2024 Paris Olympics: Day 1 Prelims Overreaction – Much has Changed in Three Years & Yet Not

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
  • Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
• La Défense Arena — Paris, France
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• Prelims Live Recaps: Day 1 |
• Finals Live Recaps:

The following article is the opinion of the Author and does not necessarily represent the views of other SwimSwam staff or SwimSwam itself.

Well.

What a morning.

I want to thank all of you who got up this morning or stayed up late to watch and follow along with all of our coverage. It was a bit heartening to see so many comments this morning on the live recap before the meet even started. Kudos to “chlorinated’ for the first comment on the Prelims Live Recap and to “Oceanian” on the Prelims Preview, with the latter asking, “Are Murricans awake yet?” I can only speak for myself, but four alarm sources spread out around the room did wake me up. And while we will speak much of athletes’ preparation for this meet, I, too, prepared; I’ve been setting my alarm earlier each day of this past week to help with the transition, and while I was tempted to jump on the cheap Paris accommodations still on offer, the cost of the flights still seemed high, and I would want to disappoint myself again by being able to see the pool but not swim in it.

I also want to thank you all for your patience with the Live Recap this morning; we got off to a little slow start, not entirely of our own fault as I and those other SwimSwam writers who were awake were unable to report anything as we had nothing to watch and could only start reporting after the results appear and only if they were correct, the initial results published to the Olympic website had Torri Huske winning her heat in 1:00, (they since have been corrected).

What a lovely view of the Eiffel Tower this morning, past 5am, wish it was of the pool though

— Mark Wild (@Mark_Wild13) July 27, 2024

The Good

Emma McKeon.

And yes, her 56.79 is much slower than the 55.82 she swam in the prelims of Tokyo, but it was not a bad swim. She ranks 5th heading into tonight and sits just .29 off Zhang Yufei‘s top time of 56.50. If one were to look at last summer, McKeon was actually .26 faster this morning, but I’m not here to discuss her 100-fly performance, but rather her 100-free relay split.

While Zhang, Gretchen Walsh, Torri Huske, and Marie Wattel skipped the preliminary relay, McKeon pulled double-duty anchoring for the Australians. While we don’t know if this was something she asked to do as the Australians easily could have used Brianna Throssell on the relay (she swam prelims in Fukuoka) and let McKeon rest or if it was always going to occur, but the 2021 Olympic Champion in the event certainly earned her spot on the relay tonight.

McKeon posted the fastest split of the field, recording a time of 51.94. While the time historically is not unusual, having it come on the backs of her 6th place finish at the Australian Trials. In early June, McKeon recorded a time of 53.33 and appeared to have been off her form, also finishing 3rd in the 50 free. However, any doubts from then are certainly dispelled.

Last summer, in the finals of the event, McKeon anchored in 51.90, just .04 faster than this morning. In the event preview, I said it would be unlikely that Aussies would break the WR. That statement was based on Bronte Campbell being the fourth leg of the relay. With Bronte swimming 53.46, it appears as if the relay tonight will be identical to the one from Fukuoka—the 3:27.96 one. And while McKeon is obviously not back to 2021 form, it is certainly a good sign that she has recovered from her injuries.

I won’t spend too much time on the relays, as much of it will be covered in a separate post. Josh Liendo‘s anchor split of 47.25 stands out as quite impressive. As did the French women, who led by Beryl Gastaldello‘s 53.54 are the 5th seeds into tonight final are less than a second off their National Record.

Katie Ledecky running down Titmus in the 400 was a good sign for the American, but the time wasn’t all that impressive as she was sub-4:00 in the prelims of the US Olympic Trials, and I think Titmus has a lot left in the tank for tonight, which may run contrary to what was said on a certain broadcast.

The Bad

I know the golden days of the Frenchmen’s 4×100 free relay are behind them, but a 12th-place finish in the event was not what was expected. To be fair, when the relay rosters came out without Florent Manaudou, who just recently went a PB in the event at the age of 33, and without Maxime Grousset, it seemed obvious that the French were not targeting this relay. However, with not a single swimmer splitting under 48.3, France’s lack of depth in the event was very evident. Manaudou had a prominent role last night in the opening ceremonies, and while they could have used Leon Marchand, he may have sat out the relay completely as he still has a busy week ahead of him.

