Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - Printable Version
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RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - BostonCard - 06-20-2021
[tweet]https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/1406774036047319043?s=20[/tweet]
Didn't realize that Manuel's twitter handle was @swimone. Awesome.
BC
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - ColoradoTree - 06-21-2021
An awesome moment for both Manuel and Forde. It's wild to think that if Manuel had swum 0.18 seconds slower, she'd be off the Olympic team, the 50 free qualifiers would have been Weitzeil-Huske, and Forde would've been the 25th (and final) swimmer on the team. And that if Mack had swum 0.21 seconds faster, the 50 free qualifiers would have been Manuel-Mack, and Forde wouldn't have made it. But she got the result she needed--one already-qualified swimmer in the top two, and Forde goes to Tokyo as the 26th women's swimmer on Team USA, right at the roster cap.
And not just going to the Olympics, but a near-certain Olympic medalist because she'll swim in the heats of the 4x200 free relay, a race in which the US women will almost certainly medal. The Australian women have better 200 times this year, so they have to be the favorites for Gold, but you can't look at the current 200 free world rankings and not pick the US next. (Both the US and Australia have at least four swimmers who hit the A standard, but China and Germany have just two, and no other country has more than one.)
Just looking at 2021 times, six Australian women have swum the 200 faster than the second-fastest American, Madden. The times of Madden, Schmitt, and McLaughlin would have placed them 7th at the Australian trials. Sims and Forde's times would've had them in 8th in those trials. Another way of looking at it: add up the times of the top 4 women from each country in the event, and the Australians are ahead by 5.2 seconds. Bonkers. That's an awful lot to make up in a month, when the Aussies will be getting a bit faster, too.
A few hundredths of a second is the difference between not going to the Olympics at all and forever being an Olympic medalist. Just wild.
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - ColoradoTree - 06-21-2021
And we should be ready for Ledecky's dominance in every event she enters to end, as the gap has closed in her longer events and she's not the favorite at all in the 200m or the 400m, both of which have seen Ariane Titmus of Australia swim faster than Ledecky this year.
200m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 0.35 seconds, swimming at 1:53.73 and going 1.15 seconds faster than her Trials time of 1:54.88; this season, her fastest time has been 1:54:40, 1.31 seconds behind Titmus. Ledecky is ranked #2 coming into Tokyo and went 1:55.11 at Trials, while Titmus went 1:53.09 at hers.
400m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 4.77 seconds, swimming at 3:56.46 and going 2.52 seconds faster than her Trials time of 3:58.98; this season, her fastest time has been 3:59.25, 2.35 seconds behind Titmus. Ledecky is ranked #2 coming into Tokyo and went 4:01.27 at Trials, while Titmus went 3:56.90 at hers.
800m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 11.38 seconds, swimming at 8:04.79 and going 5.53 seconds faster than her Trials time of 8:10.32; this season, her fastest time has been 8:13.64, good enough for #1 in 2021, but she's just 1.93 seconds ahead of #2 Titmus. Ledecky went 8:14.62 at Trials, while Titmus went 8:15.57 at hers.
The 1,500 free wasn't contested in Rio on the women's side (this will be its first time on the women's Olympic program), but since she won the 800 by 11+ seconds, you have to think that in that sort of form, she'd have won the 1,500 by 20 seconds or more. But while she's ranked #1 in 2021, she's just 5.83 seconds faster than #2 Maddy Gough (AUS) and just 8.57 faster than #3 Wang Jianjiahe (CHN). Still a brobdingnagian edge by swimming standards, but small by her own.
Now, Ledecky's training cycle, like other elite swimmers who are confident of making their national teams at Trials, is targeted so she hits her taper perfectly at the Olympics, so she can and will expect to be faster than those times in Tokyo. But she herself said she was disappointed in her Trials times. Maybe she didn't go quite as hard as she could in the 200 because she knew she had the 1500 that same evening, but the Olympics have the same schedule. Other swimmers have certainly closed the gap, but it's also true that right now, Ledecky isn't swimming as fast as she was going into Rio. I still expect Ledecky to medal in each of her races, but a couple of them might be Silver.
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - akiddoc - 06-22-2021
(06-21-2021, 11:26 AM)ColoradoTree Wrote: And we should be ready for Ledecky's dominance in every event she enters to end, as the gap has closed in her longer events and she's not the favorite at all in the 200m or the 400m, both of which have seen Ariane Titmus of Australia swim faster than Ledecky this year.
