CARMEL — Alex Shackell was nine years old during the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Watching Team USA Swimming claim gold from her home in California, she knew even before she started middle school that she wanted to be an Olympian.
When Shackell moved to Carmel a few years later, longtime Carmel Swim Club head coach Chris Plumb called her a “young superstar.”
Plumb could see her motivation to be among the best swimmers in the nation as a 14-year-old made plain by a drawing of the Olympic rings on the side of her hand during each swim meet.
“You’re either going to set up for an awesome moment or incredible disappointment,” Plumb told her at the time.
At the 2024 Olympic Swim Trials in Lucas Oil Stadium, Shackell got her awesome moment. After placing second in the 200-meter butterfly with a 2:06.69 time, she became the first woman from Carmel High School to qualify for the Olympic Games in swimming at the age of just 17.
“My whole life, I’ve wanted to be an Olympian,” Alex said. “Ever since my dad explained to me what it was.”
Alex’s father, Nick, represented Great Britain swimming at the 1996 and 2000 Olympic games. Along the way, he not only formed a friendship with future Team USA gold medalist Jason Lezak, but gained an experience he could pass down to his children.
But Alex and Nick aren’t the only two Shackells to qualify for the Olympic Games. Alex’s older brother, Aaron, won the 400-meter freestyle trial with a time of 3:45.46 to bring the 20,000-person hometown crowd to its feet at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Aaron said the ride home from Lucas Oil Stadium felt like any other after a swim meet. He talked with Nick about basketball, and they stopped to get his usual post-meet meal, mac and cheese with breaded chicken from Noodles & Company.
It wasn’t until the next morning that he was truly able to realize what he had accomplished.
“You wake up as an Olympian,” Aaron said.
Alex’s ride home from the Olympic Swim Trials didn’t feel quite as normal as her brother’s did. Along with her mother and grandmother, Alex celebrated the history she had just made.
“I got to fully relax, stay up a little bit later and text my friends and answer all their messages and look at Instagram,” she said. “It was a 30-minute drive home, but it was as an Olympian.”
Alex said she received text messages from about 50 different people, and she opened up her Instagram feed to see countless new followers and mentions. Aaron even said 23-time gold medalist for USA Swimming Michael Phelps reacted to his Olympic qualification on his Instagram story.
Years in the making
Aaron’s first memory watching swimming came during the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo, watching Nick wildly celebrate as Lezak completed the final stretch of Team USA’s 400-meter relay victory against France.
While Aaron and Alex can attribute some of their talent in the water to genetics, the Shackell siblings have had to put just as much work into reaching the highest level of success in the pool as anyone else. Aaron’s earliest memories in the water came at a nearby YMCA, and Alex remembers her grandmother teaching her how to swim at an age she was too young to remember.
“Going from a 5-year-old who takes a minute to get across the pool to becoming an Olympian for the United States is crazy,” Aaron said.
Alex wasn’t surprised, she didn’t think her brother’s feat was crazy. In fact, she told her friends before his qualifying trial that he would become an Olympian, because she knows the time and effort their family has put in toward reaching the pinnacle of the pool.
“I know people say, ‘It’s every four years,’ but it’s every day,” Alex said. “You have to put in the work, you have to go to practice, you have to eat right, you have to go to bed on time and it’s every single day. It’s a lot, but the sacrifices to have that moment of glory is so worth it.”
‘The Super Bowl of swimming’
Alex’s sacrifices included swimming through two migraines. Aaron gave up basketball, despite his talent and passion for the game.
Plumb has been there with them through their entire time in Indiana. And he’ll be there with them as a Team USA Swimming assistant coach when the Shackells travel to Paris for the Olympic Games.
“It’s something I’ve dreamed about,” Plumb said. “When I was able to walk out with the team and be recognized as a coach, it was surreal. I was like, ‘What am I doing here? This doesn’t feel normal, this doesn’t feel right.'”
While Plumb has been involved with Carmel swimming for 24 years, nearly his entire life has revolved around the sport. His earliest memories associated with swimming involve a game he played with his father as a young child. When he and his family went on vacations where a pool was nearby, his father would throw his keys into the pool and tell Chris to swim to the bottom to find them.
And although he has coached Drew Kibler and Jake Mitchell, the first two Carmel Swim Club members to make the Olympic Games, he took a moment to reflect on achieving his lifelong goal of representing Team USA.
“It took so long, and now it’s going so fast,” Plumb said. ” … This is the pinnacle. This is the Super Bowl of swimming.”
With Aaron’s race set for Day 1 of the 2024 OIympics and Alex’s for Aug. 1, the Shackells have their eyes firmly set on the biggest races of their lives. They’re just glad to have their coach by their side once again.
“It just feels right,” Alex said. “I couldn’t see it any other way.”
Contact Kyle Smedley with comments via email at KSmedley@Gannett.com or via X @KyleSmedley_.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Aaron and Alex Shackell reflect before upcoming Olympic Games
