Brazil’s De Deus Punches Ticket to Third Olympic Games, Costa Adds 800 Free

2021 BRAZILIAN OLYMPIC TRIALS

One swimmer added his name to Brazil’s Olympic roster during Wednesday’s finals session of the 2021 Brazilian Olympic Trials, and it was two-time Olympian Leonardo De Deus. This will be 30-year-old De Deus’s third consecutive Olympic Games, as he placed 13th in the 100 fly at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Tonight, he won the race with a substantial lead of about 3.5 seconds. After touching the wall with a time of 1:56.01, a little less than half a second under the qualifying time, and hopping out of the pool, De Deus gave a quick thumbs up and salute as he smiled at someone off-camera.

“I am very happy for this classification, it was not easy,” he told reporters after his race. You could see him grinning beneath his mask throughout most of the interview.

This swim ranks him 14th in the world this season behind South Africa’s Chad le Clos: 

2020-2021 LCM Men 200 Fly

KristofHUN
Milak
05/19
1:51.10
2Tomoru
Honda
JPN1:53.7307/28
3Federico
Burdisso
ITA1:54.2805/19
4Tamas
Kenderesi
HUN1:54.3705/18
5Eddie
Wang
TPE1:54.4407/26
6Antani
Ivanov
BUL1:54.5005/19
7Trenton
Julian
USA1:54.7108/03
8Leonardo
de Deus
BRA1:54.8307/26
9Zach
Harting
USA1:54.9207/26
10Chad
le Clos
RSA1:54.9307/28
11David
Thomasberger
GER1:55.0404/03
12Noe
Ponti
SUI1:55.0507/26
13James
Guy
GBR1:55.2004/15
13Daiya
Seto
JPN1:55.2004/06
View Top 37»

De Deus also finished in 13th place in the 200 backstroke at the 2016 Rio Olympics, an event that will be contested on Friday.

22-year-old Guilherme Costa added the 800 freestyle to his Olympic schedule during Wednesday’s finals session of the 2021 Brazilian Olympic Trials. The South American and Brazilian National Record-holder commanded the race, touching the wall 9 seconds ahead of the field with a time of 7:50.41 and ranking himself 8th in the world this season:

2020-2021 LCM Men 800 Free

2Florian
Wellbrock
GER7:41.7707/27
3Bobby
Finke
USA7:41.8707/27
4Gregorio
Paltrinieri
ITA7:41.9604/01
5Jack
McLoughlin
AUS7:42.5106/14
6Sergii
Frolov
UKR7:45.1107/29
7Ahmed
Hafnaoui
TUN7:45.5406/17
8Felix
Auboeck
AUT7:45.7307/27
View Top 26»

He was 3 seconds off his own South American record of 7:47.37 from the 2019 U.S. Open and he expressed some disappointment in his time tonight during his post-race interview. If he repeated that swim tonight, it would have been the 4th fastest 800 freestyle in the world this season.

However, Brazil’s distance star is set to swim the 1500 freestyle on Friday, and he told reporters that he is looking forward to it. His lifetime best time, 14:55.49 from the 2019 U.S. National Championships, is 5 seconds faster than the Olympic qualifying standard so he has a good chance of earning a spot on Brazil’s Olympic roster in every distance freestyle event.

Racing will continue tomorrow morning at 9:30 am local time (8:30 am EDT) with the men’s 100 freestyle, women’s 200 butterfly and men’s 200 breaststroke.

Brazilian Olympic Roster After Day 3

  1. Guilherme Costa: 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle
  2. Felipe Lima: 100 breaststroke
  3. Fernando Scheffer: 200 freestyle
  4. Breno Correia: 200 freestyle
  5. Guilherme dias Masse: 100 backstroke
  6. Guilherme Guido: 100 backstroke
  7. Leonardo De Deus: 200 butterfly

FINA “A” Standards:

MEN’S CUT EVENT WOMEN’S CUT
22.01 50 freestyle 24.77
48.57 100 m freestyle 54.38
1:47.02 200 m freestyle 1:57.28
3:46.78 400 m freestyle 4:07.90
7:54.31 800 m freestyle 8:33.36
15:00.99 1500 m freestyle 16:32.04
53.85 100 m backstroke 1:00.25
1:57.50 200 m backstroke 2:10.39
59.93 100 m breaststroke 1:07.07
2:10.35 200 m breaststroke 2:25.52
51.96 100 m butterfly 57.92
1:56.48 200 m butterfly 2:08.43
1:59.67 200 m individual medley 2:12.56
4:15.84 400 m individual medley 4:38.53

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About Annika Johnson

Annika Johnson

Annika came into the sport competitively at age eight, following in the footsteps of her twin sister and older brother. The sibling rivalry was further fueled when all three began focusing on distance freestyle, forcing the family to buy two lap counters. Annika is a three-time Futures finalist in the 200 …

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