IM.
At the trials, he exceeded his expectations, dropping almost 3 seconds in the 200 butterfly, about 1.5 seconds in the 200 IM and 0.3 seconds in the 400 IM.
His performance at the trials placed him ninth in the 200 butterfly, breaking a Princeton record, 13th in the 200 IM, breaking another Princeton record and 12th in the 400 IM. Making the finals required a top-eight finish, so Schott was just one spot off in the 200 butterfly.
Reflecting on his journey as a whole, Schott said he doesn't think he would be where he is today without Culver.
"When you are challenging yourself and pushing yourself to grow in all areas, you're inherently going to see success in every single area," he said. "At Culver, everybody grows up because they're forced to confront themselves and find out who they truly are. And that's something that is beautiful about Culver, and that translates across the board in athletics, academics and leadership."
Schott also spoke highly of the supportive environment at Culver and the mentors here who play pivotal roles.
"The mentorship at Culver is exceptional," he said. "They are more than just coaches; they're like parents."
Among the key mentors Schott mentioned was coach Josh Brown, whom he credited for introducing him to the science of swimming, improving his swimming stroke and keeping the sport enjoyable.
Schott also credited coach Sarah Youvan and his teammates for helping him succeed.
"You need a group of people who want to work and get better together," he said. "I was very fortunate during my time at Culver that I had good coaches and I had great people who were around me."
Schott will be a junior at Princeton University and plans to continue swimming. When asked about making a run for the 2028 Olympic Games, he said his goal in swimming is to continue the sport as long as it's fun and still something he finds the vigor to challenge himself.
"With that being said, I'm absolutely loving the sport," Schott said. "And I think right now I can pretty confidently say that I will, at that point, absolutely shoot for 2028, but it's very much something that will be a decision when I graduate."
Olympic trial results
