Amanda Smith is a former swimmer at USC, and contributed this report. Follow Amanda on Twitter at @Amandakay_s
We ended day two with all the Olympic event second place finishers with a ticket to Barcelona, plus a fifth double that allowed for one Non-Olympic event finisher to be on their way to Worlds. With 11 spots to fill on the men and women’s roster, tonight showed the high level of versatility of our top swimmers, creating almost all the doubles needed for the entire roster.
As a reminder, here is an easy way to follow the selection process in order of preference en route to the maximum roster size of 26 men and 26 women:
1.The top 4 in the 100 & 200 freestyles and then the winner of each Olympic event will make the team
2. The second place finisher in the Olympic events will make the team
3. The winner of the NON-Olympic events will make the team (50s of the strokes, plus the W1500m FR & M800m FR) – if room
4. The 5th place finishers in 100 & 200 freestyles will earn a berth – if room
5. The 6th place finishers in 100 & 200 freestyles will earn a berth – if room
Katie Ledecky and Chloe Sutton’s one-two finish in the 400 freestyle open a sixth and seventh double, allowing 3 Non-Olympic finishers to Barcelona. Breeja Larson win in the 100 breaststroke secured the eight double, allowing all winners of the women’s Non-Olympic events to Barcelona.
Connor Jaeger’s first place in the men’s 400 opened a seventh double, while Matt McLean’s second place finish allowed an eighth. Since Eugene Godsoe’s win in the 100 butterfly secured his 50 butterfly swim, officially now all Non-Olympic event winners on the men’s side will be swimming in Barcelona.
Jessica Hardy’s second place finish in the 100 breaststroke sealed a swim in the 50, plus a ninth double for the women’s side opening a spot for the 5th or 6th place in the 100/200 freestyle. Kevin Cordes’s swim in the men’s 100 breaststroke did the same for the relay alternates on the men’s team.
Following suit, Missy Franklin and Elizabeth Pelton created two more spots; leaving one more spot to be created for the last relay alternate. David Plummer’s win in the 100 backstroke and 50 backstroke last night, opened one more spot, leaving two spots to be created for the men’s relay alternates in the final night.
As I said before last night, if the top two finishers in the 200 IM & 50 Freestyle and the first place finisher in the Non-Olympic distance events are not names we’ve already put on the roster, one relay alternate on the women’s side and two on the men’s side will be left home. But an important detail is that some swimmers are listed as relay alternates but secured a spot on the team from another event. Because of this, looking ahead into the final day it looks like Ricky Berens, Chelsea Chenault & Natalie Coughlin will make the team.
| Swimmer | Event & Place |
| Cammile Adams | W 200 Butterfly (1st) |
| Maya Dirado | W 200 Butterfly (2nd), W 200 Freestyle (5th)*, W 400 IM (1st) |
| Tom Luchsinger | M 200 Butterfly (1st) |
| Tyler Clary | M 200 Butterfly (2nd), M 200 Backstroke (2nd), M 400 IM (2nd) |
| Shannon Vreeland | W 100 Freestyle (2nd), W 200 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Simone Manuel | W 100 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Megan Romano | W 100 Freestyle (4th) |
| Natalie Coughlin | W 100 Freestyle (5th) |
| Liz Pelton | W 100 Freestyle (6th)*, W 200 Backstroke (2nd), W 100 Backstroke (2nd) |
| Nathan Adrian | M 100 Freestyle (1st) |
| Jimmy Feigen | M 100 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Anthony Ervin | M 100 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Ryan Lochte | M 100 Freestyle (4th), M 200 Backstroke (1st), M 200 Freestyle (1st), M 100 Butterfly (2nd) |
| Ricky Berens | M 100 Freestyle (5th), M 200 Freestyle (5th) |
| Katie Ledecky | W 800 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Freestyle (2nd), W 400 Freestyle (1st) |
| Chloe Sutton | W 800 Freestyle (2nd), W 400 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Connor Jaeger | M 1500 Freestyle (1st), M 200 Freestyle (6th)*, M 400 Freestyle (1st) |
| Michael McBroom | M 1500 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Missy Franklin | W 100 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Backstroke (1st), W 100 Backstroke (1st) |
| Jordan Mattern | W 200 Freestyle (4th) |
| Chelsea Chenault | W 200 Freestyle (6th) |
| Conor Dwyer | M 200 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Matt McLean | M 200 Freestyle (3rd), M 400 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Charlie Houchin | M 200 Freestyle (4th) |
| Breeja Larson | W 200 Breaststroke (1st), W 100 Breaststroke (1st) |
| Micah Lawrence | W 200 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Kevin Cordes | M 200 Breaststroke (1st), M 100 Breaststroke (1st) |
| BJ Johnson | M 200 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Christine Magnuson | W 50 Butterfly (1st) |
| Eugene Godsoe | M 50 Butterfly (1st), M 100 Butterfly (1st) |
| Elizabeth Beisel | W 400 IM (2nd) |
| Chase Kalisz | M 400 IM (1st) |
| Dana Vollmer | W 100 Butterfly (1st) |
| Claire Donahue | W 100 Butterfly (2nd) |
| Jessica Hardy | W 50 Breaststroke (1st), W 100 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Kevin Steel | M 50 Breaststroke (1st) |
| Rachel Bootsma | W 50 Backstroke (1st) |
| David Plummer | M 50 Backstroke (1st), M 100 Backstroke (1st) |
| Nic Fink | M 100 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Matt Grevers | M 100 Backstroke (2nd), M 100 Freestyle (6th)* |
-Bold athletes mean the have secured a spot to Barcelona
-Italicized athletes mean they are pending a spot based on doubles from other swimmers
-Events that are bolded with an asterisk mean they earned a berth in a different event, and will most likely the swim listed with an asterisk
Since Grevers is going, the coach can decide to enter him in the 50 Back along with Plummer. There can be two entrants per country per event.
He definitely makes the Fina ‘A’ cut. That would be awesome!
Reading this thread is like math class.
What astounds me is that Chloe Sutton just made her 8th international (top 2 in the USA) team in 8 years. She is only 21? Made her first team at 13? I’ve seem younguns come and go but that kind of consistency is pretty brilliant. Perseverance award for sure! (she is also quite lovely)
Think of it this way..
18 women + 4 Olympic finishers tonight + 1 Non tonight + 4 relay alternates = 27
*theres only three spots created for the relays so far, so one COULD be left home – since some relay alternates are already on the roster from other events (Maya, Liz P., etc) but not guaranteed this alternate spot yet.. I think it’s safe to say everyone will make after today.
19 men + 4 Olympic finishers tonight + 1 Non tonight + 4 relay alternates = 28
*Only two relay spots created so far (which are both 100&200FR from Ricky Befens) but it is the same situation as the women above.
For the women, there are 20 ladies that have finished in spots that could qualify them for Barcelona and with only 5 possible spots left tonight they have all qualified…
For the men, there are also 20 guys that have finished in spots that could qualify them for Barcelona so all of them will make it as well!
I think you math is off here. At this point, there is no way they can bypass 26 total qualifiers on either side using the above criteria. Unless you are also including OW swimmers in the totals.
I think the last paragraph is just a bit confusing.
If I’m reading it correctly what it’s is saying is that if everyone else who gets a place on criteria 1, 2 or 3 is ‘new’ then no men will be named to the squad on the basis of a 6th place finish in the 100 or 200 free and only one woman would get a spot on that criteria, but as those people are all already qualified in other events it doesn’t matter and they don’t need to get their place on those results.