Blake Pieroni

Blake John Pieroni (born November 15, 1995) is a three-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming.

In 2013, at the World Junior Championships in Dubai, Pieroni took the bronze in the 4 x 200m freestyle with the men's relay team.

Pieroni was born in Crown Point, Indiana, and raised in Chesterton where he graduated from Chesterton High School in 2014.

He graduated from Indiana University.

Pieroni continues to swim at Indiana University as a member of the Pro Swim group along with fellow professional swimmers, Cody Miller, Lilly King, and Annie Lazor.

As a 18-year-old at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Maui, Hawaii, Pieroni won gold medals in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay (3:18.68) and 4×200 meter freestyle relay (7:21.36), as well as silver medals in the 100 meter freestyle (50.30) and 200 meter freestyle (1:48.85).

He is a two time Olympian and gold medalist in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay at both the 2016 Summer Olympics and the 2020 Summer Olympics.

On the relay in 2016, he swam in the prelims of the race, on the 2020 Olympics 4×100-meter freestyle relay he swam in both the prelims and the final.

At the US Olympic Trials, he qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as a 4×100 meter freestyle relay swimmer.

In the heats, he swam a split time of 48.39 on the third leg, and the team went on to win the gold medal.

At the 2016 World Championships in Windsor, Ontario, with the men's relay team, Pieroni won two silver and one bronze medals: silver in 4 x 50 m freestyle; silver in 4 x 200 m freestyle and bronze in 4 x 100 m freestyle.

Pieroni won two gold medals and a bronze medal at the 2017 World Championships in Budapest as part of the men's and mixed freestyle teams: gold in 4 x 100 m freestyle, gold in 4 x 100 m mixed freestyle and bronze in 4 x 200 m freestyle.

In March 2018 at the NCAA championships he set the American and US Open records in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:29.63, becoming the first swimmer to break 1:30.

Two days later his record was broken by Townley Haas.

At the Tokyo Pan Pacific Championships in August 2018, Pieroni won gold with the men's relay team in the 4 x 200 m freestyle event.

He also won the B-final of the 50-meter freestyle with a time of 22.22 seconds and ranked ninth across both finals heats.

At the 2018 World Championships in Hangzhou, China, which took place in a short course (25m) pool in December, Pieroni returned home with three gold medals, having won the 200 m freestyle as well as 4 x 100 m freestyle and medley events, as part of the men's relay team.

At the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Pieroni took home two gold medals as part of the 4 x 100 m and 4 x 100 mixed freestyle teams.

He also won a bronze medal as part of the 4 x 200 m freestyle team.

In fall of 2019, Pieroni signed for the team LA Current in the inaugural International Swimming League season.

He also won a gold medal in the 4x100-meter medley relay at the 2020 Olympic Games, swimming the freestyle leg of the relay in the prelims.

In the spring of 2020, he signed to compete in the 2020 International Swimming League for the team Toronto Titans, which was the first team in the International Swimming League based in Canada.

Pieroni placed third in the 100m freestyle at the US Olympic Swimming Trials with a time of 48.16, qualifying him for the US Olympic Swimming team in the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Earlier in the meet, in the 200-meter freestyle, Pieroni ranked seventh overall with a time of 1:46.57 and qualified for his first event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Japan, Pieroni competed in the prelims and final of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

In the final of the event, he won a gold medal swimming the second leg of the relay.

He and all of his prelims and finals relay teammates, Brooks Curry, Bowe Becker, Caeleb Dressel, and Zach Apple, won gold for their efforts.

It was the first medal Pieroni won swimming in the final of any event at the Olympic Games.

His performance was good enough in the eyes of the USA Swimming Foundation to include him in their nomination of the 4x100-meter freestyle relay for the 2021 Golden Goggle Award for "Relay Performance of the Year" solely because he swam on the finals relay, something he learned after he was excluded from the nomination of, and award itself to, the 2016 United States 4x100-meter freestyle relay for the 2016 Golden Goggle Award for "Relay Performance of the Year" when he only swam on the prelims relay and not in the final.

On day four of competition, in Pieroni's second event at the 2020 Olympics, he advanced the 4x200-meter freestyle relay to the final in the prelims heats with his fellow prelims-relay swimmers Drew Kibler, Patrick Callan, and Andrew Seliskar.

The finals relay did not medal, finishing fourth overall.

In the prelims heats of the 4x100-meter medley relay on day seven, Pieroni swam the freestyle leg of the relay, helping the relay consisting of him, Hunter Armstrong, Andrew Wilson, and Tom Shields, finish seventh overall and advance to the final.

On the last day of competition, the finals relay placed first and all the members of the prelims relay and the finals relay won a gold medal for their efforts.

The Toronto Titans selected Pieroni for their roster in the 2021 International Swimming League.

After injuring his knee during training leading up to the playoffs season and following the regular season of competition, Pieroni withdrew from competing in the playoffs for the year.

As part of the pre-World Cup FINA highlights, Pieroni had a picture of him celebrating a win at the 2020 Summer Olympics published on the FINA website as part of their star athletes to appear in the World Cup collection of photographs.

Stop number one of the short course 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup, in Berlin, Germany, Pieroni started competition on day one in the prelims of the 50-meter freestyle with a swim of 21.75 that ranked him fifth overall and advanced him to the final.

Within the hour, Pieroni followed up his performance in the 50-meter freestyle with a 53.73 in the 100-meter individual medley and advanced to the final ranked second overall.

In the evening finals, Pieroni opted not to swim the 50-meter freestyle, focusing his efforts fully on the 100-meter individual medley where he swam a personal best time of 53.53 seconds and won the bronze medal in the event.

The following day, October 2, Pieroni advanced to the final of the 100-meter freestyle with his time of 47.25 in the morning prelims session.