2021 U.S. OLYMPIC SWIMMING TRIALS
- When:
- Wave I Dates: June 4-7, 2021
- Wave II Dates: June 13-20, 2021
- Prelims: 10am CDT | Finals: 7pm CDT
- Where: CHI Health Center / Omaha, Nebraska
- 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifying Cuts
- Wave I & II Event Order
- LCM (50m)
- Day 5 Finals Live Stream
- Psych Sheets
- Wave II Live Results
- Day 5 Finals Heat Sheet
Night 6 of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials was a big night for athletes adding second events, opening the floodgates for the individual 2nd-place finishers and growing the Olympic roster.
Based on our math, all 2nd-place finishers in the women’s events should be added to the Olympic roster. Meanwhile, the men are just 1 double short of all of their 2nd-place finishers being cleared for Tokyo. With two days of racing left and multi-event specialists including Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Regan Smith, and Michael Andrew with more races forthcoming, it is likely 5th- and 6th-place finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyles are also likely to get the nod.
Lilly King, already qualified in the 100 breaststroke, finished 2nd in the 200 breast, earning her second individual event for Tokyo. Annie Lazor finished ahead of King, winning the longer discipline and adding her name to the Team USA roster. All of the top-4 finishers in the women’s 100 freestyle are new additions to the Tokyo Olympic team. Led by Abbey Weitzeil, Erika Brown, Olivia Smoliga, and Natalie Hinds will comprise the women’s 4×100 free relay in Tokyo. Catie DeLoof and Allison Schmitt placed 5th and 6th, respectively, to snag relay spots.
Ryan Murphy took the men’s 200 back and will be joined in Tokyo by Cal teammate Bryce Mefford, a first-time Olympian (pending roster finalization). Later, Michael Andrew and Chase Kalisz, both already qualified in one event each, placed 1st and 2nd, respectively, in the 200 IM, each earning their first double. Kalisz’s meet is over, while Andrew has one more chance to add another race with the upcoming 50 freestyle.
2021 U.S. OLYMPIC ROSTER AFTER DAY 4
Tonight’s new qualifiers are noted in bold.
Tentative qualifiers (who need a certain number of multi-event qualifiers to be officially added) are listed in italics.
Women:
- Emma Weyant: 400 IM
- Torri Huske: 100 fly
- Katie Ledecky: 200 free, 400 free, 1500 free, 4×200 free relay
- Regan Smith: 100 back, 200 fly
- Lilly King: 100 breast, 200 breast
- Allison Schmitt: 200 free, 4×200 free relay, 4×100 free relay
- Katie McLaughlin: 4×200 free relay
- Paige Madden: 400 free, 4×200 free relay
- Alex Walsh: 200 IM
- Hali Flickinger: 400 IM, 200 fly
- Annie Lazor: 200 breast
- Abbey Weitzeil: 100 free, 4×100 free relay
- Erika Brown: 100 free, 4×100 free relay
- Olivia Smoliga: 4×100 free relay
- Natalie Hinds: 4×100 free relay
- Claire Curzan: 100 fly
- Rhyan White: 100 back
- Lydia Jacoby: 100 breast
- Kate Douglass: 200 IM
- Erica Sullivan: 1500 free
- Bella Sims: 4×200 free relay
- Brooke Forde: 4×200 free relay
- Catie DeLoof: 4×100 free relay
Men:
- Chase Kalisz: 400 IM, 200 IM
- Kieran Smith: 400 free, 200 free, 4×200 free relay
- Michael Andrew: 100 breast, 200 IM
- Townley Haas: 200 free, 4×200 free relay
- Drew Kibler: 4×200 free relay
- Andrew Seliskar: 4×200 free relay
- Ryan Murphy: 100 back, 200 back
- Zach Harting: 200 fly
- Bobby Finke, 800 free
- Nic Fink, 200 breast
- Caeleb Dressel, 100 free, 4×100 free relay
- Zach Apple: 4×200 free relay, 100 free, 4×100 free relay
- Blake Pieroni: 4×100 free relay
- Brooks Curry: 4×100 free relay
- Jay Litherland: 400 IM
- Jake Mitchell: 400 free
- Andrew Wilson: 100 breast, 200 breast
- Hunter Armstrong: 100 back
- Gunnar Bentz: 200 fly
- Michael Brinegar: 800 free
- Bryce Mefford: 200 back
- Bowe Becker, 4×100 free relay
- Patrick Callan: 4×200 free relay
- Ryan Held: 4×100 free relay
DOUBLES
Here’s an overly-simplified version of the U.S. Olympic selection process: the team can have a maximum of 26 men and 26 women. Swimmers are added to the roster in these priorities until the roster cap is hit:
- Top 4 in 100/200 frees, Winner of all other events
- 2nd-place finisher in all events (besides 100/200 free)
- 5th-place finisher in 100/200 free
- 6th-place finisher in 100/200 free
We track ‘doubles’ as a way of knowing when the next priority of swimmers can be officially added to the team. A ‘double’ is effectively a swimmer qualifying in more than one event. One swimmer qualifying in three events counts as two ‘doubles’ for our purposes.
