Day 4 Scratches, Missy Franklin Drops the 50 Backstroke

Missy Franklin of the United States is two for two with Gold medals at the World Championships this week. She is going for her third medal in the women’s 200 freestyle tonight. Federica Pellegrini, the current World Record holder is the favorite to win the Gold medal tonight but Missy Franklin will be very competitive. She is seeded second after the semi-finals. Last night, she had a challenging double, swimming the semi-finals of the 200 freestyle after winning the Gold medal in the women’s 100 backstroke finals.

Tonight, she will need to be fully rested if she wants to beat Pellegrini. She has decided to scratch the 50m backstroke. The 50 backstroke would have been first, with only one heat of the men’s 200 butterfly before her 200 freestyle. She was seeded 13th going into the semi-finals with a time of 28.44.

Note that by combination of the qualifying rules from USA Swimming and FINA,ย Megan Romanoย would have been the only other swimmers eligible to swim this race at the World Championships had Franklin scratched the race immediately after the World Championship Trials. She is the only swimmer aside from Franklin and Bootsmaย who was already on the roster and had a FINA Automatic Qualifying Time during the qualifying period (she did so at the Charlotte Grand Prix).

Anni Alitaloย of Finland will take Franklin’s place in the semi-final of the 50 backstroke. Alitalo tied withย Ingibjorgย Jonsdottirย of Iceland at 28.62 for the 17th position. At this time, I am not sure how it was decided that Alitaloย would get to advance to the semi-finals, but as soon as we hear back from FINA, we will update the article.

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ERVINFORTHEWIN
10 years ago

I knew she would drop her weakest event to focus mostly on 200 free final today ! She knows what she is doing ! Smart move Missy

coach
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
10 years ago

Smart move? How about selfish move? The majority of the world knew she would drop this event, especially with the turn around before the 200 free tonight and the double she has tomorrow.

At least Katie Ledecky scratched the 200 free before entries were due so that Shannon could be added to the individual event (who ended up making A final) and Karlee could be added to the team.

I hope Missy’s coach never has an athlete on the reverse end of what they just did to Pelton.

Admin
Reply to  coach
10 years ago

coach – as Joeyjoey said, Pelton could not have swum it, as she didn’t have an ‘A’ cut. Megan Romano was the only other swimmer who would have been eligible when combining USA Swimming’s and FINA’s rules.

bobo gigi
10 years ago

Smartest decision ever of Missy! ๐Ÿ™‚
She will be fresh for the 200 free tonight.
Tomorrow will be enough hard for her with the 100 free before the the 4X200 free relay. No need to have a 50 back final in the same session.
If Hagino or Belmonte Garcia could have the same lucidity! ๐Ÿ˜†

suzzie2012
Reply to  bobo gigi
10 years ago

Why did she swim it at the first place?? Pelton had no events today and would have been much faster.. Same question as for Seebohm scratching 200 IM for Aussies.

zebrafeet
Reply to  suzzie2012
10 years ago

i’ve thought since trials that the 50 events should have the 1-2 requirements as the other events. to simply place the 1st place finisher in the 100 as the entry makes not sense (unless the team is full). Correct me if I’m wrong, but for this year’s world team every 1-2 finisher in the 50 could have earned a slot. it will be problematic in the 50 fly is vollmer is unable to compete since christine magnuson has the first slot and i think it’s too late to enter donahue. that might have been the case today re:missy swimming prelims. it was too late to enter pelton, and it gave missy a morning swim. (and no, i’m not looking at… Read more ยป

duckduckgoose
Reply to  zebrafeet
10 years ago

Wise decision, but slightly more calculated than what we’re used to seeing from Missy. Not like Missy, Todd, and Teri just noticed that Missy potentially would have busy Wednesday and (especially) Thursday night schedules.

Wise to get in a morning warm up swim, but denies a future college teammate and friend additional swim(s) on the international stage. Bootsma or Tran will swim back on the 200 medley relay for Cal, but it still would have been helpful to get Pelton some additional high level international experience.

Joeyjoey
Reply to  duckduckgoose
10 years ago

Pelton couldn’t swim it. Doesn’t have an A cut.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  bobo gigi
10 years ago

You forgot to bash Hosszu’s event lineup, too.

Which, again, I think they all have decent reasons for swimming so many events. Hagino/Hosszu might want to figure out what events they’re viable in internationally in coming years and Belmonte Garcia is swimming in her home country.

Pray tell, were you similarly pissed at Phelps for swimming the 200 Free at the Athens Olympics?

Chris
10 years ago

Ironically, the 50 back was her first individual medal at an international lcm meet.

liquidassets
10 years ago

Agreed; even if she somehow got down to 27.7-27.8, it’ll be a blanket finish and her chance of both not medaling and then also hurting her 200 free is high. I want to watch her do battle with the other 4 contenders in the 200 without having to wonder if she was compromised….

zebrafeet
10 years ago

glad to see this move. blah, blah, blah missy and her starts comment here. seriously, i think this is a wise move: it’s not an oly distance and probably was her weakest event.

About Tony Carroll

Tony Carroll

The writer formerly known as "Troy Gennaro", better known as Tony Carroll, has been working with SwimSwam since April of 2013. Tony grew up in northern Indiana and started swimming in 2003 when his dad forced him to join the local swim team. Reluctantly, he joined on the condition that โ€ฆ

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