Alicia Coutts has been one of the top performers thus far at the World Championships, and her two silvers in the 100 fly and the 200 IM make her the first swimmer with multiple individual medals at these World Championships. The questions over the last week have been about whether or not Coutts could withstand the meet’s early storm where in the day 1 final session she had three swims (the two semi-finals above and the 400 free relay final) and the next night she had to repeat with finals in the 100 fly and 200 IM. The two races were spaced out to bookend the session, at about an hour and 15 minutes apart.
Coutts handled the double masterfully, and for her efforts will now earn some time off until Thursday’s 100 free prelims.
This begs the question: how fast can Coutts go with a little more rest? Well, the Olympics will provide some serious relief to her schedule. We can’t get ahead of ourselves yet, because Coutts still has to qualify for the London Olympics, but presuming she continues on her rising trajectory, the schedule actually works out quite perfectly for her. Without the presence of 50 meter races, the Olympic schedule usually looks drastically different than that of the World Championships. Here’s the breakdown of events that Coutts might swim:
| Date | Morning session Preliminary heats (10:00h local time) |
Evening session Semifinals & Finals (19:30h local time) |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday July 28 |
women’s 100 butterfly women’s 4×100 freestyle relay (may not swim heats) |
women’s 100 butterfly (semifinals) women’s 4×100 freestyle relay (final) |
| Sunday July 29 |
women’s 100 butterfly (final) | |
| Monday July 30 |
women’s 200 I.M. | women’s 200 I.M. (semifinals) |
| Tuesday July 31 |
women’s 200 I.M. (final) | |
| Wednesday August 1 |
women’s 100 freestyle women’s 4×200 freestyle relay (may qualify, may not swim heats) |
women’s 100 freestyle (semifinals) women’s 4×200 freestyle relay (final – may qualify) |
| Thursday August 2 |
women’s 100 freestyle (final) | |
| Friday August 3 |
women’s 4×100 medley relay (may not swim heats) | |
| Saturday August 4 |
no session (all preliminary heats completed) |
women’s 4×100 medley relay (final) |
While she will certainly still have a busy schedule (anyone swimming 5 or 6 events has to expect that), it will be much more manageable. The only event conflicts she ever has is between the semifinals of an individual and the finals of a relay, and only one of those seems like a sure thing (the 100 fly and the 400 free relay).
This could spell big things for Coutts in London, including multiple individual gold potential in the 100 fly and 200 IM.
In Mar 2010 Alicia was a pb 58.6 fly /54.7 free.
In the Im she felt it in the back. I can see a 2.8.4 without the multiple session swims.
I’m rooting for Coutts! She seems level-headed enough to be able to do it.. now just to cut a little more time..
BK, Thanks for clarifying coutts’ possible london schedule. This is great!
I was proposing that Coutts need to edit her events, but now it seems she can just continue with her current program because it’s all spaced out in 8 days