U.S. Trials’ Impact On World’s Top 5 In Each Event: Men’s Edition

With the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials done and dusted, let’s take a look at where the best of the stars n’ stripes stand among the rest of the world with the Olympic Games in Rio scheduled to kick-off just 20 days from now. We’ll review the men’s world rankings in this piece, strictly looking at the top 5, before publishing a separate post for the women.

When looking at the top 5 in each event around the globe, Australia holds the most #1 ranked swims of the season for the men. Backstroking dynamo Mitch Larkin owns the top marks in both the 100m and 200m distances, while teenager Mack Horton holds the top seed in the 400m freestyle and “The Professor”, Cameron McEvoy, claims a #1 rank of his own in the stunner of a time he threw down in the men’s 100m freestyle at Australian Trials – 47.04.

Conversely, America has just one top-ranked swim in Cal weapon Josh Prenot‘s 200m breaststroke from Trials. His mark of 2:07.17 from Omaha was just .16 of a second off of the current World Record and sets Prenot up as a major player to top the podium in Rio.

What the United States lacks in number of #1 times, however, they make up for in #2 placements, highlighted by 31-year-old Michael Phelps‘s 200m IM and 100m butterfly outings from Trials. Cal grad Nathan Adrian sits as the 2nd-fastest swimmer in his gold medal event from 2012, the men’s 100m freestyle, while Kevin Cordes, David Plummer and Ryan Murphy also hold the world’s #2 times in the 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke, respectively.

Two notable performances that stand out within the rankings include Conor Dwyer‘s 200m freestyle time of 1:45.41 that is positioned as 3rd best in the world headed into Rio. Although within the top 5, Dwyer’s outing did not take place in Omaha, but rather in Santa Clara at an Arena Pro Swim Series stop. His time in Omaha was 1:45.67 to finish 2nd to Texas young gun Townley Haas, with both of those men’s Omaha marks sitting out of the world’s top 5.

The other eye-opening performance within the landscape of the world’s best is Pebley‘s 100m backstroke time. His 52.95 from Omaha is ranked 5th in the world but finished just 4th at Trials and, therefore, out of the competition in Rio. The fact someone can rank within the world’s top 5 yet out of the Olympic Games speaks to the immensely speedy depth in the event by the American men.

Below is a complete list of the world’s top 5 times headed into Rio for each men’s event.

2015-2016 LCM Men 200 IM

MichaelUSA
PHELPS
08/11
1.54.66
2Kosuke
HAGINO
JPN1.55.0704/08
3Ryan
LOCHTE
USA1.56.2207/01
4Shun
WANG
CHN1.57.0508/11
5Thiago
PEREIRA
BRA1.57.1108/10
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 400 IM

KosukeJPN
HAGINO
08/06
4.06.05
2Chase
KALISZ
USA4.06.7508/06
3Daiya
SETO
JPN4.08.4708/06
4Jay
LITHERLAND
USA4.11.0206/26
5Thomas
FRASER-HOLMES
AUS4.11.0904/07
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 50 Free

2Bruno
FRATUS
BRA21.37*relay12/18
3Anthony
ERVIN
USA21.4008/12
4Cameron
McEVOY
AUS21.4404/13
5Andrii
GOVOROV
UKR21.4608/11
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 100 Free

2Kyle
CHALMERS
AUS47.58*WJR08/10
3Nathan
ADRIAN
USA47.7206/30
4Pieter
TIMMERS
BEL47.8008/10
5Santo
CONDORELLI
CAN47.8808/10
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 200 Free

SunCHN
YANG
08/07
1.44.63
2James
GUY
GBR1.45.1904/17
3Chad
LE CLOS
RSA1.45.2008/08
4Conor
DWYER
USA1.45.2308/08
5Paul
BIEDERMANN
GER1.45.4505/08
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 400 Free

MackAUS
HORTON
08/06
3.41.55
2Sun
YANG
CHN3.41.6808/06
3Conor
DWYER
USA3.43.4208/06
4Gabriele
DETTI
ITA3.43.4908/06
5Connor
JAEGER
USA3.43.7906/26
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 1500 Free

2Connor
JAEGER
USA14.39.4808/13
3Mack
HORTON
AUS14.39.5404/14
4Gabriele
DETTI
ITA14.40.8608/13
5Jordan
WILIMOVSKY
USA14.45.0308/13
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 100 FLY

