BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – After training in and out of the pool for over 12 years, Gavin Jones is ready to make the Bellingham aquatics community proud at one of the country’s biggest events.

Jones recently qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at the 2024 Longhorn Elite Invite in Austin, TX, where he swam the 200m Breaststroke with a time of 2:14.72. Jones beat the qualifying time to make the US Olympic Trials by over one second.

For the majority of his life, Jones competed with the Bellingham Bay Swim Team (BBST) at the Arne Hanna Aquatic Center. Currently, Jones is a junior at Denison University in Granville, OH where he has continued to make waves throughout his collegiate career. But back in his hometown, Gavin Jones is now known as the first swimmer to come from Bellingham to compete at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Jones joined BBST when he was eight years old, finding his passion for aquatics at a young age. He mentions that growing up, he looked up to the older swimmers who competed in state and national swim meets. Now, he hopes that his journey is an inspiration to younger swimmers in Bellingham, showing them that they can do it too.

“It makes me feel a lot of gratitude,” Jone said.

While Jones was in high school, he began to find his strength in breaststroke. He continued to train for all four strokes but had the most success swimming the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

“When I was 15 years-old-old is when I had my breakout breaststroke performance. I dropped 10 seconds in one summer,” Jones said.

The five-time NCAA Division III All-American will compete in the 200m Breaststroke at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials on Tuesday, June 18. The event is hosted at Lucas Oil Stadium, marking the first time in history that the U.S. Olympic Team Trials are hosted on a football field.