Anna Moesch is the swimmer who went from chasing quarters to chasing information

When Anna Moesch matriculated on the University of Virginia in 2024, she had long-term targets to swim private bests and make the Olympic workforce in 4 years.

Todd DeSorbo, her new coach in Charlottesville, had one thing extra in thoughts.

“He told me my first year that he thought I could break the American record in the long course 100m free,” Moesch mentioned.

Moesch, who had simply tied for eighth within the 100m free on the 2024 Olympic Trials, wasn’t fairly that assured.

“I kind of was like, yeah, OK, sure,” she mentioned.

Within two years, Moesch proved DeSorbo prophetic.

She swam 51.94 seconds within the 100m free on the AP Race London International on May 25, breaking the American document of 52.04 set by Simone Manuel on the 2019 World Championships.

Moesch, whose earlier private greatest was 53.23 seconds, bypassed 52 seconds completely. She started the yr because the 18th-fastest American in historical past within the occasion, according to World Aquatics.

Now Moesch is a headliner on the Toyota USA Swimming National Championships, which run from Tuesday via Saturday in Irvine, California, with nightly finals at 9 ET on Peacock and NBCSN.

Dressel, Walsh, and Douglass lead a subject filled with Olympic medalists, American document holders, and rising stars on the 2026 Toyota USA Swimming National Championships.

The 100m free is on night time one on Tuesday.

Moesch is effectively conscious of the world document — Dutchwoman Marrit Steenbergen reset it a month in the past, clocking 51.68 on the Sette Colli meet in Rome.

That’s a not-too-distant 26 hundredths sooner than Moesch’s American document.

“I don’t have an expectation that (Moesch) is going to break the world record; I’m not going to put that pressure on her,” DeSorbo mentioned. “But I certainly believe that it’s in the back of her mind and something that she is definitely going to go for.”

When Moesch began swimming at age 7 in New Jersey, she chased any individual else: Marlise, her older sister by six years who later swam for Yale.

Moesch goofed off as a center schooler. She threw quarters into the pool and picked them up from the underside whereas swimming laps.

“My first club coach ever kind of pulled me aside one day,” Moesch mentioned. “He told me that if he had to list the three most talented people (on the team) that I would be one of those, but if you had to list the three hardest working, then I wouldn’t be anywhere near that list.”

That lit a fireplace.

Moesch certified to swim within the Tokyo Olympic Trials in 2021 at age 15, and superior from the primary wave to the second wave by one hundredth of a second. She finally completed twenty fifth within the 50m free.

“That was kind of my first big experience with something like that,” Moesch mentioned, “and it kind of opened my eyes to a whole new world of swimming.”

Then got here probably the most tough interval of Moesch’s younger profession.

In late 2022 — quickly after committing to Virginia — she underwent surgical procedure to restore a torn medial patellofemoral ligament in her left knee, which had been broken years earlier.

“I think I fell off a bike, and so it never really recovered from that,” she mentioned. “So they kind of described it as an injury waiting to happen.”

When she got here again in early 2023, Moesch leaned on the shoulder of Mary Korey, her coach with the Greater Somerset County YMCA Storm, simply to rise up on the beginning blocks.

She couldn’t push off partitions. The first day she swam a 50-meter freestyle for time, Korey remembers Moesch remarking that it was slower than when she was in elementary college.

“That was a real dark time in her life because she started to doubt if she was going to come back,” Korey mentioned. “It’s kind of like any athlete that’s at a high level when they have an injury. It’s scary.”

Moesch wished to get again to the Olympic Trials in 2024, which might be weeks after her highschool commencement. She did.

She tied for eighth within the 100m free semifinals, forcing her into arguably probably the most pressure-packed state of affairs potential at an Olympic Trials: a head-to-head swim-off for a spot within the closing.

What’s extra, it got here in opposition to Erika Connolly, a girl seven years older who already owned two Olympic medals.

Connolly gained the duel by 36 hundredths. Moesch might maintain her head excessive, having recorded the 2 quickest 100m frees of her life to that time within the semis and the swim-off.

“She was nervous as hell,” Korey mentioned. “The swim showed it, but I couldn’t be more proud of her. She did it on one of the biggest stages. So she accomplished it, got her demons pushed aside. But it was nerve-racking. She’s a high school kid having to do a swim-off against an Olympian.”

The subsequent night time, Moesch watched the 100m free closing from the seats inside Lucas Oil Stadium.

“I thought about how I wanted to be in it next time,” she mentioned.

She additionally marveled that the finalists included the embellished ladies she would quickly be sharing lanes with at Virginia — Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh.

Over the final two years, Moesch improved her turns and underwaters simply by watching others in her proficient coaching group.

“They make me push so much harder, harder than I ever thought I could,” she mentioned.

Moesch added motivation this previous yr. Though she made the 2025 World Championships workforce as a relay swimmer, she was overwhelmed out for a spot on the 2026 nationwide workforce by one place.

In a preseason goal-setting session with DeSorbo, she informed her coach that she wasn’t going to overlook the nationwide workforce once more. DeSorbo informed Moesch that she’d need to work tougher than ever earlier than.

“He definitely did not lie,” Moesch says now. “The next few months, he held me to such a standard.”

Moesch responded by profitable her first particular person NCAA title within the 200-yard freestyle in March.

Two months later in London, she touched the wall in 51.94 and coated her mouth in astonishment. She wasn’t positive it was an American document till a pool-deck interviewer informed her.

Her mother and father and her swimming inspiration, sister Marlise, have been within the crowd.

“My husband and daughter had tears in their eyes, and I was just in shock,” mother Cynthia mentioned.

Moesch ready for this week’s U.S. Championships as if it’s a World Championships.

There aren’t any World Championships this yr. The workforce for this yr’s greatest worldwide meet, the Pan Pacific Championships, was decided final summer season, and Moesch didn’t make it.

So nationals is the meet she skilled to peak for.

She just lately spent two and a half weeks in Colorado Springs, by far her longest stint of altitude coaching.

Moesch just isn’t missing confidence. She thinks a world document within the 100m free is feasible.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was chasing that record,” she mentioned.

Isabelle Stadden lowered her 100m and 200m backstroke private bests in Fort Lauderdale.