JosephSIN
SCHOOLING
08/12
50.39*OR
2Laszlo
CSEH
HUN50.8605/21
3Michael
PHELPS
USA51.0007/02
4Chad
LE CLOS
RSA51.0911/07
5Tom
SHIELDS
USA51.2007/02
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 200 FLY

LaszloHUN
CSEH
05/19
1.52.91
2Michael
PHELPS
USA1.53.3608/09
3Masato
SAKAI
JPN1.53.4008/09
4Tamas
KENDERESEI
HUN1.53.6208/09
5Chad
LE CLOS
RSA1.54.0608/09
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 100 BREAST

AdamGBR
PEATY
08/07
57.13 *WR*OR
2Cameron
VAN DER BURGH
RSA58.6908/07
3Cody
MILLER
USA58.8708/07
4Yasuhiro
KOSEKI
JPN58.9108/06
5Kevin
CORDES
USA58.9406/26
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Men 200 BREAST

JoshUSA
PRENOT
06/30
2.07.17
2Ippei
WATANABE
JPN2.07.22*OR08/09
3Dmitriy
BALANDIN
KAZ2.07.4608/10
4Marco
KOCH
GER2.07.6901/30
5Anton
CHUPKOV
RUS2.07.7008/10
View Top 24»

2015-2016 LCM Men 100 BACK

RyanUSA
MURPHY
08/13
51.85*WR*OR
2Mitchell
LARKIN
AUS52.1111/06
3David
PLUMMER
USA52.1206/27
4Jiayu
XU
CHN52.3108/08
5Matt
GREVERS
USA52.5412/03
View Top 27»

2015-2016 LCM Men 200 BACK

MitchellAUS
LARKIN
11/07
1.53.17
2Ryan
MURPHY
USA1.53.6208/11
3Evgeny
RYLOV
RUS1.53.9708/11
4Jacob
PEBLEY
USA1.54.7707/01
5Jiayu
XU
CHN1.54.7904/08
View Top 26»

 

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Pa swimmer
8 years ago

I’m worried for America this year

Andrew
8 years ago

Phelps will be fine… personally I still think he breaks 3 World Record, the way I saw it, he shut it down in both the 100 and 200 then tried picking it back up when Shields was coming up along side him. The US should still win at least 5 mens gold medals and the women should at least win 3 or 4

Swamfan
8 years ago

Too bad there’s not a 4×100 back relay

BC Eagles
8 years ago

How lame must it be to be the fourth and fifth fastest 100 backstrokers in the world and not get to go to Rio

Arya
Reply to  BC Eagles
8 years ago

Jacob Pebley who is fifth fastest in the world actually is gong to Rio and will swim, albeit in other event, the same situation also happens to Emma mckeon who is fourth fastest in the world and doesn’t get to swim 100 free in Rio.

bobo gigi
8 years ago

How many number 1 positions USA had 4 years ago before London?

Zika Ziki
Reply to  bobo gigi
8 years ago

Individual events:
Allison Schmitt (200 free)
Missy Franklin (100 back, 200 back)
Matt Grevers (200 back)
Rebecca Soni (100 breast, 200 breast)
Dana Vollmer (100 fly)
Michael Phelps (100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM)
Ryan Lochte (400 IM)
Elizabeth Beisel (400 IM)

So that’s 12.

Zika Ziki
Reply to  Zika Ziki
8 years ago

typo.. Grevers should have been 100 back

Jon Isaacson
Reply to  Zika Ziki
8 years ago

Since we’re only talking about the men here, it’s three.

bobo gigi
Reply to  Zika Ziki
8 years ago

Thanks Zika Ziki.
And the result was 9 golds out of these 12 events.
Add Adrian (100 free), Ledecky (800 free), Clary (200 back), the men’s 4X200 free, men’s 4X100 medley, women’s 4X200 free and women’s 4X100 medley relays and you have the impressive total of 16 golds out of 32 events in the pool.

This year USA leads only the men’s 200 breast, women’s 400 free, women’s 800 free and women’s 100 breast.

Rafael
Reply to  bobo gigi
8 years ago

And fastest add up time of 3 relay men medley and both 4×200 of the 4 leading only 2 are sure gold and possible more would be both men fly and 100 back. Sorry but can’t pit adrian as possible mcevoy is very far ahead

Zika Ziki
Reply to  Rafael
8 years ago

Yes, I think around 10 golds in Rio for USA.

XML
8 years ago

I think our USA team is in trouble.

BackstrokerLCM
8 years ago

Well looks like the USA is still ultra dominant in backstroke if I was Larkin I would be scared…

Swammer
8 years ago

Dat 100 back doe…

About Retta Race

Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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