Similar to his single season at WVU, marathon swimmer Ivan Puskovitch has just one chance to represent his country in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
Unlike most events, 10-kilometer open water swimming, also known as marathon swimming will see the spotlight for just two days at the Olympics, as the men’s event and women’s event each take place once.
In addition, while the Olympics kick off this Thursday in Paris, marathon swimmers will have to wait until August 8 for the women’s event and August 9 for the men’s event to begin. Once it does, though, 2024 WVU’s Puskovitch will have just two hours to define everything he has ever trained for as a swimmer.
Puskovitch qualified for the Olympic Games on April 2 of this year when he posted a time of 1:48:54.4 in the 10k at World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar. The second best time of Puskovitch’s short open water career was good enough for 14th place, earning him an automatic bid to compete for Team USA in Paris.
The qualifying swim fell in the middle of Puskovitch’s final collegiate season, in which he attended West Virginia after four years at the University of Southern California. As a Mountaineer, Puskovitch certainly received the training he was looking for in his senior year, but as a competitor, he was limited to competing in the pool. At the Olympics, he will get his chance to show his best in the open water, which he says is best suited for him.
“(Marathon swimming is) raw racing, and I thrive off that,” Puskovitch said. “Time doesn’t matter. It’s just you and the people around you.”
Though this form of swimming takes a greater toll on the body and can be challenging to train for, especially in conjunction with a collegiate pool season, Puskovitch finds his fire in that difficulty and in pushing himself to his limit.
“I love pushing my body as hard as I can in training. It’s called marathon swimming for a reason,” Puskovitch said. “I love the requirement open water has to push your body to the next level.”
Under that challenging requirement, Puskovitch has truly arrived at the next level and on the highest stage for swimmers. At WVU, Puskovitch found success in long-distance pool events, such as the 1,650-yard freestyle. He placed second at the Big 12 Championships in Morgantown, behind only Texas’s Alec Enyeart, who posted the NCAA’s 42nd best time of the season and finished nearly 17 seconds ahead of Puskovitch.
As an open water swimmer, though, Puskovitch has reached the Olympic Games and will have the honor of representing his United States.
Ivan Puskovitch will represent Morgantown and the United States on August 9 in Paris, France. He is one of seven Olympians that has competed with WVU and one of three 2024 Mountaineers heading to Paris.
Photo from WVU Swimming & Diving
