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Gambardella Qualifies for Olympic Trials in 200 Butterfly

Guilford native Corey Gambardella recently qualified for the United States Olympic Team Trials in Men’s Swimming in 200-meter butterfly for the second time in his career. Gambardella, who competed in the 200 butterfly at the 2016 Olympic Trials, qualified for the upcoming trials by swimming a lifetime-best time in the event at the 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships, which took place at Stanford University in Stanford, California from July 31 to Aug. 4. The U.S. Team Trials for the 2020 Summer Olympics will be held in Omaha, Nebraska from June 21 to June 28 of that year.

Gambardella, a junior who competes at Division I Indiana University, initially made the cutoff for the Olympic Trials by turning in a lifetime-best mark of 1:57.60 in the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly at the National Championships. Gambardella finished in ninth place for the prelims with this performance.

In the final heat, Gambardella moved up to seventh place overall by swimming a time of 1:57.32, which marked another personal-best time that was also well within the qualifying standard for the trials.

In 2016, Gambardella recorded a time of 2:01.96 in the 200 butterfly to finish in 47th place out of 81 athletes at the U.S. Team Trials.

Gambardella put forth a few other notable showings at this year’s National Championships. In the 100 butterfly, he posted a lifetime-best mark of 53.69 seconds in the 100 butterfly, finishing 37th in the preliminary heat.

Gambardella also joined forces with three of his Indiana teammates to set a school record in the 4x200 relay. The Hoosiers’ unit of Jakub Karl, Mikey Calvillo, Van Mathias, and Gambardella finished with a time of 7:22.18 to take fourth place and break the school record.

Gambardella was a member of the Branford-Guilford boys’ swimming team before graduating from Guilford High School in 2017. He finished in first place at the Southern Connecticut Conference Championship four times as a high school athlete. In his senior season, Gambardella took first place in the 100 butterfly at the Class LL State Championship and the State Open Championship, breaking the state record by swimming a time of 48.14 seconds in the Open.

Earlier this year, Gambardella helped his Indians Hoosiers’ team win its second straight Big Ten title and then finish in third place at the NCAA Championships. Gambardella claimed fifth place in the 200 butterfly at the Big Ten Championships.