2022 US SUMMER NATIONALS
- Tuesday July 26 – Saturday, July 30, 2022
- William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 5 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Meet website
- Meet information
- Psych Sheet
- OMEGA Live Results
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap
17 year old Erin Gemmell of Nation’s Capital Swim Club swam a personal best time this morning in the women’s LCM 200 freestyle swimming a 1:57.12. That time beat her previous best of 1:57.41 from April 2022 at Sectionals in Indianapolis. Last week, she swam a 1:57.45 in the event at her local summer league meet.
Gemmell will be in lane five tonight as she is the second seed heading into tonight’s final. Katie Ledecky is the top seed after swimming a 1:56.75 this morning.
Notably, Gemmell was faster this morning than she was at 2022 US International Team Trials in April as there she swam a 1:57.93 in prelims and a 1:58.12 in finals to finish seventh. Here time from this morning would have finished third, just 0.04 seconds off of tying with second place finisher Claire Weinstein.
Her time this morning also moves her up to the #20 US women in the event all-time. She sat at #23 all-time prior to this morning and now passes up Madisyn Cox, Cierra Runge, and Morgan Scroggy.
The swim by Gemmell is huge from a national standpoint, especially in regards to the American women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. At the 2002 Tokyo Olympics, the US relay of Allison Schmitt, Paige Madden, Katie McLaughlin, and Katie Ledecky finished second in finals of the 4×200 free relay. Notably, only one of those four, Ledecky, qualified for the 4×200 freestyle relay at the 2022 World Championships.
The future of the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay looks bright for the US though as the US was represented by Claire Weinstein, Leah Smith, Ledecky, and Bella Sims. The four combined to win gold in a 7:41.45 at 2022 Worlds.
Weinstein is only 15 years old and Sims is only 17 years old. Notably, Weinstein swam a best time to lead off the American relay in finals at Worlds, and Sims had a huge anchor split of 1:54.60 to secure the win.
Could the US women’s 4×200 freestyle relay next summer at Worlds potentially have three teenagers on it?
Based on her personal best 54.6 set yesterday in 100FR she is ready for 1:56 in 200 distance. Cannot wait to see it. But what a terrible reaction time she has. Yesterday in 100FR final it was 0.82sec and this morning it was 0.79sec. In the best traditions of Cate Campbell. But she isn’t that tall to need more time to accelerate. Is it some physiological problems or just a poor training of this element of race?