The world watched the 2024 Olympics in Paris this past summer. A Sobrato alum, Jarod Hatch, swam there in the 100 butterfly.
Hatch was a star swimmer as a Bulldog, then moved on to Cal where he swam and graduated with a Business degree. Hatch competes now with his professional club in Mission Viejo, in southern California.
And he had an amazing summer, swimming at the pinnacle event of the sport, the Olympics. Hatch is a dual citizen of the U.S. and the Philippines—the latter nation’s citizenship coming via his mother Geilanie Hatch, who is from Quezon City. Hatch, with the top mark in the 100 butterfly in the country, thus qualified for the Olympics. From Morgan Hill to Paris.
“I broke the (Philippines) national record last July at the World Championships in Japan, and thus they sent me,” Hatch said. “I was swimming the 100 butterfly. It was awesome. You see the Olympics on TV all the time growing up. Now you’re finally in it.”
Hatch competed in the semifinals and clocked 54.66 seconds, ranking 36th.
“It wasn’t my best time, my fastest, but the experience was amazing,” Hatch said. “It’s everything I worked for my whole life. It was beautiful. A once in a lifetime experience.”
Hatch was a superstar in the pool for the Bulldogs and graduated in 2017. He won seven league titles, set 11 school records and was a Central Coast Section finalist in two events (200 freestyle, 500 freestyle) over four years at Sobrato. Hatch won a 200 freestyle CCS title in 2017 and picked up two CIF State second place finishes (100 butterfly, 2017, and 500 freestyle, 2016) and a State third place finish (200 freestyle, 2017).
Hatch was named Sobrato’s Athlete of the Year for the 2016-17 school year. Additionally, he excelled academically, named to the Sobrato Honor Roll all four years.
From there, he matriculated to Cal, where he swam on Bears teams that won the Pac-12 championships all four of his years in Berkeley, 2018 through 2021. In 2019, Cal won the NCAA team title.
Individual highlights included scoring 16 points at the Pac-12 championships as a junior by placing in the 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly and the 200 individual medley and contributing an amazing 28 points at the Pac-12 championships his senior year, scoring in the same three events.
Shortly before the Olympics began, he flew from his southern California base to Paris. He enjoyed the Opening Ceremonies, trained for a few days and then competed.
“It was really empowering,” Hatch said. “I was in one of the boats in the Opening Ceremony. Raining a lot. It was my favorite moment of the Olympics.”
Hatch first became part of the Philippine national team in 2018. He swam in the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the 100 butterfly, on the 4×100 medley relay team and on the 4×100 freestyle, in which the Philippines team won a silver medal.
In the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia, he captured bronze in the 100 butterfly and the 50 butterfly and a silver as a member of the 4×100 mixed relay team. Hatch’s national record in the 100 butterfly is 52.87 seconds, reached in the 2023 World Aquatics Championships.
As a young boy, Hatch began swimming in San Francisco, near where his family lived. His first love was baseball but he eventually switched to the pool. Over time, he has competed in many swimming events, originally in breaststroke and then a middle-distance freestyler. In college, he shifted to the butterfly.
Hatch’s parents were not swimmers. Father Jason was a nationally ranked decathlete and mother Geilanie ran cross country. They encouraged Jarod in athletics and most notably, emphasized academics.
Jarod Hatch takes pride in his Cal degree and the fact that swimming gave him the opportunity to attend the renowned Bay Area university. Younger brother Jacob also took well to the pool, competing in water polo for Sobrato and currently at Cal State Fullerton.
“Tom Lebherz taught me so much,” said Hatch, referring to the longtime swim coach in the Morgan Hill area. “I owe the majority of my success to him.”
Hatch also credited Cal coach Dave Durden. Durden has been named NCAA Coach of the Year seven times and has coached for the U.S. in the Olympics. While Hatch was at Cal, the Bears won one team title and were second in the country behind Texas the other three years. Durden has captured six national titles overall.
“It was great at Cal,” Hatch said. “I formed a brotherhood for life with those guys. My college days were some of the best times of my life. I studied marketing and our team was the best in the nation. We were 2019 National Champions and our pro group consisted of world record holders, Olympic medalists and international champions.”
After graduation, Hatch briefly retired and then came back to the sport.
“My college teammate, Trenton Julian, and his dad, Jeff Julian, had started a pro group down in Mission Viejo, California,” Hatch said. “I decided to go down and reunite with my teammate in a beautiful and competitive area.”
That led Hatch back into the mainstream of competitive swimming and with another skilled coach and talented team. Fast forward a few years and he has the national record and participated in the Olympics. Quite an incredible journey.
