Piper Sadowski’s Transformative Summer Continued With A Historic Sub-5 Swim At Nationals
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by Karen Rosen, Red Line Editorial
When Piper Sadowski first arrived at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to begin her summer training residency, coach Cole Hensley gave her a challenge.
Sadowski could, he believed, become the first American woman in the S14 classification to go under five minutes in the 400-meter freestyle.
Three weeks later, Sadowski opened the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Idaho by swimming 4:59.95 in prelims. She returned that night to win the final in 4:58.68, lowering her own American record after breaking the five-minute barrier twice.
“Shocking,” she said. “I didn’t know I could do it that quick, being (at the training center) for only three weeks. I’d never done a lot of 400 pace on long course before.”
Breaking five minutes was just one milestone in a transformative summer for Sadowski. Since joining the U.S. Para swimming resident team, the 20-year-old has grown both as a swimmer and as a person while training alongside some of the country’s top athletes with her sights set on the Paralympic Games Los Angeles 2028.
U.S. Paralympics Swimming launched its revamped resident program earlier this year to prepare athletes for LA28 while building a stronger team culture. Sadowski was competing at a Para Swimming World Series stop in Barcelona in March when program director Amanda Duke Boulet asked whether she’d be interested in spending the summer in Colorado Springs.
“I was excited,” said Sadowski, who recently completed her sophomore year at Calvin University in her hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
One of the biggest adjustments has been shifting her focus from distance swimming to sprint events. Although the 400 freestyle produced a national record, the Paralympic program offers no S14 events longer than 200 meters.
“I want to try to be good at the 200,” she said.
Sadowski swam a personal best in the 200-meter individual medley at the World Series stop in Barcelona before competing in May in Berlin, where she got a personal best in the 100-breaststroke.
“That was shocking because I’m not really good at breaststroke,” she said. “Not my stroke.”
Sadowski said that Hensley’s an “amazing” coach who’s patient and good at critiquing her strokes and helping her work on her freestyle, backstroke and sprinting. She believes the training has paid off.
“I’ve been improving a lot,” she said.
Hensley said Sadowski has become more confident in training and racing while improving her technique and ability to sustain speed throughout a race.
“Piper’s strengths lie in her desire to challenge herself and improve,” Hensley said. “She has big goals for herself and is demonstrating the commitment towards training to achieve those goals. Moving forward, I am excited to see how her races develop as she continues to build confidence in her speed and tempo while swimming. She has a remarkable amount of potential. As her coach, it’s been truly amazing to watch her realize that and believe in it.”
Life at the training center has gone so well that Sadowski has decided to pause her studies at Calvin to remain in Colorado at least through the end of the calendar year.
“I love the team at Calvin and the training is good, but I just feel like I’m improving here,” she said. “Why not just take another chance and see where it goes?”
Kelly and Steve Sadowski said their daughter’s first two years at Calvin, where she’s a part of a Life and Career Studies transition program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, helped prepare her for this step of independence, living away from home at the USOPTC.
“The other day Piper sent me a text that just said, ‘I love my life,’” Steve Sadowski said. “Can a father want anything more for their kid?”
With Los Angeles just two years away, Sadowski is already thinking about what it would be like to compete in the Paralympics. Her mother is from the area and went to UCLA, so the family knows they’ll have a great cheering section. And while every athlete hopes for a medal, Sadowski knows what she’d value most if she makes the Paralympic team.
“I’d rather just go there for the experience,” she said. “Medals are good, but the experience is better. It’s hard to get a medal. I feel like the experience is much more fun than just going to get a medal.”
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
