By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
One of the most surprising stories out of the Westmont Pro Swim Series last month was the resurgence of former Texas Longhorn Ethan Heasley, who made the ‘A’ final in the 100 butterfly, setting a new personal best 52.82 in the prelims.
Heasley’s performance at the meet was significant because it not only marked a new lifetime best and a shift in his event lineup, but it came after he took more than two years off of racing following his retirement from the sport in October of 2022.
He returned to individual competition in October of 2024, and now, just over a year-and-a-half later, he is moving back up the national leaderboards.
Heasley, who is a native of Hillsboro, Oregon, committed to swim at the University of Texas in January of 2019 as the #12 recruit in the class of 2020 and a 2018 Jr. Pan Pacs bronze medalist in the 400 freestyle.
He told SwimSwam that he got his first “hint of what it tastes like to be fast” during his sophomore year of high school at the Speedo Sectionals meet in Federal Way, Washington in March of 2018.
At that meet, he won the 400 free (4:19.82), 1000 free (8:59.64), 1650 free (15:06.12), 200 fly (1:45.93), and 400 IM (3:45.56). His 500 freestyle time was a new meet record, and it marked his first time under 4:20 in the event. He said that this meet “changed [his] perspective about swimming… it was now something [he] could get recruited to do at a high level.” This meet was also the first time Heasley made SwimSwam headlines.
See Also: Heasley, Berkoff Add 3rd Wins on Friday at Federal Way Sectionals Ethan Heasley Breaks 500 Free Meet Record at Federal Way Sectionals Ethan Heasley Finishes Iron-Man Sectionals With 1650 Free WinThat summer, Heasley started the recruiting process, and he also made the Jr. Pan Pacs team, swimming the 200 free, 400 free, 200 fly, 200 IM, and 400 IM. He ended up earning a bronze medal in the 400 free, swimming 3:53.81 to come in behind American Ross Dant and Australia’s Brendon Smith.
During his junior year, he went on a few official visits, and while he said “a few schools that stuck out the most,” Texas was the front runner. “I don’t think it’s a secret why Texas was at the top of the list.”
Heasley said that he was excited about heading to Texas, but he was also looking forward to finishing his club career with Hillsboro Head Coach James Resare with the Olympic Trials in 2020 being the pinnacle of his club career.
As we all remember, though, the 2020 Olympic Trials did not happen due to the infamous COVID-19 pandemic which saw the Olympic Games get postponed a year to the summer of 2021.
“That was a little bit of a bittersweet end to my club career, but I knew I was off to bigger and better things at Texas.”
Heasley had a strong first year at Texas including a few very strong performances which saw him come in under the NCAA cutline in the 500 free, 400 IM, and 1650 free. His 200 fly time was also under the cutline, though he would have chosen to swim the 1650 free instead of the 200 fly at NCAAs. He was also seeded to score in the 400 IM (16th) and the 1650 free (15th).
In 2021, Texas qualified too many athletes for the meet, and Heasley was one of the swimmers who was left at home. The Longhorns went on to win the 2021 NCAA Championships which Heasley said “I still felt like I was a part of that team win because I was a part of the team because I was there training and was part of the squad.”
After that point, though, Heasley said “it started to kind of trickle in that there were some things I needed to address on the mental side.” This struggle continued through his sophomore year of college with Heasley saying there was a year-and-a-half chunk where he was “training the worst [he] has ever trained and racing the worst [he] had ever raced.”
He said that it was weighing on him mentally and led to a lot of conversations with coaches as they tried to figure out what was happening, and after reflecting on his experience after the fact, he said the best way he could summarize what happened is that “it was a sequence of a lot of small things over time that kind of snowballed into something that ate away at me mentally.”
Heasley said that he is someone who thrived under structure, communication, and planning, which he felt like he was missing at Texas and it trickled down until it was significantly affecting him mentally.
This ultimately led to his decision to retire from swimming because it felt “dishonest” for him to remain at the pool and “take up” a spot on the Longhorns roster when he did not want to be there and hated going to practice.
Heasley remained at Texas for his final two years of school, and said that he thinks the experience of being out of the pool was “extremely valuable” because he was able to get a start on his life, and “create a foundational identity of who [he is] as a person outside of the water.”
During his senior year of college, Heasley began to regret his decision to retire rather than finishing swimming the way he intended. In November, he spoke to Resare, his club coach, telling him he was having these feelings of regret and he felt like he wasn’t done yet, but he expressed concern about trying to come back after more than a year out of training. Resare told him, “If you want to get back in the water, you are still young. If you want to do this, let’s do this.”
At Christmas, Heasley returned to Oregon and met up with his coach and they created a plan to slowly get back in the water while monitoring how he felt mentally and physically with the awareness that they would pull the plug if he was not enjoying it.
Heasley began training again, using student rec hours at the University of Texas, and by his graduation in May of 2024, he was up to six practices a week with a few lifts, which he was doing at the corporate gym with the company he was working for at the time.
After he graduated, Heasley began working at ROKA Multisport, which allowed him to return to Oregon as a remote employee and got back in the pool with his club team. “I love what I do on a day-to-day basis. I love the people I work with. It has been such a breath of fresh air to have a career that I am really happy with.” Heasley spoke about the flexibility his career offered him and said that, “If more swimmers had jobs that offered them flexibility and the ability to keep pursuing what they love, I think we would see a lot more careers being extended.”
He initially planned to focus on the 400 freestyle long course, which was one of his primary events before his break, along with a few 200s and the 800 free. After a few meets back, they added shorter events like the 200 IM and 100 fly to his lineup, and decided they would see what stuck.
Heasley swam at a number of local Oregon meets through the 2024-2025 short course season. In the summer of 2025, he and his coach began pinpointing his events. He did not have any senior national level meets available to him because he had been out of the pool for a while and his National cuts had expired, so his options were limited for end of season championships.
At the end of July, Heasley swam at the Futures Championships in Sacramento, and he won the 100 fly in 53.56, which was a lifetime best by two tenths from the 53.76 he swam in August of 2019. He also set lifetime bests in the 50 fly (24.49) and the 200 IM (2:04.51).
At the Westmont Pro Swim Series, Heasley swam the 50 fly, 100 fly, and 200 IM. He had not trained any long course going into the meet since 50 meter pools are not easy to come by in Oregon during the short course season.
In prelims, Heasley swam 52.82 in the 100 fly, which he said he wasn’t incredibly surprised by, but he was happy to see it, thinking “Okay, now we are finally getting the times where I feel like I am keeping up with these guys. I think I can do this.”
He pointed out that he was rested for the meet where many of the other swimmers probably weren’t but he feels it is a good sign going into the long course season. “I know there is more to come. I think that 100 fly will be in the rearview mirror.”
Looking forward, Heasley did not share any particular time goals, but he is focused on “smiling, loving the process, and getting faster.”
He also said “The biggest thing for me is going to Trials in 2028, which I am very confident and lucky to say that I don’t think that will be an issue considering where I am headed timewise, but it’s not so much the times for me, it’s more going to Trials with the coach that I have because I was supposed to go with him during COVID. We feel as though there is some unfinished business and we want to close that loop.”
Now, he is loving the sport again. “I think that the time out of the water really helped me remember what it was like to love swimming, and really dedicate myself to the work and to the training, and to have fun.”
Read the full story on SwimSwam: ‘Smiling and Loving the Process’: Ethan Heasley Back Swimming Lifetime Bests After Retirement
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