Nathan Adrian to compete at winter nationals later this week

Olympic champion Nathan Adrian is among some of the top swimmers in the country that will compete at the Winter National Short Course championships in Austin, Texas, Thursday-Saturday.

Adrian, a Bremerton native, will be competing for the first time since winning two gold medals and a silver at the London Olympics in August. Adrian won the 100-meter freestyle to give the U.S. the gold in that event for the first time since 1988.

Adrian will swim in the 50-yard freestyle Thursday and the 100 free on Saturday. He is the American-record holder in both events. Adrian is seeded first in the 50 in 18.66 seconds and first in the 100 in 41.10.

Also competing are fellow Olympians including Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Jessica Hardy, Allison Schmitt and Matt Grevers.

Preliminaries begin at 7 a.m. local time and 3 p.m. for the finals. The meet will be shown on NBC on tape delay at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Nathan’s new-found celebrity status has kept the soon-to-be 24-year-old plenty busy since the summer, with multiple guest appearances on TV, photo shoots and appearances at New York’s Fashion Week. He seems to have taken a shine to modeling, going as far as Malaysia for a fashion shoot.