Kayla Han, 13, Becomes Youngest Olympic Trials Qualifier, Breaks National Age Group Record

American swimmer Kayla Han of Brea, Calif., became one of the youngest people to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming after making the cut at 12 years old.

It all happened so fast: Han, who is now 13, qualified for the Wave I of the Olympic Trials after finishing with a time of 4:50.70 in the 400-meter individual medley (IM) at the Speedo Grand Challenge in May, according to Swimming World Magazine.

In addition to qualifying at the trials, the swimmer, who was 12 at the time, also broke the National Age Group record held by Elizabeth Beisel in the 11-12 category for 400M IM. Beisel set the record at 4:55.35 in 2005.
Han flew to Omaha, Neb., for her Olympic Trials debut on June 2, days after her birthday.
The achievement made her the youngest of the 1,400 qualifiers at the trials, WOWT reported.
Kathy Hall, Han’s coach from five years ago at La Mirada Armada, came to help prepare the swimmer in Omaha.

Amazing comeback: Han stunned everyone after winning the B final of the women’s 400-meter IM, finishing in 4:51.08.

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Featured Image via WOWT (left), NBC Sports (right)

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