That’s what happened to 10-year-old Filipino-American swimmer Clark Kent Apuada, who recently erased a record set by Michael Phelps—the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time —23 years ago.
Nicknamed “Superman” after the secret identity of the comic-book hero, Apuada set the new mark in the 100-meter butterfly event of his age group at the Far Western Swimming Championship in Santa Clara, California this weekend.
The fifth-grader’s winning time of 1:09:38 supplanted Phelps’ mark of 1:10:48, posted in the same age bracket in the same event in 1995.
That Apuada shaved off more than a second—an eternity in swimming events where winners are decided by split seconds—off the American Olympian’s record didn’t fail to catch the attention of Phelps, who lauded the boy on his Twitter account.
“Big congrats to #clarkkent for smashing that meet record!!! Keep it up dude!!” Phelps said, adding the hashtag #dreambig.
Apuada, who started swimming at three years old, idolizes Phelps—who has won 28 Olympic medals, including 23 gold medals—according to his coach, Dia Rianda, CEO of Salinas Aquatic Center in California.
Clark Kent moved up to the Salinas team at seven years old, “and he quickly moved out of the novice level and into the age-group level and now he’s training in his own lane, with a couple of other kids that are doing a great job. He’s out there training with high schoolers,” Rianda said.
The talented youngster is also a straight-A student and a high-belt athlete in karate and jiujitsu, which only helps his swimming mechanics, the coach added.
“He’s a musician also, he plays the piano and he’s actually pretty talented,” Rianda told GMA News Online. But swimming “is something he knew he wanted to do, it’s nothing that we put pressure on him to do. This was all his idea.”
