Finlay Knox Swims 200 IM Canadian Record To Book First Individual Paris Qualification

2024 CANADIAN OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRIALS

• May 13-19, 2024
• Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• Swimming Canada Olympic Selection Criteria
• Psych Sheets (Updated 05/10)
• Live Results

Finlay Knox has had a busy week at the 2024 Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Trials. Two days ago, he booked a spot on the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay by finishing third in a personal best (48.29). Earlier in the meet, he won the men’s 100 breaststroke with a 1:00.66 personal best. And while he won that race, he was outside the Olympic qualification time, which means that race qualified him for a spot on the 4×100 medley relay. So, the 23-year-old came into tonight’s finals session still seeking an individual event qualification for the Paris Olympics.

And tonight in his signature event, the 200 IM, he punched that ticket in style, swimming a new Canadian record (1:56.07).

The record that he broke was his own, bettering the mark of 1:56.64 that he swam to win the Canadian men’s first world championship title since 2007. Knox surprised out of lane 7 for that gold medal, he hung in third for much of the race then charged home on the freestyle leg in 27.79 to pass Americans Carson Foster and Shaine Casas for gold.

Analyzing his race on the SwimSwam Podcast in March, Knox said that he was happy with the time, but pointed towards the splitting as something that he wanted to improve. “If you look at the splitting it’s not fantastic. I’ll be the first to admit it’s not very impressive how it was split.”

Knox 200 IM PB Split Progression

In particular, Knox cited the breaststroke split at Worlds as something that he wanted to improve on. “It’s all information that we’re gathering for Olympic Trials and hopefully the Olympics,” he said.

He and his coaches put that information to good use as tonight in the Olympic Trials final, he got his breaststroke split down to 33.81, a .70 second different from his split at 2024 World Championships. In fact, the first three legs of his race tonight were faster than his world title winning performance. Only his freestyle was slower, as he split 28.50 whereas in his two previous personal bests he’d brought it home sub-28 seconds.

Now that Knox has earned a Priority 1 berth to the Olympic Games, he can turn his attention solely to Paris. The 2024 World Championships were missing some of the biggest names, but Knox is showing this season that he belongs in that category. His 1:56.07 ranks him 4th in the world this season behind only Wang Shun, Duncan Scott, and Shaine Casas.

The other additions to Canada’s Olympic Roster through Day 6 are Summer McIntosh and Josh Liendo adding events to their schedules. McIntosh threw down a 2:04.33 200 butterfly, posting the fastest time in the world this year and just missing her own Canadian record. The swim is the 12th fastest performance in history.

Meanwhile, after matching his 100 freestyle personal best earlier in the meet, Liendo completed his sweep of the sprint events. He smashed his own Canadian record with a 21.48 to win the event. That swim launches him into the top 10 in the world this season as the 4th fastest swimmer.

CANADIAN OLYMPIC SELECTION PRIORITIES:

Note: For a full description of each priority category, click on the selection criteria link above. (Updated April 15, 2024)

• Priority One: The first and second placed swimmers in the ‘A’ final who earn the Olympic Qualifying Time (OQT)
• Priority Two – Relay Nominations: The relay time add-up of the top four-placed swimmers in the 100 and 200 freestyles. For the medley relays, the relay add-up will be reached with the times of the top qualifiers from the 100 back, 100 breast, 100 fly, and 100 free. If a swimmer wins multiple 100s, then the times of second-place swimmer in those events will be considered.
• Priority Three: If no swimmer or only one swimmer at the 2024 Canadian Trials earns an OQT in an event, then a swimmer who’s achieved an OQT within the qualifying period and finished top two at Trials will be nominated.
• Priority Four: In an event that does not have any nominations through Priorities 1-3, then an event winner who has achieved on Olympic Consideration Time and swims within 1% of their fastest time in the qualification window at Trials will be provisionally nominated. World Aquatics sent out a memo that Olympic “B” cut swimmers may not qualify because of the athlete quotas. An athlete who hits a “B” cut here but who has an “A” cut from another Olympic qualifying meet in the qualification period, though, wouldn’t be subject to those World Aquatics limits.
• Priority Five: The selection committee has the discretion to nominate eligible swimmers to improve relays at the advice of the High Performance Director.

Editor’s note: Swimming Canada updated the selection criteria on April 15. The priorities below reflect the updated criteria.

