Ledecky, King & Hobson Lead The U.S. Race For Relays Chasing Pride In Paris
Katie Ledecky in 1:55.22 and Luke Hobson in 1:44.89 atop the 200m freestyle finals and Lilly King‘s 1:05.43 win in the 100m breaststroke joined the backstroke bonanza on day 3 at U.S. Trials in the vault of American relay prospects at the Paris Olympics three years after a turn in the tide of tradition and history in Tokyo.
U.S. Trials For Paris – Results in Full
Team USA has long made a habit of getting a medal in every relay at each passing Games in the pool – and most of those have been gold. The fuel for the future was that moment when the USA men missed the 4x200m free Olympic podium for the first time of asking on all available occasions since it all began in 1896.
The men kept up their nation’s winning tradition in both 4x100m races, with Caeleb Dressel at his fiery best (day 4 at Trials will deliver an update on the progress of the sprint king of Tokyo as he goes in the 100m free), but the women did not get a gold and in the first Olympic swimming final to feature men and women on the same relay team, the mixed 4×100 medley, the Americans emerged empty handed.
This is nothing like a collapse in American standards, of course, and Team USA will arrive in Paris the squad most likely to take the biggest medals haul once more. On gold count, the battle is on, Australia’s women, but not exclusively, a force fit to tip the scales, as they have done these past several seasons atop gains made since the days of Susie O’Neill, Petria Thomas, Leisel Jones, Jodie Henry, Libby Lenton/Trickett, Stephanie Rice and Co in their own tradition, extending back to the days of Shane Gould and her prevailing five-solo medals success at Munich 1972, and Dawn Fraser, the founding member of the triple crown club.
Underpinning all explanation on the ebb and flow of US strength, including questions about China and Russia, is a subtle but significant shift in the world swim order: Australia and Britain led the way in Tokyo, with solid contributions from Canada and Italy, when it came to showing the rest of the world have what it takes to take the edge off American dominance and make every passing meet a steelier competition.
The trend continued at Fukuoka world titles last year, when the Dolphins pipped the Eagles on overall gold count to top the medals table.
Here’s how day 3 relay-related events panned out at Trials in Indy:
Women’s 200m Free: Solo Tickets For Ledecky & Weinstein Atop Relay Scrap
Katie Ledecky, Olympic champion in 2016 a hand ahead of Sweden’s ‘fly queen Sarah Sjostrom, led from go to gold and booked a second ticket to her fourth Games with a 29.87 last length to stop the clock at 1:55.22.
Ledecky’s best remains her Rio-gold-winning 1:53.73, while her 1:53.76 split in Tokyo swept the USA passed Australia for silver.
Claire Weinstein‘s 1:56.18 was good for the second USA ticket to Paris, with Paige Madden and Erin Gemmel taking the assured 4x200m free berths in respective times of 1:56.36 and 1:56.75. Something went wrong with the timing in Gemmel’s lane, her 50 and 150m mark splits missing from the data but the bigger footnote on her is that as a young girl she dressed as Katie Ledecky in a USA cap with the legend name on it for Halloween. Treat not Trick.
And now, she’s on Team USA with her inspiration, the bond made long before the moment it will pay dividends in a relay Americans took silver in three years ago as China produced world-record setting speed from a quartet that included two of the 23-go-free TMZ positives from 2021 and one of the clenbuterol positives from 2016-17, who will be back in action in Paris.
The medals in Tokyo, Australia third, took a splits average of 1:54 high. The Dolphins head to Paris with two women inside 1:52.5, Ariarne Titmus on a world record 1:52.23 at trials in Brisbane last week, and Mollie O’Callaghan on 1:52.48, and two on 1:55s.
Ignore the relay starts for the moment and the first four Dolphins at trials add up to 7:36.02, inside the 7:37.50 global standards they set at World titles in Fukuoka last year.
So, that’s where it’s going… And here’s how it went at U.S. Trials Ledecky the leader once more:
Women’s 400m Medley: Paris Postcard For Grimes & Weyant
Katie Grimes produced the fastest lat length in that 200m free final but too late for a relay berth at the end of a session that began with her victory in the 400m medley ahead of Tokyo Olympic silver medallist Emma Weyant, 4:35.00 to 4:35.56. Third place went to Lilla Bognar in 4:37.86, with Tokyo 400-800m Olympic teamster Leah Smith fourth in 4:39.87.
Men’s 200m Free: Solo Tickets For Hobson & Giuliano Atop Relay Scrap
Luke Hobson clocked the sixth fastest time of the year for a 1:44.89 victory as the only man inside 1:45, four others inside 1:46 in the fight for the right to represent the United States in the 4x200m freestyle.
All-time, Hobson matched the 1:44.89, in which the Eindhoven Express, Pieter van den Hoogenband, took down the then World record at the 2002 World Championships two years after Sydney 2000 glory ahead of Ian Thorpe and Massimiliano Rosolino over four lengths and Alex Popov and Gary Hall Jr. over two.
Hoogie’s best is now 23rd best ever, 0.02sec adrift Hobson at his best, in semis at World titles in Fukuoka last year. The second American berth for the Paris 200 solo when to Chris Giuliano in 1:45.38. Giuliano is the University of Notre Dame’s first male swimmer to qualify for the US Olympic team.
Hobson turned sixth at the first wall, then fourth at half way before rippling out a 26.61 to get his feet on the last wall in 1:17.77, six others on 1:18s. Here’s how it went in the hunt for relay selection:
In relay terms, 1:44 to 1:44-mid average splits is the likely measure of a golden shot in Paris. In common with all other quartets, the Americans are on the cusp. It will all come down to the ‘power of now’ in Paris.
Speaking through USA Swimming, Hobson was thrilled to have made his first Olympic Team: “If you told me that was going to be the case as a kid, I would have told you no way…I couldn’t be happier to do it with these guys…this year I made it my mission to be consistent and be able to throw down on that relay and put it on the line for the country and for all these guys.”
Guiliano echoed that, saying: “I’m ready for it. Swimming here has prepared us all very well for what we are going to experience in Paris. I mean, I think I can speak for us all in saying we are confident and super excited.”
Women’s 100m Breaststroke: Lilly King Is Queen Once More
Lilly King, 2016 Olympic and 2017 World champion, got to the first and second walls before the rest, on 30.71 and 1:05.43, on the strength of the only sub-35 homecoming 50m in the race, to make her third Olympic team in the 100m breaststroke.
There will be no defence of the crown for Lydia Jacoby after she shadowed King to the turn, on 30.74, before fading to third in 1:06.37 (like Gemmel’s splits, Jacoby’s missing from the data), the second ticket to Paris going to Emma Webber, in 1:06.10, off 31.01 at the turn.
King’s take on longevity at the top: “I think for me at this point in my career I’ve done everything I’ve ever wanted to do… it’s ‘don’t mess up’, ‘swim a smart race and see what happens’. Yeah, it is quite monotonous but swimmers, we spend most of our lives staring at a blue line, so we get used to it.”
In terms of the relay, if King gets the nod, she’s proven time and again a force fit to tip a race, and with Gretchen Walsh on a World record of 55.18 on butterfly (backed up by a 55.31 win) and Regan Smith on 55.47 on backstroke, with Katharine Berkoff a back-up on 57.88 going into the final tomorrow, things are looking good.