The Magic Numbers:
- 6 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all priority 2 athletes (2nd-place finishers) can be added for that gender
- 8 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all priority 3 athletes (5th-place in 100/200 free) can be added for that gender
- 10 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all priority 4 athletes (6th-place in 100/200 free) can be added for that gender
After Day 3:
- Women – 6 doubles:
- Katie Ledecky: 200/400/1500 free
- Regan Smith: 100 back, 200 fly
- Hali Flickinger: 200 fly, 400 IM
- Lilly King: 100/200 breast
- Paige Madden: 400 free/4×200 free relay
- Men – 6 doubles:
- Kieran Smith: 200/400 free
- Michael Andrew: 100 breast, 200 IM
- Ryan Murphy: 100/200 back
- Chase Kalisz: 200/400 IM
- Zach Apple: 100 free, 4×200 free relay
- Andrew Wilson: 100/200 breast
They should add men’s and women’s 800 medley relays, with no extra spots allocated.
What is the point of the number 26 anyway? Is this a FINA restriction or a USA swimming restriction? It is way too complicated. I think they should all go if they are top 2 individually and top 6 in 100 and 200 free and they meet the Olympic qualifying time constraints. No matter whose number it is, they should have added 2 to each sex for the extra event each sex has, making the number at least 28.
FINA has picked that number (have no idea what it is based on).
If Wilimovsky is top 2 at 1500, does he count towards those 26 spots?
There’s currently 24 men on the list. We could add 1 more for 100 fly and 1 more for 50 free. That’s 26. So the final event (1500 free), we’d need the top 2 to both be doubles. Can Wilimovsky count as a double? That would help the situation a lot.
No . He would count as 1 of the 26 and not as a double.
Women’s 4×100 free is gonna struggle to win bronze.
A lot can happen in the next couple of weeks
Never fear! Katie Ledecky Olympic Team Training Camp time trial is here!
Given what happened back in 2018, and what’s been mentioned in this thread already, I would encourage USA Swimming to be reading these threads, re-reading, and quintuple checking everything before naming the correct priority 4 athletes to the team in 2 days.
Is Team USA obligated to utilize Allison Schmitt as one of the six swimmers in the women’s 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay?
No.
She qualified in individual 200 free, she’s not “relay only”
No, since she has the 200 Free individually, she could theoretically skip all relays
Thanks! I was unclear on that issue.
She is individually qualified 2nd in 200 free, so although (6th) and thus qualified for the relay, she is not relay only so not relevant to this issue. But Held and Smoliga in 50 are best chance for one of the relay only swimmers to make an individual event.
If that doesn’t happen, they use the modified World rankings procedure (substitute the swimmers time in finals into the rankings even though outside the time period).
Held’s 48.46 would rank 36th;
Callan’s 1:46.49 would rank 28th;
Fordes’ 1:57.61 would rank 45th
so it appears that Forde is the swimmer at risk.
But if the men do not get enough doubles to get down to 26, then Held would be the one bumped, thus Forde is back in. Best and most likely solution is for Held to qualify in the 50.
Is this using the modified world rankings from USA Swimming site? I see Forde as 39th and Held as 45th? Integrating all times from the finals of the qualifying competition.
It was, but I did not integrate all times, just those of the swimmer in question – but don’t see how you have Held as 45th, just checked the times data base again and even adding in Becker and Curry still get Held as 37th. (Dressel, Apple Pieroni were already ahead of his).
Database appears to be flawed, list some swimmers twice for some reason, so the comment about USA swimming checking carefully appears relevant. Removing repeat swimmers I also get Forde as 37 – tie with Held. So whoever does the checking will need to double check and verify carefully to avoid embarrassment. But I’m rooting for Held in the 50 to avoid the problem altogether.
You have to use the world rankings search tool (https://www.usaswimming.org/times/data-hub/world-rankings-powered-by-usa-swimming). and set the time limits between 3/1/2019 and 6/7/2021 (that’s how I got Held at 48th), which omits duplicate performances (and then manually integrate the Trials results). That being said…the SWIMS time database that backs all of USA Swimming’s results is prone to have ratty, erroneous, and missing data, and while I don’t think there are likely to be enough errors to move Held up if he is still the 13th relay only swimmer, I would sure not want to be USA Swimming in this situation.
Agree with other replies; Held appears to be the last priority men’s selection and the last priority relay only selection if there are 13 combined relay only swimmers (see above at https://swimswam.com/day-6-u-s-roster-update-lazor-mefford-punch-tickets-and-a-flurry-of-doubles/#comment-928874).
So if Held does not make the 50 and assuming Finke doubles, the men will have 25 (one spot left) on the roster and Held will not be picked up?
It doesn’t have to be Held who doubles; any one of the 13 relay only swimmers who qualifies in one of the three remaining individual events will reduce the count to 12.
(ninja’d by earlier comment) One thing to note: by my current count, there are 13 relay only swimmers between the men and women, so one of those remaining relay only swimmers (Smoliga, Hinds, Deloof, McLaughlin, Sims, Forde, Pieroni, Curry, Becker, Held, Kibler, Seliskar, and Callan) needs to make an individual event, or someone (out of Held, Forde, and Callan) will get left home whether there’s a roster spot left or not. In that situation though, it would seem that the men would be more likely to run out for roster spots first.
Mefford?