PRIORITY 1 SWIMS THRU DAY 6 (OLYMPIC A CUTS, TOP 2):

• Summer McIntosh — women’s 400 freestyle (3:59.06)
• Maggie MacNeil — women’s 100 butterfly (56.61)
• Mary-Sophie Harvey — women’s 100 butterfly (57.32)
• Tristan Jankovics – men’s 400 IM (4:11.74)
• Summer McIntosh – women’s 200 freestyle (1:53.69)
• Mary-Sophie Harvey – women’s 200 freestyle (1:55.44)
• Blake Tierney — men’s 100 backstroke (53.48)
• Javier Acevedo — men’s 100 backstroke (53.55)
• Kylie Masse — women’s 100 backstroke (57.94)
• Ingrid Wilm — women’s 100 backstroke (59.31)
• Summer McIntosh — women’s 400 IM (4:24.38)
• Josh Liendo — men’s 100 freestyle (47.55)
• Yuri Kisil — men’s 100 freestyle (48.19)
• Kylie Masse — women’s 200 backstroke (2:06.24)
• Regan Rathwell — women’s 200 backstroke (2:09.38)
• Blake Tierney — men’s 200 backstroke (1:56.74)
• Sydney Pickrem — women’s 200 breaststroke (2:23.79)
• Kelsey Wog — women’s 200 breaststroke (2:23.80)
• Ilya Kharun — men’s 200 butterfly (1:54.41)
• Summer McIntosh — women’s 200 butterfly (2:04.33)
• Finlay Knox — men’s 200 IM (1:56.07)
• Josh Liendo — men’s 50 freestyle (21.48)

PRIORITY 2 SWIMS THRU DAY 6 (FREE RELAY TOP 4S AND MEDLEY RELAY TOP 1S):

• Julie Brousseau — women’s 200 freestyle (1:57.60) *also an Olympic ‘B’ cut
• Emma O’Croinin — women’s 200 freestyle (1:57.86)
• Finlay Knox — men’s 100 breast (1:00.66)
• Sophie Angus — women’s 100 breast (1:06.96) *also has an Olympic “A” cut from a prior meet
• Alex Axon — men’s 200 freestyle (1:47.56)
• Patrick Hussey — men’s 200 freestyle (1:47.78)
• Lorne Wigginton — men’s 200 freestyle (1:47.93)
• Jeremy Bagshaw — men’s 200 freestyle (1:48.49)
• Finlay Knox — men’s 100 freestyle (48.29)
• Javier Acevedo — men’s 100 freestyle (48.58)
• Penny Oleksiak — women’s 100 freestyle (53.66)
• Mary-Sophie Harvey — women’s 100 freestyle (53.71)
• Brooklyn Douthwright — women’s 100 freestyle (54.33)
• Taylor Ruck — women’s 100 freestyle (54.47)

PRIORITY 3 SWIMS THRU DAY 6 (OLYMPIC “A” CUTS AT OTHER MEETS + TOP 2 AT TRIALS):

• Ella Jansen — women’s 400 IM (4:38.88)

PRIORITY 4 SWIMS THRU DAY 6 (OLYMPIC “B” TIMES + EVENT WINNER – UNLIKELY TO BE INVITED):

• Penny Oleksiak — women’s 100 freestyle (53.66)

PRIORITY 5 SWIMS THRU DAY 6 (EXTRA RELAY SWIMMERS):

• To be announced

SWIMMERS WITH OLYMPIC A/B CUTS WHO DIDN’T PLACE HIGH ENOUGH:

A cuts:

• Rebecca Smith – women’s 100 fly (57.89) (3rd place finisher)
• Taylor Ruck — women’s 100 backstroke (59.78) (3rd place finisher)

B cuts:

• Julie Brousseau — women’s 400 freestyle (4:08.12) (Winner under the A cut)
• Lorne Wigginton — men’s 400 IM (4:13.60) (Winner under the A cut)
• Aiden Norman — men’s 100 backstroke (53.99) (3rd place finisher)
• Kelsey Wog — women’s 100 breaststroke (1:07.00) (Winner has an A cut/chosen for relay, Wog doesn’t have an A cut in the qualifying period)
• Regan Rathwell — women’s 100 backstroke (1:00.23) (4th place finisher)
• Yuri Kisil — men’s 50 freestyle (22.01) (2nd place but has not been under OQT at another meet in the qualifying period)