National Junior Teamer Rachel Stege Currently Recovering From Shoulder Injury

2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS

U.S. National Teamer and future Georgia Bulldog Rachel Stege is currently recovering from rotator cuff tendinitis that has limited her training leading up to Olympic Trials, according to a reliable source. This information coming to light provides some context behind Stege’s times this week, which have been well off her personal bests. Stege, the bronze medalist at the 2019 World Junior Championships in the 400 freestyle, was seeded 9th in that event heading into this week at 4:08.30, but added almost 11 seconds to finish in 4:19.24. She also competed in the 200 free, where she added 5 seconds from her 1:59.90 seed to finish in 2:05.06.

Stege is perhaps best known in swimming circles for her results in the summer of 2019, where she finished 12th in the 400 free (4:10.05) and 19th in the 800 free (8:38.42) at the 2019 U.S. Summer National Championships.  Those swims took her to the 2019 World Junior Championships, where she won a bronze medal in the 400 freestyle in 4:08.30.

While this is undoubtedly frustrating for the swim star from Naperville, Illinois, this is likely not the last time we will be hearing from Stege at big meets. Provided she’s healthy, Stege will be an immediate impact swimmer for the University of Georgia this fall, where best short course times from this past fall of 1:46.40 in the 200 and 4:40.03 in the 500 freestyle put her in great position to score individual and relay points at SEC’s and NCAA’s.

Stege’s older sister, Kristen Stege, has continued her breakout year with an excellent meet so far. As a sophomore at Tennessee this past NCAA season, Kristen, who is relatively new to distance swimming, finished 9th and 4th in the 500 and 1650 freestyles at the 2021 NCAA Championships. She has backed that up this week with a lifetime best time in the 400 freestyle (4:15.02), as well as a 7-second drop to place 9th in the 1500 freestyle (16:20.55).

4
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

4 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
osd
3 years ago

Swimming the event for the 3rd time in her life, Kristen got 9th at the US Olympic Trials.

Coach Rob
3 years ago

Awesome.

Fishy fish
Reply to  Coach Rob
3 years ago

What’s that supposed to mean

SwimMom
Reply to  Fishy fish
3 years ago

Right? What a mean-spirited comment.

About Morgan Priestley

Morgan Priestley

A Stanford University and Birmingham, Michigan native, Morgan Priestley started writing for SwimSwam in February 2013 on a whim, and is loving that his tendency to follow and over-analyze swim results can finally be put to good use. Morgan swam competitively for 15+ years, primarily excelling in the mid-distance freestyles. While …

Read More »