[EDITOR'S NOTE: Get to know the 22 Filipino athletes bound for the 2024 Paris Olympics through this SPIN.ph series]
JAROD Hatch ultimately decided to call it quits in 2021 as he was worn down following a three-year run with the Philippine National Swimming team which at best ended with lukewarm results.
Three years later, he’ll be representing the country in the biggest stage for all sports – the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Hatch looks to pull off the improbable as he competes in the 100m butterfly against the likes of 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Caeleb Dressel and 200m long course butterfly world record holder Kristof Milak of Hungary.
Improbable, but not impossible
When Hatch returned to active national team duty a year after his retirement, he definitely didn’t expect to be in this position – but he’s picked up some ground compared to his previous performances.
In his return to the 2023 Southeast Asian Games, he won two bronze medals in the 100m and 50m butterfly competitions, while taking home the silver medal in 4x100 mixed relay event.
This is also the event where he set the Philippine national record for 50m butterfly at 23.89 seconds.
He then competed in the 2023 World Aquatic Championships – representing the ‘Suspended Member Federation’ as a leadership dispute barred the Philippines from competing in that event – and there he set the Philippine national record for the 100m butterfly, clocking 52.87 seconds.
Now he prepares for the biggest stage he’ll ever swim in, the 2024 Paris Olympics as he qualified by way of universality – a way for the Olympics to give more spots for underrepresented countries in the Games.
READ Bianca Pagdanganan takes another swing at Olympic glory
But how he got there is not important anymore. What’s important is he’s already there and he has a shot at pulling off one of the greatest underdog stories not only in the country, but in the whole world.
Who knows, a new Filipino hero in the world off 'butterfly swimming' might just finally ‘hatch’ out of his cocoon.
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