Townley Haas

Haas also won the 500 free in a new personal best time of 4:08.60 and got 6th place in the 100 free (41.67).

In Tokyo, Haas got more hardware by winning two gold medals.

In the 200 m freestyle, Haas outlasted United States teammate Andrew Seliskar, winning in 1:45.56 to Seliskar's 1:45.74.

On the second day of competition, Haas competed in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay alongside Andrew Seliskar, Blake Pieroni, and Zach Apple.

With only one swimmer left to swim, the USA dove in 1.40 seconds behind Australia.

The Aussie lead slowly diminished as Haas closed on Jack Cartwright.

Francis Townley Haas (born December 13, 1996) is a retired American competitive swimmer who specialized in freestyle events.

In August 2014, as a 17-year-old at the 2014 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Hawaii, Haas won gold medals in five events, the 200 meter freestyle with a Championships record time of 1:48.32, the 800 meter freestyle with a 8:00.99, the 4×100 meter freestyle relay with a 3:18.68, the 4×200 meter freestyle with a 7:21.36, and the 4×100 meter medley relay with a 3:39.09.

Haas competed collegiately for the University of Texas at Austin from 2015 to 2019 under head coach Eddie Reese where he was a 10-time NCAA Champion, a 17-time All-American, and a 3-time NCAA team champion (2016, 2017, and 2018).

He is the former American record-holder in the 200-yard freestyle (1:29.50) and represented the Cali Condors in the International Swimming League.

Haas grew up in Richmond, Virginia (where his family still lives) and graduated from Benedictine College Prep.

He is an Olympic gold medalist in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Before his career at the University of Texas, he swam for Geoff Brown at Nova of Virginia Aquatics (NOVA), which sent nine swimmers to the 2016 Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska.

Townley has two siblings, an older sister, Emily, and older brother, Wyatt.

His sister was shot twice in the Virginia Tech Shooting, but survived.

His mother is the Virginia State Director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

On the first day of the 2016 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in his freshman season, Haas won the 4×200-yard freestyle relay for the Longhorns alongside teammates Jack Conger, Clark Smith, and Joseph Schooling, setting a new U.S. Open record with Haas swimming the fastest relay split ever for a 200-yard freestyle in 1:30.52.

The next day, Haas won his first individual NCAA Championship in the 500-yard freestyle going 4:09.00.

Following his title in the 500, Haas set a new precedent in the 200-yard freestyle by becoming the first man to ever break the 1:31.00 barrier in a new NCAA, American, and U.S. Open record time of 1:30.46.

This time eclipsed the elusive 10-year-old mark of 1:31.20 held by the Arizona Wildcat Simon Burnett.

At the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Haas won the 200-meter freestyle in 1:45.66 ahead of Conor Dwyer and Jack Conger, qualifying for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Haas also placed third in the 400 m freestyle.

At the Rio Olympics, Haas placed fifth in the 200-meter freestyle and won gold in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay.

He swam the second leg of the relay, providing the fastest split of the entire field by 0.71 seconds going 1:44.14.

At the 2017 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, Haas again won the 200 free, going just shy of his record time in 1:30.65.

His second victory of the meet came in the 400 freestyle relay, with Haas splitting a 41.01 on the third leg.

His relay consisting of Brett Ringgold, Jack Conger and Joseph Schooling set a new NCAA and U.S. Open record in 2:45.39.

In the 500 free, Haas wasn't able to defend his title and finished second behind teammate Clark Smith, swimming a personal best time of 4:08.92.

Haas also failed to defend Texas' title in the 800 free relay, finishing second behind NC State.

Swimming in the 2017 World Championships, Haas won 3 gold medals, as well as earning a silver and a bronze.

In the 200 m free, Haas placed second behind Sun Yang, earning himself his first major international medal in an individual event.

Since Caeleb Dressel, 2017 world champion in the 100 m freestyle, was swimming the butterfly leg of the medley relay, this allowed Haas to swim the freestyle portion of the 4×100 medley relay preliminaries, which won him his second gold medal of the competition.

Haas picked up his third gold medal by virtue of the 4 × 100 m mixed free relay prelims.

Swimming the second leg of the 4 × 200 m free relay, Haas split 1:44.58 to pick up a bronze medal behind Great Britain and Russia.

Swimming in his junior season at the 2018 NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, Haas anchored the Longhorns to a third-place finish in the 800 free relay.

Earlier in the race, Blake Pieroni broke Haas' American record in the 200 y free while leading off the Indiana Hoosiers' relay.

Pieroni's 1:29.63 not only broke Haas' American record by almost a second, it also made Pieroni the first man to ever swim under the 1:30.00 barrier in the 200 y free.

Two days later, Haas raced Pieroni head-to-head in the individual 200 free.

Stepping up to the plate, Haas beat him in a new NCAA, American, and U.S. Open record time of 1:29.50, taking his record back after a 2-day hiatus.

In December 2020, Haas announced his engagement to his girlfriend of over 5 years, Megan Meseck.