By Gold Medal Mel Stewart on SwimSwam
Trials is a novel for swimmers, written by swimmer and author Ben Brostoff.
The book focuses on three swimmers trying to make the Olympic games over two decades. Hunter Banks, Connor Mahoney and Miles Green are three of five swimmers to break the world record in 2004 for the 400 meter IM. But American swimming is a cruel lover; only the top two move on, and the boys must pick up the pieces and decide whether to pursue their dreams in the years to come. Through doping scandals, suit tech advances, faster and faster world records, death, marriage, geopolitical turmoil and recession, Trials explores what it means to pursue a dream when the odds are stacked against you.
Swimmers and parents of swimmers will love reading or listening to this book while driving to practices or waiting at meets. Need a holiday gift for a swimming family? Trials is available on Amazon Kindle, in paperback and hardcover and as an audiobook on Audible.
TRAILS BOOK EXCERPT:
400 IM
The 2008 400 meter IM men’s final was a landmark moment for the Holybridge Aquatic Club. Only three clubs in the history of USA Swimming had put two swimmers in a Trials final. HAC was the first to do three in a single event. In swimming’s most challenging event, on the biggest stage.
Wes’ phone lit up with text messages of congratulations from parents, former swimmers and journalists. He silenced the ringer before getting out of his car to make the one minute walk to the pool. The men’s final was scheduled for prime time on the east coast. He and McDaniels had arranged to leave at four; warmups would be at five. The boys would swim at seven central time, 8PM eastern.
Wes had rented two Ford Transits to shuttle them to and from the hotel to the pool. Matt drove one and Connor drove the other. The environment was jubilant in both vehicles, the speakers blasting the latest in pop music. Wes had driven himself in a separate car he rented so he could arrive early and chat with some other members of the Olympic staff.
The gossip on deck was that Trials was going to be the fastest meet ever held. Prelims exceeded expectations in every event in the morning session. Many of the highlight swims were by swimmers the media had never heard of. In the women’s 100 meter butterfly prelims, an American record had been set by a seventeen year old who was ranked number 12 in the country beforehand. A column by the former head of USA Swimming published in the afternoon edition of the Omaha World-Herald predicted at least ten world records would be broken. That prediction would prove to be conservative.
American swimming was getting smarter and faster, Wes reflected as he paced the deck. It didn’t matter that his boys had dominated prelims. His colleagues were helping the best talent across the country make leaps and bounds in speed.
The favorites were favorites only on paper.
Coaches McDaniels and Mahoney called Hunter, Connor and Miles into a small conference room in the hotel three hours before the vans boarded. Both coaches knew it would be impossible to have any real type of meeting once warm-ups started. The pool area was too loud and the deck too narrow.
The five had spoken for thirty minutes and then broken into private pairs after to discuss individual race strategy. By the time warm-ups ended and the announcer began introductions for the eight finalists, both coaches felt sure they had done everything they could to help the three win. Unspoken was that only two could move on.
“From Sanibel, Florida in lane 5, swimming with the Holybridge Aquatics Club. He is the current American record holder in the 400 meter and 400 yard individual medley and five time Pan Pacific gold medalist – Hunter Banks!” The crowd roared its approval. Hunter nodded in acknowledgement.
He pressed his goggles hard into his eyes, shook his arms out and slipped his headphones back on. He didn’t want to hear Miles’ introduction. The only thing that mattered now was qualifying.
He knew the entire field by lane. The seeding sheet had come out ten minutes after the end of prelims. Miles in lane 4, Kyle Harper in lane 3, Connor in lane 6 and Brooks Worthington in lane 2. The field was much slower at 4:18 and above after the top 5, and Hunter wasn’t worried about Taylor Reeves, Austin Whitfield or Brent Higgins, all swimmers out of college who had their best days behind them. In his peripheral vision he could see Miles to his right and Connor to his left. He had raced both in practice many times over the last two years and won.
Miles’ introduction came to a close and a beat of silence followed. A hush came over the crowd.
“Swimmers, step up.”
Hunter pressed his goggles hard one more time to avoid any leaks. He took the one lateral step sideways up the block and lined his feet into position.
“Take your marks.”
Connor accepted a long time ago butterfly was not his stroke. As the most important race of his life got underway, he knew the field would temporarily move ahead of him. He just had to keep it close enough to bridge the gap in the backstroke. His fly felt good even as he hit the first turn and saw Hunter and Miles a full body length ahead. All three of them now had times within a few seconds of each other, but their strategies were nothing alike.
“Swim your own race.” His dad had told him that as long as he could remember, and said the same four words today. The blessing and curse of being a backstroker was having your view confined to the ceiling. If he made up ground in his best stroke, he would only see his progress at the turns.
Invisible progress. Yes, he thought, he would have to swim his own race for the next 100 meters once the butterfly was over. And why not more? Why care at all about Hunter or Miles or Brooks Worthington or Kyle Harper? He felt relaxed at the thought that he couldn’t control their speed; he could only control his own. Swim your own race.
Being under world record pace counted for nothing without the lead. Hunter over time had learned to spot the moving camera in lane 4, programmed to mimic the pace of the fastest swim in the world. Television viewers saw it as a moving yellow line and swimmers saw it as a little robot on tracks. He was ahead of the moving robot, but behind Miles.
Hunter took some solace in that he didn’t feel the slightest tinge of fatigue. Backstroke was neither a weakness nor a strength. He simply had to take the lead. If he could do that going into the breaststroke, he believed he could win. Maybe a world record was in play, but all that mattered was making the team.
He pushed as hard as he could off the wall to start the backstroke. Tipped slightly to his right side, he could see Kyle Harper almost even in lane 3. That was strange. Harper’s butterfly must have improved a lot. Something in the Texas water.
But then again, nothing in Trials was going to plan.
Miles was content to lose the lead as he flipped into the second fifty meters of his backstroke. His fly in the first 100 shocked him, and he had purposely slowed the backstroke to conserve energy.
He expected the finals to be extremely competitive, maybe even for a world record to be broken. He glanced at Harper and Hunter briefly as he flipped and could see both were out in front, his eyes level with their feet furiously kicking. Too fast this early, he thought to himself. The 400 was a long event.
McDaniels had warned him earlier that day in their pre-finals discussion that Harper liked to drift in his backstroke and swim against the lane line. Texas filmed all their meets and made the archives public. McDaniels had taken advantage of this fact and was a walking encyclopedia of race tendencies for Kyle Harper.
Miles in his periphery saw Harper close and positioned his pull to move slightly closer and take advantage of the wake. He immediately felt the faster water pulling him and quickened his pace to get even. At the halfway point, he was moving through moving water and expending less effort than Harper to go the same speed. Miles could see Kyle was oblivious and kept up the gambit until the turn into the breastroke.
His full view to the side off the wall gave him new information. Connor and Hunter were now even for the lead, about a half body length ahead. At least four swimmers had a chance to make the team.
See the podcast with author Ben Brostoff here:
#1 ON KINDLE & AMAZON IN THE SWIMMING CATEGORY
Trials spent four weeks as the number one Kindle and Book in the Swimming Category on Amazon and has been a top 20 novel in both categories since its release. As of October 2025, it had sold over 1,250 copies and garnered critical praise from a range of readers.
Trials is the perfect holiday gift for the upcoming holiday season. Give your swimmer or parent of a swimmer the gift of a great book.
BUY TRIALS HERE
GET TRIALS ON AUDIBLE HERE
FOLLOW TRIALS ON FACEBOOK HERE
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