Special Olympics gold medalist swimmer Derek Warren waiting for Worlds invite

Jun. 26—Gold medals hung around his neck as the extremely tall and slender swimmer looked around the pool deck. No, it wasn't Michael Phelps. It was Derek Warren, a 6-foot-7 23-year old from Akron.

Warren took home three gold medals from the 2022 U.S. Special Olympics in Orlando, Florida, on June 5-9. He competed in the 100-meter IM, 100 breaststroke and 200 medley relay.

The Special Olympics is a worldwide organization that lets athletes with physical and intellectual disabilities compete regionally, nationally and internationally at any age. Warren was diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome prenatally, a genetic condition where a boy is born with an extra copy of the X chromosome.

Warren started swimming at age 12, considerably older in the world of competitive swimming. He began taking lessons with Clarence Swim Club in its adaptive program to help children with disabilities learn to swim.

After working in the program, Warren started swimming with Clarence's competitive programs, being coached by Tom Sheuer and Nate Tuholski.

"Derek was always a level above most of those kids, so he was able to swim on the regular swim club," Sheuer said. "And so he did, and he did just fine. It worked out really nicely."

Sheuer and Tuholski worked closely with Warren, helping improve his technique and speed until he decided to compete regularly. Warren swam in varsity meets for Clarence High School, and, like everybody, eventually was forced to take a break during the pandemic.

"He was a joy to work with (and) the kids loved him," Sheuer said. "He's super friendly and nice with all the kids, he would always make supporting comments and everything."

Along with his height, Warren has an extremely long wingspan. It extends to 7-foot-1, six inches longer than Phelps' wingspan. While it can be a huge advantage in competitive swimming, Warren often struggled to use his wingspan to its extent.

In some pools, the lane width is too narrow and Warren bends his arms to avoid scraping his hands along the lane line. Swimmers can be disqualified during competition for entering another competitor's lane, but that won't count in Warren's case.

Warren only had 10 months to prepare for the Special Olympics, and practiced with his relay team twice before the competition. Working with Sheuer helped Warren's training, despite the shortened window, because the two learned how to feed off one another in the pool.

Sheuer and Warren have a different coach-swimmer relationship than most. Typically, coaches will write a workout on a whiteboard or window for the swimmers to see, but the two chose to talk through the sets, which often lead to humorous exchanges at practice.

"That really probably helped them more than anything, having a little more tools in my toolbox," Sheuer said. "But it really didn't take long before I really understood Derek as a swimmer and was able to zero in on his most important needs."

The Olympics were set up to have three categories of competition that didn't hold age ranges, so anyone could compete at each level. The levels were determined by speed, putting Warren at the top for each category.

Typically, Warren and his dad, Brian, have a set routine before each event where the two verbally go through Warren's race before swimming it. However, the multi-level natatorium prevented him and his dad from doing the routine together. It didn't set Warren back, and he swam personal bests every time he competed in the three events.

"I had never seen him so focused on where this was," Brian said. "Because usually, I'd say 'Okay, let's go over in your head. Your pullouts, how many dolphin kicks do you do?' (And) kind of like map out the race."

Warren's relay dominated the competition for his first gold medal, finishing nearly 20 seconds ahead of the silver medalists. Since the relay was first, Warren said it helped him feel comfortable in this new environment before swimming his individual events.

His breaststroke, however, was different. Warren barely out-touched his opponent to win by less than half a second.

That was the event where it all sunk in.

"I could just imagine his reaction," Sheuer said. "The smile on his face ... that was just really great to see."

Sheuer said he was unable to attend the meet, but that Brian sent videos of each of Warren's races so the coach could see how his swimmer did.

Warren had another powerful performance for his 100 IM, finishing eight seconds ahead of his competition. As he earned the final medal, his parents were swiftly ushered to the pool deck to Warren and were swarmed by the media to share his story.

Since the competition, Warren has taken a step back from competitive swimming. The hours of training, late nights and occasional early mornings have made it harder for him to continue celebrating the sport. Warren and his parents decided it would be best for him to take a break for the summer.

"It is too hard," he said. "I say sometimes it's a little too much."

Warren had one final competition, swimming in the New York 2022 Summer Special Olympics at Ithaca College, over the weekend. He swam the same three events as the national competition, winning gold in each event.

Warren said he'll start training again if he gets invited to the Special Olympics World Games in Berlin, Germany. The competition is by invite only, forcing him to wait until he gets a phone call.

Steuer said although he doesn't know when selections for the World Games are made, he thinks Warren has a strong chance of receiving an invitation.

"(The World Games) might figure that out over the next couple of months," Steuer said. "But I can't imagine based on what he did, that he wouldn't be invited."

For now, Warren is content with his three, brand new gold medals.

"We just looked at him and said, 'You did what you were set out to accomplish,' " his father said. "That was (the) main goal. And you got it."

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