Carmel siblings carry on swimming tradition as they seek Olympic bid

In their younger days, Ali and Nick Shackell were college All-American swimmers with years of experience facing the emotional and physical tolls of high-stakes competition. But when they sit in the stands for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Swimming Trials, which take place June 15-23 at Lucas Oil Stadium, they will experience an entirely new degree of stress—this one with a pang of helplessness.

Because this time they will be watching their children, 17-year-old Alex and 19-year-old Aaron, compete for spots on the U.S. team. And there won’t be a single thing they can do to help them.

“It’s definitely more stressful watching our kids,” Nick said. “Because you have no control. You just want the very best for them, and you hope that they perform at a level that’s going to make them happy.”

Not that he is morbidly dwelling on what happens at the trials, mind you. Just like his kids, he is dealing with what could be a very stressful summer by sectioning it off into chunks. The idea is to first spend the lead-up to the trials helping his kids in any way possible as they train. Then focus on turning in great times and making the U.S. squad. Then prepare for the Paris 2024 Olympics. And finally, race the best in the world for gold.

Given the Shackell siblings’ pedigree, that they would find their way into competitive swimming’s highest echelons seems almost inevitable. Their mother, Ali, focused on the 200-meter butterfly, 500-meter freestyle and 200-freestyle events. Nick, who swam for Great Britain’s Olympic team at the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympics and captained Auburn University’s first NCAA championship team, specialized in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle races.

During the Olympic trials Alex will likely swim the 100- and 200-meter freestyle and the 100- and 200-meter butterfly, while Aaron could swim the 200- and 400-meter freestyle and the 200-meter butterfly.

“So when you look at our kids, they got a little of each of us,” Nick said.

The Shackells’ three children (Alex has a twin brother, Andrew, who also is honing his skills at Carmel Swim Club but isn’t quite ready for a run at the Olympic team) have spent the weeks before the big event deep in training.

“As of right now, we do 10 practices a week, with morning and evening sessions Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and then a single session on Wednesday and Saturday,” Alex (not Alexandria or Alexandra but just Alex) said.

Nick said the coaches at Carmel are in charge of the kids’ training. “Our job is just to be there and support them and make sure they’re given every opportunity they can to perform if they need it,” he said.

Interestingly, he doesn’t buy into the idea that the kids were predestined to become world-class swimmers or that he and his wife guided them down the same path they took. Indeed, Alex and Aaron’s path to the Olympic trials seems more like a windingrambling, serendipitous hike than a forced march to Paris.

The journey began when Aaron was introduced to swimming at a young age. Inevitably, his younger siblings attended some of his practice sessions and competitions.

“The twins just sort of followed along, because that’s where the car happened to be going,” Nick said.

Although Aaron showed early potential, he also was interested in other sports, of which basketball was for a while foremost. But Alex felt no such conflicts, immediately taking to swimming like, well, a Shackell to pool water. For years she relentlessly honed her skills and at age 8 started marking off the days to the Tokyo Olympics—and then the Paris games—on a white board.

“I have a countdown to Paris on my phone right now, but I don’t check it too often because it’s kind of stressful to look at,” she said.

Ironically, her big training breakthrough came when a lot of athletes weren’t able to train that much at all—during the pandemic. Major swimming facilities were shuttered for the duration and in-person coaching was largely unavailable. Except in the case of the Shackell family, which lived in St. Louis at the time.

They had a kidney-shaped backyard pool that was only about 13 yards long, but more to the point, they had Ali, who trained Alex and her siblings daily. Every morning before online classes, from roughly 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., Alex would swim back and forth in that patch of chlorinated water, making flip turn after flip turn because the length was so short. All that time spent launching herself off the pool wall paid off.

“It was four strokes flip, four strokes flip, and so I think that’s when my legs gained a lot of their power,” Alex said. “I think I got really strong at that point.”

Actually all three of the siblings got stronger—so strong that when COVID ebbed and swim meets resumed, they found they had actually improved during the lockdown.

Their arrival in the Indianapolis area (Aaron graduated last year from Carmel High School and his sister still attends as a junior) was equally chancy. A few years ago, the Shackells were driving from Nashville to their home in St. Louis (where Nick’s employer, Enterprise Mobility, is based) when they passed through Carmel. They asked to spend a day at the Carmel Swim Club, where Chris Plumb serves as CEO and head coach (as well as head swim coach at Carmel High School). Nothing particularly notable happened that day, though the encounter did serve as an introduction to Plumb and his club.