The men’s 100 breaststroke, as a whole, looked rough. Dutchman Caspar Corbeau‘s 59.04, new personal best notwithstanding, the event was slow. Corbeau’s time this morning would have been just 8th in Tokyo, and swimmers ranked 11th through 16th were slower than (or equal) to what it took to make the semis. One hopes that the semifinal tonight is a wake-up call for many of the swimmers. Two medal favorites, Qin Haiyang (59.58) and Nic Fink (59.66), currently sit just 9th and 10th and will need to make some moves if they have any hope of making the final, let alone medaling.

Two others discussed at length with a shot at the finals fell short. China’s Sun Jiajun, the 7th seed, fell 10 spots back to just miss out on the semis in a time of 1:00.11, and the 9th seed Sam Williamson tumbled all the way down to 24th. After setting a new PB of 58.80 last month, the Aussie finished in a disappointing 1:00.50.

Results weren’t the only thing that was less than good this morning. For those of you, like me, who reside in the United States, coverage this morning was less than satisfactory. Despite being advertised as having started at 5:00 a.m., Peacock’s coverage did not get under way until nearly five minutes later, well after the first heat of the women’s 100 fly was done and dusted.

That delay, along with commercial breaks during the earlier heats of some events, not only made my job harder, writing the Live Recap, but it was also disruptive to the flow and rhythm of the meet and showed a heavy American bias.

I understand that NBC is a profit-making organization, and the amount of money they have spent to gain broadcasting rights is massive, but it cannot be too hard to at least start on time, and I, for one, would be willing to pay more (than I already am) for commercial-free coverage. But also, in a rush this morning, I may just open the first stream I saw, and perhaps there were others that were commercial free.

As someone who has worn every hat at a swim meet, having coached, lifeguarded, officiated, ran the timing consoles, and meet software as well as serving as announcer/color commentator, I understand that announcing is very difficult, especially when you have to balance the fact that you are likely speaking to highly educated swim masses as well as the casual fan. Therefore, I’ll leave it up to you in the comment section to discuss their performances but know that I do understand that it can be a difficult job, and very few do it well.

However, those were not the only issues plaguing this morning’s session. The results posted were incorrect, as noted above, and we’ve heard reports that even in the arena, results and splits were not always appearing correctly or at all, leaving swimmers and coaches wondering if they advanced.

The Unknown

I am a big swim nerd and also (if you’ll allow me to brag) have a great memory and I feel like the US may be brewing another Amanda Weir relay conundrum brewing. For those of you who don’t remember, Weir placed 3rd at the 2016 Olympic Trials in the 100 free. In the prelims of the 4×100 free relay, she swam faster than she did at trials, swimming 53.60, the fastest lead-off split in the field. Despite such improvements, however, she was left off the evening’s relay in favor of someone who was 6th at trials and did not even swim in the prelims.

While not in such a bind, and I’ll let the relay speculation article tackle it in more detail, cases could be made for both Abbey Weitzeil and Simone Manuel to be on tonight’s relay, and I am sure each swimmer will feel some disbelief on their exclusion.

The men’s 400 free could have fit into either the good or the bad and, as such, lands firmly here. Lukas Martens and Elijah Winnington put on a strong performance this morning, setting a fierce pace through the 200, but they either fell off the pace on purpose or just didn’t have the ability to stay in contact with the WR line (or both). Fei Liwei making the final despite being seeded outside the top 16 was a great achievement, but 2023 bronze medalist Kieran Smith failed to make the final, finishing in 11th (3:46.47).

Smith’s poor performance brings us back to the article title. Not a single 400-meter medalist returns to the final, and the 2021 women’s bronze medalist, Li Bingjie, also missed out on the final. However, both Titmus and Ledecky return, as do four others, so that field hasn’t changed much at all.

What also could fit into the good category, but I am sliding into the unknown category is Mizuki Hirai. I’ll admit to a lack of information about Japanese swimming, but the 17-year-old currently sits as the #2 seed in the event after her prelims swim of 56.71. In addition to being young, we really just don’t know what to expect from her. She didn’t swim at this event at the 2023 Worlds, at the 2023 Asian Games, or at the 2024 Worlds, so she truly is an unknown commodity.