US Olympic Swimming Trials 2021 Wave 1: What to expect from day 4

The US Olympic swimming trials that have been going on for the past three days and have witnessed some incredible performances. Wave I of the two-wave format set by USA swimming has seen swimmers fight for not just the top-two spots in their individual events but to also set a time that meets the Wave II standard.

Day 3 of the US Olympics swimming trials saw the 400m freestyle, 100m butterfly, and 200m backstroke for women and men.

Eli Shoyat in the men’s 400m free; Nikki Venema in the women’s 100m butterfly; Micah Slaton and Aaron Sequeira in the men’s 100m butterfly; were the only swimmers from day 3 to qualify for Wave II as they beat not only the rest of the competition but also the Wave II standards for their individual events.

Keeping the dream alive 🙌Ten are extending their stay in Omaha for #SwimTrials21 Wave II ⤵

— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) June 7, 2021

Day 4 is the final day of an eventful US Olympics swimming trials, and could very well see some of the stiffest competition of the meet so far.

The events for today, the 4th day of Wave II include: 200m medley, 50m freestyle, 200m breaststroke, and the 1,500m freestyle for women and men.

Read: US Olympic Swimming Trials 2021 Wave 1: Highlights from day 2, expectations from day 3

200m medley at the US Olympic swimming trials

The 200m medley remains one of the most beloved events at the Olympics. With every swimmer having to swim 50m of every stroke, starting with butterfly, followed by backstroke, then breaststroke, and finally ending in freestyle. Day 4 of the US Olympic swimming trials will see close competition for the top two spots.

Women: With an impressive sub 2:16.00 qualifying time, Malia Rausch, Hannah Ownbey, and youngster Gigi Johnson look to be leading the race for the top spot. With a Wave II standard time of 2:16.26, all three swimmers seem to have their work cut out for them.

Men: Ryan Lochte still dominates this event in the Olympics and is also the world record holder with a time of 1:54.00. The competition at the US Olympic swimming trials will be extremely close as almost all swimmers competing have qualified within one second of each other. Jacob Steele is the fastest qualifier and is only 0.01 seconds off Wave II standard time, and with the heats and finals still to go, could easily qualify for Wave II.

50m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials

Often known to be the crown jewel of competitive swimming, the fastest times quite literally determine the fastest swimmers on the planet.

Women: In the women’s 50m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials, the fastest qualifying split of 25.88 is shared between Alayna Connor and Haley Dolan. Though fast, their timings are still not good enough to meet the Wave II standard and need to be around two-tenths quicker.

Men: With Brazilian Cesar Ceilo’s blisteringly fast timing of 20.91 (2009) still the class of the field, USA Swimming has kept their Wave II standards at a difficult-to-achieve 22.71. This is a timing split that looks within touching distance of the fastest split 22.72, set by Caeleb Carlson. Notably, this event is also comfortably the closest, as 0.30 seconds separate all 95 swimmers that have qualified at the US Olympic swimming trials.

200m breaststroke at the US Olympic swimming trials

The event in question is perhaps one of the slowest across 200m. But this by no means is any less physically or technically challenging.

Women: The women’s 200m breaststroke will see swimmers across four heats battle it out for a spot in the final and subsequently in Wave II. Gigi Johnson, who will also be swimming the medley relay as well as this event, set the fastest qualifier, two-tenths away from the Wave II standard.

Men: Matt Murphy set the fastest qualifying time of 2:15.34, coming closest to beating the Wave II mark as he looks likely to win the finals, ahead of Scott Tolman, his closest competition.

1500m freestyle at the US Olympic swimming trials

In the longest indoor swimming event at the Summer Olympics, swimmers have to lap the pool a whopping 30 times. It is also one of the biggest tests of an athlete’s speed, strength, mentality, and most importantly endurance in any level of competition.

Women: Katie Ledecky, who is now 24, had set the fastest time in the championship over eight years ago (15:47.15). In the coming years, she went on to best her time at this event by over 26 seconds. From this year's US Olympic swimming trials, it is a time of 16:45.09 set by Juli Arzave that is the fastest, around half a second slower than the Wave II standard.

Men: 15:36.24 is the fastest time of the qualifiers at this year’s US Olympic swimming trials. It was set by young-gun Joshua Brown, who will look to find eight-tenths of a second in his Wave I attempt as he hopes to meet the standard time required to make it to Wave II of the US Olympic swimming trials, from the 13th of June, 2021.