McRoberts Sets USA Games Record in Final Swimming Event

Josh McRoberts saved the best for last.

Earning silver medals in the 50-yard butterfly and 4×50-yard medley relay at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games in Minnesota, the Team Indiana athlete was due for a gold medal.

He not only got that Wednesday while swimming in the finals of the 50-yard freestyle. He also set a USA Games record in the process with his winning finish of 26.25 seconds.

“Oh man, it was a wild start,” McRoberts of Johnson County said. “All of the hard work I’ve put myself through, everyone encouraging me … everything that you have is what it takes to be a champion. It was actually pretty nice I could beat the personal USA record. Every single fiber in my body, I believed in myself.”

Team Indiana coach Mark Madden said last year, McRoberts’ time was around 27.8 seconds.

“I coached enough age group swimmers developmentally, I’m like, ‘We’ve got a ton of time in that turn,’” he said. “We’ve done so much race rehearsal for the 11 months leading up to this — push-offs, escaping the wall, streamline dolphin kick and picking up our pace and all the things — and that was just beautiful to see it all come together this week.”

Madden said about four weeks ago, he thought they were running out of time.

“It just magically started falling into place, and we started putting all of the pieces together,” he said. “It’s just so awesome to see 10 months of work come together at the right time.”

McRoberts nearly had a second USA Games record in the 50-yard butterfly. In the preliminaries Monday, he swam 28.78, and Aspen Avery of Michigan edged him at the finish at 28.55. Both times beat the previous record of 29.3.

In the finals Tuesday, Avery won gold with a time of 28.13, and McRoberts won silver at 28.49.

“We just had a really great eight-week training cycle,” Madden said. “He just kept getting faster and faster every day in practice. There are so many variables involved with training. You’ve got volume, intensity, weight room, dry land and trying to coordinate to make sure it all comes out at the right time. You don’t know until you get here. It was great to see it all come to fruition.”

Earlier Wednesday, McRoberts swam a leg in the relay finals with his three Team Indiana teammates, Hunter Chaffee of Hancock County, Mary Egly of Madison County and Kendra Franklin of Ripley-Ohio-Dearborn Counties. Their time was 2:42.38. Kentucky won with a time of 2:35.25.

Madden said when the team began training last July, the relay time was 3:05.

“Every training camp, everybody got a little faster,” he said. “Mary has grown leaps and bounds. Mary’s 50 was well over a minute. She went 55 today. It was a great team effort. Everybody contributed.”

The other individual finals Wednesday featured Chaffee in the 500-yard freestyle and Franklin in the 100-yard breaststroke.

Chaffee earned silver with a finish of 5:57.77. Anthony Walker of Tennessee won gold at 5:35.52.

“Hunter swam the best 500 of his life,” Madden said. “It was just a great moment, one of the best moments of my coaching. I’ve coached a long time, and it was one of the top 10 moments in my coaching career. It’s been so much fun to represent Team Indiana and be a part of it.”

Franklin received a bronze medal for placing third in 1:44.62. Winner Victoria Santiago of Florida swam 1:30.03.

On Thursday, Franklin swam the preliminaries of her other event, the 100-yard individual medley. She swam a lifetime-best time of 1:45.80 and will have finals Friday morning.