2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS
- When:
- Wave I Dates: June 4-7, 2021
- Wave II Dates: June 13-20, 2021
- Prelims: 10am CDT | Finals: 7pm CDT (8PM finals on Friday & Saturday)
- Where: CHI Health Center / Omaha, Nebraska
- 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifying Cuts
- Wave I & II Event Order
- LCM (50m)
- Day 6 Finals Live Stream
- Psych Sheets
- Wave II Live Results
The last prelims session of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials will be more quiet than most, with just a trio of events on the slate for this morning: the men’s and women’s 50 free and the men’s 1500 free.
Deciding not to contest his No. 2 seed in the men’s 1500 free was Zane Grothe, entering with a 14:56.10 seed time. During his time in Omaha, Grothe placed 11th in the 400 free (3:50.80), 10th in the semifinals of the 200 free (1:47.26), and 12th in the 800 free (8:00.00), where he owns the American record. Also scratching the longest event of the program were 2021 finalists Andrew Abruzzo, Chris Wieser, and Brooks Fail.
The only top-40 scratches of the men’s 50 free was No. 9 seed Blake Pieroni, who placed 3rd in the 100 free final, No. 17 Mitchell Whyte, and No. 35 Hunter Armstrong, who placed 2nd in the 100 back final. On the women’s side, No. 24 seed Katie McLaughlin opted out of the event following a 4th-place finish in the 200 free. No. 31 seed Anna Moesch will also not contest her top-40 seed.
Highlighting the men’s 50 free prelims will be Olympic gold medalists Anthony Ervin, Nathan Adrian, and Caeleb Dressel. Tokyo Olympians Michael Andrew and Zach Apple will also put in morning sprint efforts.
Women’s 100 free champion Abbey Weitzeil will headline the women’s 50 free alongside 2016 Olympian Simone Manuel and Tokyo Olympians Olivia Smoliga, Natalie Hinds, Torri Huske, Erika Brown, and Alex Walsh. Runner-up in the women’s 100 fly, Claire Curzan, will also make waves in the sprint event next to women’s 200 IM runner-up, Kate Douglass.
Then, the top two finishers from the men’s 800 free, Bobby Finke and Michael Brinegar, will put up their AM distance efforts to qualify for Sunday evening’s final.
All Top-40 Day 7 Prelims Scratches:
- Men’s 50 Free: No. 9 Blake Pieroni, No. 17 Mitchell Whyte, No. 35 Hunter Armstrong
- Women’s 50 Free: No. 24 Katie McLaughlin, No. 31 Anna Moesch
- Men’s 1500 Free: No. 2 Zane Grothe, No. 14 Andrew Abruzzo, No. 21 Chris Wieser, No. 26 Ivan Puskovitch, No. 32 Brooks Fail, No. 36 Lance Norris, No. 37 Will Roberts
I’m so sad for Grothe missing it and now giving up on his last event. He must be so disappointed right now. He had an incredible turnaround story a few years ago, and before the pandemic seemed like he was in a great position to make the team for the first time, but he had a bad meet and missed the team by a lot.
https://swimswam.com/33-meters-zane-grothes-turnaround-story/ this was after 2018
(He’s still in the ISL Draft Pool though, so his career doesn’t seem to be over.)
I feel like there is more to the story than he just had a bad meet. He must be sick or injured or something else. The drop off in his times is so significant. I hope he’s okay. It has to be terribly disappointing. The year delay due to Covid has wreaked havoc on some swimmers who were poised to do really well a year ago, Groethe and Manuel are two that come to mind.