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The US Olympic swimming trials are the formal process for selecting the nation’s best swimmers for the Olympic games. With the first wave of trials underway at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska, the competition to be a part of the United States Olympic swimming team is extremely fierce.
This selection process has been divided into two, namely Wave I (Prelims) that started on the 4th of June, 2021 and Wave II that will commence on the 13th of June, 2021.
It is due to the possible effects of the Covid-19 pandemic that USA Swimming took the decision to bifurcate the trials into two different waves. The decision comes after an anticipation of around anywhere between 1,200 and 1,500 swimmers taking part in the trials.
Also Read: US Olympic Swimming Trials 2021: Full event schedule of Wave 1 and Wave 2
These swimmers first need to set a time that is under the Wave I (prelims) standard. Upon doing so, the top two qualifiers in an event in Wave I will progress to the second round of qualifiers (wave II).
The second day of Wave I will see heats and final races for women’s and men’s 200m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, and 400m individual medley. Here are the highlights from the heats and what to expect from the finals from the events today:
Click here to follow all the timings for the US trials live
200m freestyle at the US Olympic Swimming Trials
With the 200m freestyle being one of the most sought-after events on the list of events at the Olympics, the trials for this event could see many younger swimmers eyeing that Wave II slot.
Men: The world record for the men’s 200m freestyle event is held by German national Paul Biedermann (2009), having set a time of 1:42.00.
However, today's contenders at the US Olympic swimming trials have averaged a qualifying time of 1:50.00, with only Patrick Sammon (1:49.79) and Liam Bresette (1:49.72) dipping below the 1 min 50 sec mark as the top 8 head for the final later today.
Women: From a total of 16 swimmers across two heats, it was Autumn Haebig who set the fastest time (2:00.66) overall, with Anna Peplowski close behind (2:00.75), as they both set the fastest time in their individual heats.
Summer Cardwell became the only junior swimmer to make it to the final of the event with a time of 2:00.88, rounding out the eight fastest timings.
100m breaststroke at the US Olympic Swimming Trials
The 100m breaststroke is one of the most popular and competitive events in competitive swimming, with swimmers having to maintain sprint speeds across two lengths of a long course (50m) pool.
Men: This particular event saw one of the largest number of participants across the entirety of the US Olympic swimming trials, with 85 participants swimming across 11 different heats.
The competition was immense, with Henry Bethel and Zhier Fan sharing the top time (1:02.00) in the heats. Will Scholtz was another junior swimmer who impressed as he set the joint-fastest time in the 5th heat, clocking a 1:03.06. However, it was nowhere near the timing split required to make it to the A final.
Women: The timing of 1:09.64 saw Kt Kustritz with the fastest time of the day. It was even between Jenessa Mathews and Taylor Grabenhorst in second place as they both set a time of 1:09.70, booking their place in the finals of the US Olympic swimming trials.
Lily King’s world record split of 1:04.93 set in Budapest, Hungary in 2017 is still the fastest time as there is plenty of improvement to come later in the day.
400m Individual Medley at the US Olympic Swimming Trials
This event is often referred to as the ultimate test of a swimmers’ endurance with the event requiring every swimmer to swim 100m of all 4 strokes. The swimmers start with the butterfly, followed by the backstroke, onwards to the breaststroke, before a final freestyle sprint finish.
Men: There were only two heats for the 400m men’s individual medley, but saw a lot of closely fought action. Jeffrey Durmer had all the bragging rights in the heats as he set the fastest time of the day so far with a blistering 4:23.55 at the US Olympic swimming trials.
He was three-tenths ahead of second-place Kyle Ponsler, who looks to be a future champion, given that he was born in 2004 and still enrolled as a junior swimmer.
Women: The heats of the women’s 400m individual medley at the US Olympic swimming trials had 18 participants swimming across 3 heats. Michelle Morgan, Colby Hurt and Paige MacEachern topped their respective heats.
However, it was MacEachern who set the fastest time of the entire event, as she swam the 400m distance in 4:48.09 at the US Olympic swimming trials.
Two of the fastest times in the finals of these events will see participants progress to Wave II of the US Olympic swimming trials.
Find out more at: US Olympic Swimming Trials 2021: Cut-off times for events in Wave 1 and Wave 2
