2024 JAPANESE OLYMPIC TRIALS
- Sunday, March 17th – Sunday, March 24th
- Tokyo Aquatics Center
- LCM (50m)
- Japan’s Olympic Selection Criteria
- Entries
- SwimSwam Entries Post
- Preview #1 / Preview #2
- Day 1 Prelims Recap | Day 1 Finals Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Recap| Day 2 Finals Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Recap| Day 3 Finals Recap
- Live Result
- Livestream
The women’s 400m IM podium at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games is guaranteed to look different than Tokyo as reigning gold medalist Yui Ohashi missed qualification.
Racing in the finals at the Japanese Olympic Trials this evening, 28-year-old double Olympic champion Ohashi wound up in 4th place, producing a time of 4:38.89.
As we warned what could happen in our preview of this event, Ohashi was outshined by the rising stars within the nation.
17-year-old Mio Narita busted out a new lifetime best and Japanese High School Record of 4:35.40 en route to winning tonight’s race. Narita’s effort easily dipped under the Japanese Swimming Federation (JASF)-mandated selection standard of 4:38.53 needed to qualify for Paris, further solidifying her as a bonafide threat for a medal this summer.
Narita’s result overtook her previous PB, which stood at 4:36.72 notched in 2022 to hold the World Junior Record briefly. Narita now checks in as Japan’s #3 performer in history and the #2 swimmer in the world this season.
2023-2024 LCM Women 400 IM
McINTOSH
4:24.34 WR
| 2 | Kaylee MCKEOWN | AUS | 4:28.22 | 04/18 |
| 3 | Katie GRIMES | USA | 4:32.45 | 04/13 |
| 4 | Freya Colbert | GBR | 4:34.01 | 04/04 |
| 5 | Anastasia GORBENKO | ISR | 4:34.87 | 06/01 |
After Narita was Ageha Tanigawa who touched a hair behind in 4:35.60. That shaved .05 off her previous career-quickest result of 4:35.65 put up for silver at last year’s Asian Games. She, too, added her name to the Japanese roster for Paris with her performance.
Ohashi topped the Tokyo 4IM podium in a time of 4:32.08. It was 3 years earlier when Ohashi posted her personal best and Japanese national record of 4:30.82 to rank as the 7th-best performer in history.
In the past couple of years, however, Ohashi has been a tier down in terms of performance. She notched a time of 4:37.99 to place 5th at the 2022 World Championships while her quickest effort in 2023 came last December when she put up 4:39.08 at the Japan Open.
Ohashi’s misfire resembles Olympic teammate Daiya Seto‘s missed opportunity in the men’s edition of the 400m IM. Seto did land on the podium here with silver but his result was outside the JASF QT, rendering him off the Olympic roster.
As with Seto, Ohashi will have another Olympic qualification chance in the 200m IM event.
Feel a little bad for her but she got her double gold at a home Olympics which only a handful of swimmers in history can say so I’m sure she’s fine
Love her so much. Four incredibly beautiful strokes!
Ohashi “timed” her peak perfectly, to coincide with her hometown Olympics. Without knowing anything about her personal situation, I’d guess that she’s basically been coasting off her Tokyo Olympic glory for the past three years. Hope she got rich off it.
Gracenote predicted that she would win 2 medals in the IM events, ahead of mcintosh in the 200im. Shows how dumb that list is
There’s no valid argument for that. Ohashi is a great swimmer, but her 200 IM PB is a 2:07.91 from 2017! McIntosh’s PB is over a second faster, and is from last year (and has already neared it this year).
The 200 IM final will be super exciting this year, but it’s only between Douglass, Walsh, McKeown, and McIntosh. It always was…
I wouldn’t rule out Yu Yiting from medal contention
Where can you see the predictions?
They aren’t released, but they are kinda scattered around the internet. https://totallympics.com/forums/topic/20500-summer-olympic-games-paris-2024-medal-predictions/page/7/#comments there is a few on here
What is Gracenote? A person? A predictive program?
I don’t think a single person in the world would have predicted Ohashi over McIntosh in Paris.
its like the website that predicts the olympic medal table each year. Pretty sure its all mathematical but even that doesn’t make sense
Gracenote does its calculations off the last WCs as well- the 2024 Swimming WCs are not a good indication of the medal winners in Paris 2024.
this is fake news. delete this!! i literally saw this race in person with my own eyes. yui ohashi went a 4:24.67
Literally
did she swim in uzbekistan?
no, japan. duh
what do u mean? japanese olympic trials are being held in uzbekistan this year
nah ❤️
Nohashi 😔
HAVING Japanese trials this early in the calendar certainly doesn’t seemed to have helped anyone that I can see. Apart from major swimming already NOT making it, how on earth do the qualifiers keep their edge? Sure, other countries have “early” trials compared to “Late Larry” USA Trials, but this is not lookin’ good.
Early trials work for a lot of countries. As I’ve said elsewhere, I think the problem the Japanese have is that their spring trials are effectively 5 months into their LC season – They start LC racing (Konami, KK Cup, Japan Open, Inter-College) in October when every other country that relies solely on spring trials for Olympic qualification is effectively in hibernation, save for a few SCM tune ups.
I think you either want trials far enough that you can fully taper, and get back in serious training and then fully taper for the Olympics, or close enough that you can double taper. Trials in May seem to be the bad spot where it’s too close yet too far.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of countries in the next decade push trials closer to the event considering the success Australia has had with it recently (obviously taking the lead from USA)
Not like Seto at all. He finished second and did a good time.
Yeah, Ohashi has been in quite a considerable slump since her stunning performance in Tokyo and quite a few of us saw this coming.
Even if JASF based their QT’s on the World Aquatics A standard, 3 people finished ahead of her. Hopefully she does better in the 2IM but I must confess that her Olympic Qualifying chances are grim.
Regardless of what happens in the future, sweeping the IM’s in a single Olympics is a massive feat and her legacy is more than secure.
I’d imagine it’s tough to want to train for a 400 IM when you’ve already won gold at a home Olympics. At her peak, she was 100% capable of a sub 4:30, but as it is, she still has the fastest PB of any active swimmer not named Summer McIntosh, and it’s faster than the oldest-remaining American Record as well. I’m not sure why she didn’t retire, but it seems that Japanese swimmers continue to swim well past their peak years. I’m not sure if that’s societal, pressure from the federation, or they just love the sport that much and can make a living from it.
Ye Shiwen is still active.