Michael Prout, Jr. is the Head Swimming and Diving Coach and Aquatics Director at Simmons University. In honor of Disability Pride Month and the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (scheduled for July 26 to August 11 and August 28 to September 8 in Paris, France), we spoke to Prout about what swimming means to him, his experience as a Paralympian, and what drew him to coaching.
A lifelong athlete, Michael Prout, Jr. recalls starting swimming at the age of 6, after recovering from a hip operation. “I played other sports, too, but I excelled at swimming and loved the water. My mom didn’t have the chance to swim as a kid, so she wanted me and my siblings to have that opportunity.”
By 12 years old, swimming had become Prout’s athletic focus. “Everyone had the same goals,” he says. “Make it to the Olympics, or get a scholarship for college.” He didn’t learn about the Paralympic Swim Team, and his eligibility for it, until he was 16.
Prout was classified as an S9 swimmer for the Paralympics. Many sports in the Paralympics rely on a classification system for competing athletes, based on the severity of their impairment. Athletes are evaluated by medical professionals, who measure their range of motion and abilities. Classifications S1-S10 refer to swimmers with physical impairments, ranked by how much these disabilities impact their performance. Classifications S11-S13 are reserved for swimmers with visual impairment, and S14 is for swimmers with intellectual impairments. “The idea is to level the playing field,” explains Prout. “As a person who can walk, I wouldn’t be racing someone who is paralyzed from the waist down. Ideally, you should be able to beat anyone you are racing by just a little bit — or they could beat you by a little bit.”
A World Champion
Prout first made the national team in 2001; the team won the World Championship in 2002. At 18 years old, he competed in his first Paralympics in Athens, Greece, where he won the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and a bronze medal in the 100-meter freestyle.
“Whenever I think of Athens, I remember how bright it was, compared to New England,” Prout recalls. “There was a lot of white sand and it was sunny all the time. I could barely open my eyes. I was excited about everything, especially about how well I was able to swim.”
He noted that, particularly in the Paralympics, where competition is spread over a longer time frame, athletes could be waiting over an hour for their race. During time spent in the “ready rooms,” he observed athletes with elaborate rituals they needed to complete before stepping onto the starting block. Prout never had that approach. “I was the one often yawning behind the blocks before a race,” he notes. “Anxiety wasn’t something that seemed beneficial to me. I liked to be relaxed, to do all of the work ahead of time.” Believing in his training was key to his mindset. “You need to know that you’ve done everything in your power to put yourself in the best position. Then [at race time], I would shut my brain off, dive in, and let my body take over.”
Prout also competed in Beijing in 2008, and was a team captain in the London Games in 2012. Looking back on his 12 years on the national team, he notes that it has become easier for athletes to make a career out of competition. “There’s more support, now,” he says. “When I won in Athens, I think I got about $500 for the year in athlete support. It wasn’t seen as a job, back then. Now, people have been able to make a career out of it.” He notes that the United States is one of only a handful of countries that do not fully fund their athletics programs. “In the UK, athletes get a free car, a free education, and their job is to train for competition, to represent their country,” he says. “The US doesn’t do that, and athletes need to rely on private and corporate donations. It’s worked for the US overall, to the detriment of some of the athletes.”
Journey to Coaching
Coaching, which he did off and on throughout college, hadn’t been his career goal, early on. Though he did get an early coaching experience.
“I had an operation at 12 to lengthen my leg, which kept me out of the water for a while,” he recalls. “My brother and sister were still practicing, and our coach would let me help out with the younger kids. I would walk around the pool deck and [instruct] six-year-olds. That had been fun, but I didn’t think about it until college, when an opportunity to coach a club team came up. Then I fell in love with coaching.” Prout coached while in college, and for a bit during summer breaks. He ended up as a swim club coach on the Simmons deck in 2016 and took over the Simmons program in 2021.
Prout also works with Adaptive Sports New England, running adaptive swimming practices for athletes with disabilities in the Simmons pool on Sundays. “It’s supplemental training for student athletes,” he explains. “Their coach may not have time to spend one-on-one time with them while there are 30 other athletes in the pool. They can come to us for specific training.” In addition, he coached the USA Team in the 2019 Parapan American Games and 2019 Para Swimming World Championships, and most recently in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.
Leading the Sharks to Victory
Simmons is the first college team he’s trained. At the 2023 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Swimming and Diving Championships, the Simmons Sharks secured 12 individual event championships.
“I love coaching Simmons students,” says Prout. “It’s fun to see them grow over the four years. Their conversations change, and I can see them grow into people ready to move into the real world.” His swimmers are committed to the sport throughout their time at Simmons; many of them have already been swimming for the past 10-12 years, so it is part of their routine. This long-term thinking is part of the reason why the retention rate for student athletes is higher than that of the rest of the population.
He acknowledges that he makes his team work hard. “I like when they’re tired! You can see it on their faces when they are ready for practice to be done. They may look pale, and have bags under their eyes. I know how they feel because I’ve done it, myself. But I also know that they will feel really good, knowing that they’ve accomplished something. They don’t mind hard practices if they know they’re getting something out of it. I often know where I want an athlete to be by the end of the season, and we work toward that goal. To be able to see those results, see them reaching closer to their full potential, has been really rewarding.”
Above all, he urges athletes to communicate with their coaches. “If someone tells me what they need, I don’t question it,” he says. “We set up a plan to help them get there.”
Visit Simmons Sharks Swimming & Diving on Instagram: @simmonsswimanddive