In the moment, Haas wasn’t as concerned with the opponents around him as much as the wall in front of him in Lane 3.

“I knew they were — Dwyer was next to me and Lochte was on the other side, but I just kinda put my head down at the end and tried to finish as fast as I could,” he said.

Haas narrowly missed his first shot at the Olympic team in Sunday’s 400 freestyle finals, finishing third (3:45.04) behind Connor Jaeger (3:43.79) and Dwyer (3:44.66). He will compete in his final event of the trials in this morning’s 100 freestyle preliminaries.

Richmond’s newest Olympian was still trying to comprehend his Olympic berth well after hitting the wall.

“It’s all still amazing to me,” Haas said. “Just trying to soak it in, I guess.”

Haas is the first Olympian to emerge from the NOVA swim club.

During his freshman year at the University of Texas, he won NCAA championships in the 500 and 200 freestyles. His time in the 200 free was the American short course record and NCAA record in the event, clocking in at 1:30.46.

As a high schooler, Haas competed as a member of the U.S. junior national team, winning four titles (100 free, 200 free, 400 free, 800 free) in his senior season.