Kayla Han

2020 US Olympic Trials

Han was the youngest swimmer to qualify for the 2020 USA Swimming Olympic Trials, held in Omaha, Nebraska, and postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, at 12 years of age.

In the Wave I preliminary heats of the 400-meter individual medley, on June 5, Han swam a 4:56.66 and advanced to the B-final. She won the B-final later in the day with a time of 4:51.08 at of age and did not advance to Wave II of the Olympic Trials. NBC Sports posted a video clip of Han's win on its YouTube channel. The clip turned out to be the most watched video clip from the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials in swimming on YouTube with over 940,000 views, beating out clips of swimmers who had previously competed in Olympic Games and won multiple Olympic gold medals including Simone Manuel, Katie Ledecky, and Caeleb Dressel. By August 2022, the video had garnered over 1.2 million views and remained the most watched clip from the trials.

On day one of competition, August 3, Han took fourth place with a time of 8:50.59 in the 800-meter freestyle. The following morning, on day two of competition, Han swam a personal best time of 2:03.23 in the 200-meter freestyle prelims and advanced to the championship final of the event ranked fifth overall. In the championship final, Han placed eighth with a time of 2:03.44. Her swims moved her to the #22 position for 13—14 year old female American swimmers all-time.

2021 U.S. Open Championships For the 2021 U.S. Open Championships, Han entered to compete in six individual events in the pre-scratch stage of lead-up to the start of competition on December 1. Han was noted as someone to watch in one of four events of the meet highlighted in advance of competition by SwimSwam, specifically the 800-meter freestyle. In the 800-meter freestyle, Han placed seventh overall with a personal best time of 8:46.18, dropping 4.4 seconds from her previous best time of 8:50.58 swum in May and finishing over 30 seconds behinds gold medalist Katie Ledecky. Han finished second in the b-final, second-fastest final, of the 400-meter freestyle in 4:15.74. In the fastest final heat, called the a-final, of the 400-meter individual medley on the third day of competition, Han placed fourth with a personal best time of 4:47.92 in the event, finishing less than 10 seconds behind the gold medalist Leah Smith. Later in the same finals session, she placed sixth with a time of 2:04.28 in the b-final of the 200-meter freestyle. On the fourth and final day of competition, Han qualified for the c-final of the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 2:19.14 in the prelims heats and placed first with a time of 16:43.02 in the slowest heat of the 1500-meter freestyle, where she dropped almost 10 full seconds from her previous best time. In her last final of the Championships, Han was bumped up to the b-final in the 200-meter butterfly, after Hana Shimizu-Bowers decided to forgo competing, where she placed fifth with a personal best time of 2:16.80, which was less than seven seconds slower than the time of 2:10.58 swum by the gold medalist Regan Smith.

2022: Junior Pan Pacific medalist at 14 years of age In January 2022, Han swam personal best times at the Road to 2022 Senior Invitational in La Mirada, a meet held leading up to various World Championships in 2022 such as the 2022 World Junior Championships to be held in 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a 8:43.88 in the 800-meter freestyle, a 16:37.59 in the 1500-meter freestyle, a 2:16.68 in the 200-meter butterfly, and a 2:17.98 in the 200-meter individual medley. In April, she swam best times in the 400-meter individual medley, a 4:46.01 that ranked as the fastest all-time for 13-year-old American girls, and the 200-meter freestyle, a 2:02.17, at the 2022 Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions. She also won the 800-meter freestyle in a personal best time of 8:42.15 and achieved a personal best time with a 2:17.62 in the 200-meter individual medley preliminary heats. Earlier in the meet, she swam a personal best time of 58.35 seconds in the 100-meter freestyle and 4:13.24 in the 400-meter freestyle.

2022 International Team Trials In the 800-meter freestyle on the first day of the 2022 US International Team Trials in Greensboro, North Carolina, in late April, Han placed fifth in the slowest heats with a personal best time of 8:41.02. Two days later, she qualified for the b-final of the 400-meter individual medley, swimming a 4:49.97 in the prelims heats to rank tenth overall. She won the b-final with a personal best time of 4:44.63. On the fourth day, she ranked 17th in the prelims heats of the 400-meter freestyle with a 4:15.86 and qualified for the c-final. She was bumped into the b-final in the evening finals session, where she placed fourth, twelfth overall, with a personal best time of 4:13.22. In her final event, the 1500-meter freestyle on day five, she placed third in the slowest heats with a personal best time of 16:36.60.

2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships

In May 2022, Han was named to the United States roster by USA Swimming for the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in the 1500-meter freestyle and the 400-meter individual medley based on her performances at the 2022 US International Team Trials. She was one of four female swimmers named to the roster in individual medley events along with Teagan O'Dell, Julia Podkościelny, and Emily Thompson. Day two, she finished second in the third preliminary heat of the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:46.99, ranked second across all prelims heats, and qualified for the final. In the evening, she finished in a personal best time of 4:43.60 behind Mio Narita of Japan to win the silver medal at of age. The following day, she placed 19th in the 400-meter freestyle with a time of 4:14.17 and day four of four, she ranked seventh out of all heats in the 1500-meter freestyle with a time of 16:43.13. On the second day of the 2022 Winter Junior US National Championships edition West, in December, she placed sixth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:44.64. The third day, she placed third in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:07.77 followed up by a twenty-third place in the 200-yard freestyle with a 1:49.19. For the 1650-yard freestyle on the fourth and final day, she placed third with a personal best time of 16:05.75 and was the only swimmer under 15 years of age to place in the top three for the event, finishing behind 16-year-old Katie Grimes and 15-year-old Claire Weinstein. Later in the same session, she placed second in the 200-yard butterfly b-final with a time of 1:58.09. Nearing her 15th birthday two months later, 14-year-old Han achieved four personal best times at the 2023 TYR Pro Swim Series in Mission Viejo, California: a 4:10.56 in the 400 meter freestyle, a 4:42.96 in the 400 meter individual medley, a 8:32.88 in the 800 meter freestyle, and a 2:16.29 in the 200 meter individual medley.

International championships

Personal best times Long course meters (50 m pool) Event Time Meet Location Date Age Ref 100 m freestyle

h 2022 Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions Mission Viejo, California April 1, 2022

200 yd freestyle

2022 Kevin B. Perry Senior Meet La Mirada, California November 5, 2022

400 yd individual medley

2022 Kevin B. Perry Senior Meet La Mirada, California November 5, 2022

2 400 m freestyle

2021 CA Speedo Grand Challenge Irvine, California May 28, 2021

2 500 yd freestyle

2019 California MVN Senior Qualifier Mission Viejo, California January 19, 2019

3 200 yd individual medley (2)

February 16, 2019

July 2021 SwimSwam, Weekly Wonders of Age Group Swimming: November 12, 2021 Arena, Swim of the Week: January 21, 2022 SwimSwam Swammy Award, Age Group Swimmer of the Year 11–12 (female): 2020, 2021 SwimSwam Swammy Award, Age Group Swimmer of the Year 10 & under (female): 2019