That information was filed away until after the pandemic, when the elder Shackells realized their progeny had vastly improved and might need a training program that could get them to Olympic-caliber standards.

“There were a variety of teams we looked at, and Carmel Swim Club worked out well because it’s attached to Carmel High School, so the kids could get a high school experience,” Nick said. “They also swim with an excellent swim coach in coach Plumb, and it’s relatively close to St. Louis, so I can commute there weekly for work.”

Plumb recalled how the relationship developed.

“About three years ago, the family contacted me and says, ‘We’re looking to move, and Carmel seems like a good fit for us,’” Plumb said. “So they came in, and Alex was in the eighth grade, and Aaron was a sophomore. Alex was pretty good at that time, and Aaron was a good swimmer but not what he is today. They were hungry to learn but definitely raw and with a long way to go.”

To say they have covered a great deal of that distance since arriving in Carmel would be an understatement. Nick reckons that Aaron was about 14 when he set aside his basketball ambitions and focused entirely on competitive swimming. Then genetics took a turn, delivering a late growth spurt that has shot him up to a well-muscled 6 feet, 5 inches. (Aaron contends it’s more like 6 feet, 6 inches).

“He’s really turning into this kind of beast of a man,” Plumb said.

In no time, he went from having to work hard just to make the Carmel High School swim team to earning a chance to join the U.S. Olympic team, one of the world’s most elite athletic organizations. Winning a spot on this particular squad, because the U.S. holds such a dominant position in international swimming, is a huge achievement all by itself.

“There’s only 26 spots on the team,” Plumb said. “That means there’s more starting NFL quarterbacks than there are swimmers on that team. If you’re on the U.S. team, winning a medal should be your mindset.”

Alex, for her part, remains a 5-foot-7-inch spark plug, who has been laser-focused on swimming from day one. But so far, no growth spurt for her. She wore the same pair of light pink Crocs from age 10 until about a year ago, when years of use and chlorine exposure caused them to fall apart. She replaced them with another pair (also light pink) and soldiered on.

“There’s not a whole lot of rivalry between them,” Plumb said. “They really support each other, which is awesome.”

Aaron and Alex also train with their brother Andrew, who’s currently not on their level. However he might be due for the same sort of growth spurt that turned his brother into a contender. Until then, he’s doing everything possible to help his siblings.

Brother Andrew, for now, is a cheerleader for the Olympic efforts.

“He’s definitely a great supporter and pushes me in practice all the time,” Aaron said. “He’s always trying to get better, and that helps me to try and get better, as well. He’s made great improvements, and I have no doubt that in four years he’ll be in a great position.”

The siblings figure that having the trials in Indianapolis will put them in a great position, as well. They have swum here competitively before—at the Natatorium at IUPUI. But this time, they will compete in a much larger venue before a much bigger crowd and for much higher stakes. However, instead of holing up in a hotel room and eating hotel food, each night they can go home.

“I think it’s definitely a plus for me,” Aaron said. “I have my own bed and home cooking, and I don’t have to deal with hotel stuff or anything that I’m not used to. I think sticking with what I’m used to and just executing my race plan and my routine is what I need to do.”

“Just being able to sleep in my own bed and eat food that I’m familiar with, that my mom makes, is definitely a game changer,” Alex added.

In addition to hanging out with her Carmel High School friends, Alex is a big fan of baking—both creating her own dishes, and consuming those made by her mother. It’s the sort of thing you can do when you spend hours each day doing laps in a pool, burning calories the way a race car burns methanol. But there are still some limits.

“Throughout the year, I basically eat whatever I want,” Alex said. “One rule I have is that I only eat desserts or sweets on the weekend. But I’ve cut that down to just Sunday, and I’ll stop having desserts or sweets a week before I go to the Olympics.”

Her favorite sweet is her mom’s chocolate chip cookies.

Providing small comforts is one of the only ways Ali and Nick can be of material help during the buildup to the big event. When the trials begin, they will watch from the stands, unableimpotent to influence the outcome but hoping for the best.

“I just want them to be happy with their experience,” Nick said. “I hope they execute and perform at a level that they’re happy with, whatever that level might be.”•

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