ST JOHNS, Fla. — Incredibly early mornings, six days a week, is how recent graduate of Bartram Trail High School, TJ Frost, has been training for a while.
“Yeah, a long time, my whole life,” he told First Coast News.
Frost started competitive swimming when he was four and is now 17 years old. He still trains twice a day with his club 'Loggerhead Aquatics' in Julington Creek.
The teen has had the Olympic dream since pre-kindergarten, but even he didn’t think the chance would come this fast.
“Coach Bryan mentioned if I’m going to qualify, it’s going to be in the 400 IM, and I thought he was crazy,” Frost said.
But Coach Bryan Welter’s been doing it a while, leading the Loggerhead Aquatics senior squad. Welter made the suggestion that Frost swim the 400 IM, the individual medley. This is an event where all four swim strokes are done for 100 meters each; the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and then freestyle are all tested.
It's a grueling race, but coach thought with Frost's strengths, he might have a chance. And at his latest sectionals meet in Ocala, the swimmer needed to cut a ton of time off what he had swam in that race previously.
“Ten seconds,” Welter said. "He needed to cut 10 seconds off his entry time."
Ten seconds... essentially an eternity in swim time, is seemingly impossible to do in a single meet.
“Nothing like I’ve ever experienced in my career,” Welter said.
“I’m feeling good, I’m going to give it my all and go for it,” Frost said as he reflected on the moment.
Turns out, Frost cruised into his first Olympic trials cut, swimming the IM in 4:23.50. He made the time by more than a second and a half.
But like opening flood gates, another trial time cut came.
Frost then swam a last-minute meet to try and get one more event at trials.
At an event hosted by The Bolles School, 'The Sprint to Indy,' Frost swam the 400-meter freestyle in 3:54.95, good enough to make Olympic trials in that event by a half-second.
So, Frost will now have two cracks at the Olympics, and two opportunities for valuable experience as he continues his swimming career. The trials begin on Saturday in Indianapolis inside of Lucas Oil Stadium.
"It’s insane, I’m going to walk into that stadium and it’s massive," Frost said. "It’s going to be crazy."
The next stop for the Olympics hopeful could certainly be Paris.
But, Frost has a very busy summer ahead of him.
Because of a coaching change where he had previously committed to swimming in college, his recruitment has opened back up. So, he's got a short amount of time to figure out where he'll be swimming in college in the fall.
“He just made Olympic trials, one of the hottest kids coming out, lots of people want to be friends with TJ right now," his coach said. "It’s been kind of a wild ride for sure.”
Frost's parents, Jack and Kathy, have been doing their best to make sure he stays focused on the Olympic trials this weekend, before shifting focus to the college search.
Originally, Frost signed on with Miami University in Ohio, but when their head coach was hired at Penn State, he was allowed to look into other colleges. His dad said they'll focus entirely on trials for now, then after they'll make a few college visits.
As for Frost, he knows this could be a very valuable step for the rest of his swimming career.
"I am just going to go and have a good time, I qualified," Frost said. "I may as well go and get the experience and try and get a best time."
Frost's 400-meter freestyle is on Saturday. He'll swim the 400 IM on Sunday.