The Texas swimming camp’s blue-chip performer Shaine Casas earned his first Olympic qualification. In the post-Tokyo Olympics period, the butterfly pro went on to etch his name in the world championships and short-course events. But achieving the Paris Olympics ticket seemed to be unreal for him as today in the Lucas Oil Stadium, Shaine Casas hit the bull’s eye. The qualification came in the 200m IM, being the chaser of the topper, Carson Foster. Coincidentally, both swimmers hail from the same Texas camp. 

Ultimately, Shaine couldn’t hold his emotion after claiming his sole Paris Olympics berth. Today, he finished the 200m IM event in 1:55.83 minutes, a time just a few seconds below Michael Phelps’ (1:57.94 minutes achieved in Santa Clara County, California). Naturally, that added a further joy to the occasion. Rather, Shaine Casas’ post-game satisfactory words “All I’ve dreamed about” defined the hard work and sacrifice behind chasing that target. 

Since his days of moving to swimming, Shaine Casas had to see several ups and downs. One of those was his father’s death because of an accident. So, reminiscing on those different days, the McAllen native had plenty to say. But he controlled his nerves and added, “This means everything. Since I was a kid, this is all I’ve dreamed about and now I don’t have to pretend to dream about being an Olympian.” A humble smile soon followed to show up on his face. “I’m an Olympian”. Later he did the rest by signing the postcard, set up for the Paris Olympics qualified swimmers from the USA. However, for Shaine Casas and his mate Carson Foster, another surprise had been waiting behind the curtain. 

Michael Phelps appeared in the house to present the medals to the qualified swimmers from the 200m IM event. That may have added another icing on the cake. Meanwhile, Shaine could take another pride that he defeated two Olympic medalists today and one of them is Michael Phelps’ protégé. 

However, the 2019 national champion remained slightly behind Carson Foster in the event. But, in the same run, he defeated Kieran Smith and Chase Kalisz, the two medalists from the Tokyo Olympics. A flare of this height could be unexpected to many, but not to Shaine Casas’ mother who has seen it all. 

The moments behind chasing Michael Phelps’ record

A spark has always been there. That let Shaine Casas chase big names in swimming. Last year at an Austin sectional meet, Shaine achieved a timing of 48.23 seconds in the 100-free event. The timing was fiery enough to avail him a place in the US 4X100m free relay team. But the subsequent timing in the 100 butterfly (50.56 seconds) lifted him in the same line as Michael Phelps, Caeleb Dressel, and Ian Crocker. However, his mother, Monica Epling, had seen all this coming. 

In an interview with RVG Sports, the proud mother once said, “He doesn’t believe me when I tell him he was geared toward swimming,…He’s been around water since before he was born.” So, Monica thought of utilizing such a habit to make it bloom one day. The first thing she did was admit the little Shaine Casas in a swimming program. Since then, the young gun did not have to look behind and continued to win the swimming peaks. Now, he has crossed one of the major peaks in the swimming world. The expectation from Shaine Casas will touch the sky from now on.