Swimming

4-Time World Junior Champion Ksawery Masiuk Changes His Mind About Future NCAA Career

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By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

Polish backstroker Ksawery Masiuk, one of the breakout swimmers of 2022, has decided to stay home and train with his coach Pawel Wolkow rather than matriculating to NC State University in America.

Masiuk, who turned 18 in December, said on the SwimSwam podcast last year that he wasn’t planning to head to Raleigh until after the Paris 2024 Olympics. Now he says that he’s staying home, believing that he’s better off training in long course meters at home than in short course yards in the United States.

“I decided to stay here because in my opinion I can achieve bigger things on international stage here than in (an) academic league in yards,” Masiuk said. “That’s the main reason why I’m staying. I just want to be faster and faster on long course meters.”

Masiuk was Poland’s only male medalist at last summer’s World Aquatics Championships, taking bronze in the 50 back in 24.49 when he was only 17 years old. He also had big performances at junior meets last summer, winning four golds – including the 50 and 100 back individually – at the 2022 World Junior Championships and three – including a sweep of the backstroke races – at the 2022 European Junior Championships.

In total, he has six career World Juniors medals an 11 career European Juniors medals.

Last summer, Masiuk committed to join NC State and his countrymate Kacper Stokowski. The two tied for the win in the 100 back on Thursday at the Polish National Championships, swimming matching 53.74s.

Stokowski was the 2022 NCAA Champion in the 100 back and 2023 NCAA runner-up. He was a senior last year, so only has his COVID-19 bonus year of eligibility remaining – though he hasn’t yet announced if he will take that or not.

Even without Masiuk, NC State is shaping up to have among the best classes in the country in both 2023 and 2024. The 2023 class includes names like Hudson Williams, Sam Flack, Chase Mueller, Will Heck, and Mitchell Ledford.

The 2024 class is one of the best that any school has put together in a while and includes both the #1 recruit in the class Daniel Diehl and the #3 recruit in the class Kai Winkler. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – #11 Nolan Dunkel and #12 Matt Marsteiner are both also headed to NC State after Paris.

Best Times in Long Course Meters:

  • 50 back – 24.44
  • 100 back – 52.58
  • 200 back – 1:56.62
  • 50 free – 22.77
  • 100 free – 49.41
  • 200 free – 1:48.93

Masiuk trains with the club UKS G-8 Bielany Warszawa in the capital and largest city of Poland.

SwimSwam: 4-Time World Junior Champion Ksawery Masiuk Changes His Mind About Future NCAA Career

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