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 8 Finals Live Stream (NBC)
• Psych Sheets
• Wave II Live Results
• Day 8 Finals Heat Sheet

USA Swimming National Team Managing Director, Lindsay Mintenko, and the USA Olympic men’s and women’s coaches, Greg Meehan and Dave Durden, discussed the USA Olympic team in general, along with a few of the specific athletes that Meehan and Durden coach, after the conclusion of the final night of the 2021 US Olympic Trials.

Some of the most indelible images of the last week involved swimmer who had qualified for the team consoling those who hadn’t, even in the moments right after the race ended. Asked about those moments, Meehan said:

I think if you ask National Team alumni their experiences over the years competing for Team USA, it’s not about the times; it’s the experiences. These people love and care about each other. When you get out to that camp setting, spending that quality time together, getting to know the new folks, reengaging with people they haven’t seen in — you know, some of them are really close and they haven’t seen each other in such a long time. 

They’re ecstatic just to be able to do that, knowing that’s coming. For Abbey and Simone in the 50, that was a cool moment. Their schools are what, 30 miles apart, but they never see each other because of some of the restrictions through this year. There is that bond. They had their Stanford and Cal rivalry over the years, but as soon as they finished on that 50 they’re on Team USA. Now we’re ready to go compete against the rest of the world. 

I think you see that throughout the course of the meet. It’s a genuine love and care for their teammates and the consoling of those that aren’t moving on because they really care about them. 

Meehan described what it took for Simone Manuel to make the team after a diagnosis of overtraining syndrome and what the next few weeks look like for her.

 We’re going to take it day by day. Much like everything in the last 18 months, you have a plan and then you adjust the plan, then that plan gets adjusted. So we will have — I have a plan already in place, but we will take it day by day and make some adjustments. I think tonight was so representative of Simone’s competitive spirit. She could have not had a coach for the last year and still done what she did tonight because in that moment she is just so tough. Her mental toughness and her competitive spirit is what makes her truly great. 

That was amazing to see. She just willed herself to that. We’re just going to take it day by day and make sure we are focusing on her health and at the same time trying to maximize performance. 

Durden talked about finally having data points to use in evaluating what the athletes need in the next 5 weeks, after having not had a really big meet in two years.

So the beauty about that now is we have eight days of information on that. We have waited a long time to get that information, but we have eight days of information and it helps us do our job better. I would probably guess every coach would tell you that. It’s like, thank goodness we actually have information now so we can go forward and make our athletes better. 

We have a data point now, so that’s what I’m excited about. I now know, okay, this is what I need to tweak a little bit for Murph. This is what I need to tweak for (Andrew Seliskar). I get excited about the next eight weeks and how it’s going to help me be a better coach. 

Mintenko discussed the challenges that pandemic-related health and safety measure would pose for the team in the weeks ahead, but mentioned one point of good news — fully vaccinated team members would not necessarily be prohibited from competition if they were contact traced.

I do think they have modified their rules a bit. They are now taking into consideration vaccination status. They aren’t going to automatically disqualify you if you are contact traced at this point. That was good news for us. I have a lot of concerns going into the next few weeks. The health and safety of our athletes is always our number one priority. It takes on a whole new meaning this year. 

We have a strict protocol in place during training camp.  That’s why everybody who has been on this pool deck has been asked to be safe when they are on this pool deck.  This virus is still here. It’s out there, and we’re going into an environment where we have no idea what the other population has been doing to protect themselves. That makes me nervous. We are going to do a lot to protect ourselves. But I’m nervous about what we’re going to walk into.