200m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 0.35 seconds, swimming at 1:53.73 and going 1.15 seconds faster than her Trials time of 1:54.88; this season, her fastest time has been 1:54:40, 1.31 seconds behind Titmus. Ledecky is ranked #2 coming into Tokyo and went 1:55.11 at Trials, while Titmus went 1:53.09 at hers.
400m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 4.77 seconds, swimming at 3:56.46 and going 2.52 seconds faster than her Trials time of 3:58.98; this season, her fastest time has been 3:59.25, 2.35 seconds behind Titmus. Ledecky is ranked #2 coming into Tokyo and went 4:01.27 at Trials, while Titmus went 3:56.90 at hers.
800m: Ledecky won Gold in Rio by 11.38 seconds, swimming at 8:04.79 and going 5.53 seconds faster than her Trials time of 8:10.32; this season, her fastest time has been 8:13.64, good enough for #1 in 2021, but she's just 1.93 seconds ahead of #2 Titmus. Ledecky went 8:14.62 at Trials, while Titmus went 8:15.57 at hers.
The 1,500 free wasn't contested in Rio on the women's side (this will be its first time on the women's Olympic program), but since she won the 800 by 11+ seconds, you have to think that in that sort of form, she'd have won the 1,500 by 20 seconds or more. But while she's ranked #1 in 2021, she's just 5.83 seconds faster than #2 Maddy Gough (AUS) and just 8.57 faster than #3 Wang Jianjiahe (CHN). Still a of immense proportions edge by swimming standards, but small by her own.
Now, Ledecky's training cycle, like other elite swimmers who are confident of making their national teams at Trials, is targeted so she hits her taper perfectly at the Olympics, so she can and will expect to be faster than those times in Tokyo. But she herself said she was disappointed in her Trials times. Maybe she didn't go quite as hard as she could in the 200 because she knew she had the 1500 that same evening, but the Olympics have the same schedule. Other swimmers have certainly closed the gap, but it's also true that right now, Ledecky isn't swimming as fast as she was going into Rio. I still expect Ledecky to medal in each of her races, but a couple of them might be Silver.
I expect Ledecky to win the 800 and the 1500.
400 maybe.
14 yo just won the Canadian Olympic trials in the 200 free over Penny Oleksiak. This is the fastest 200 free for a swimmer 14 or under in world history.
https://olympic.ca/2021/06/20/olympic-swimming-trials-14-year-old-summer-mcintosh-nominated-to-qualify-for-tokyo/
Oleksiak just crushed the 100m free, 0.6 seconds faster than the first place American at trials. Doubt the USA medals in the 100.
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - akiddoc - 06-23-2021
The same 14 yo wins the 800 m at the Canadian trials. She didn't swim the 400, but she has the Olympic standard. Since no one else in the trials has the standard, Canada has the option of putting her on the team for the 400 as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCLhI3Jlv9I
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - ColoradoTree - 06-23-2021
(06-22-2021, 09:32 PM)akiddoc Wrote: 14 yo just won the Canadian Olympic trials in the 200 free over Penny Oleksiak. This is the fastest 200 free for a swimmer 14 or under in world history.
https://olympic.ca/2021/06/20/olympic-swimming-trials-14-year-old-summer-mcintosh-nominated-to-qualify-for-tokyo/
Oleksiak just crushed the 100m free, 0.6 seconds faster than the first place American at trials. Doubt the USA medals in the 100.
Yeah, Manuel's form being off pretty much sealed our fate in the 100. The top-ranked American women in the 100 free are:
12. Huske (not on team)
13. Weitzeil
T14. Smoliga (relay only)
T14. Hinds (relay only)
T14. Curzan (not on team)
19. Brown
Four of the top five in the world right now are Aussies, and in addition to them above the Americans are two from China, two from Great Britain, two from the Netherlands, and one from France. (Those rankings don't yet include the 100 free at Canadian trials, but Oleksiak's time would put her fourth, and bumping all those American swimmers down one rank.)
Weitzeil will have to drop like a half second just to make the final. And I wouldn't be shocked if we don't medal in the 4x100 relay for the first time since the boycotted 1980 Games. If we do medal, it'll be the Bronze by the skin of our teeth.
RE: Swimming and Diving Olympic Trials - Spiny_Norman - 06-24-2021
Pat Forde tells the story of Brooke's Olympic journey - https://www.si.com/olympics/2021/06/24/usa-swim-qualifying-olympics-brooke-forde-tokyo