“Tim and Alex have a very similar mentality about things,” Harvard teammate Tommy Gray ’10 said. “I think they are both really, really intense and passionate about what they do. They’ve always worked well together.”

A LONG AND WINDING ROAD

Much like the early years of his career in the pool, Meyer didn’t coast to success during his Harvard career. In his first year, Meyer finished third at the Harvard-Yale-Princeton meet in the 1650-meter freestyle event.

That finish only came after a tumultuous year. Meyer contracted mono, broke out in hives, had his wisdom teeth removed, and struggled to adjust academically. But just as in racing, Meyer continued to fight through the adversity.

“He’s just a tough guy,” Gray said. “He missed a lot of training, but wanted to swim in his first college meet, and his coaches had to literally restrain him. He’s had a lot of injuries, but he’s always come back from them.”

“He just was struggling,” Shawn Meyer said. “But he decided ‘No, I am not going to give up. I am committed to this and I am going to complete this,’ and he did.”

By sophomore year, Meyer rebounded and progressed, eventually finishing second in the 1650 at the HYP. As a junior, he won the meet. And over the period, he had shaved 30 seconds off his time.

Meyer suffered another setback during his senior year, breaking a vertebra. Once again though, Meyer recovered, this time setting a record in the mile by the end of the year.

“He took great pride in acknowledging how he trended up at Harvard,” Shawn Meyer said. “At the end of his junior year, I remember him calling saying, ‘My GPA was something at the end of my freshman year, my second year it was this, at the end of my junior year it’s this.’ For Alex, it was always about trending up and getting better.”

While Meyer succeeded at Harvard, he couldn’t achieve his ultimate goal. Years earlier, Meyer had traveled to the 2000 Olympic trials. Sitting in the stands then, he set his sights on the Olympics, but given a chance in the 2008 Olympic Trials, Meyer finished 34th and did not qualify for Beijing.

GOING LONG

But another window to the Olympics was opening for Meyer. Though swimming events were held in open water in the first modern Olympics in 1896, open water events disappeared from the Olympic schedule until 2008, when the 10k was added. It was perfect timing for Meyer.

Throughout his career, he had been in love with taking on the open water.

Meyer spent his youth on the edge of Cayuga Lake. As he grew up, he and his parents would often go out and swim on the body of water, and Meyer competed in the open water events that were sometimes tacked onto the end of youth competitions.

Ithaca Aquatics Club coach Roy Staley said that Meyer fell in love with open water racing at Camp Chikopi, where Staley took a group of 10 and 11-year-old swimmers every summer.