Josh Liendo Equals Best 100 Free Time (47.55) at Canadian Trials (Day 4 Race Videos)

2024 CANADIAN OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRIALS

Josh Liendo remained under the radar for the first few days of the 2024 Canadian Trials, not swimming the first two nights before scratching out of the 200 freestyle on Wednesday night.

But on Thursday night, the 21-year-old NCAA champion threw down a statement swim in the 100 freestyle with a victory in 47.55, matching his lifetime best from the 2022 World Championships. Liendo now ranks 3rd in the world this season behind only Chris Giuliano (47.49) and world record holder Pan Zhanle (46.80).

2023-2024 LCM Men 100 Free

ZhanleCHN
PAN
02/11
WR 46.80
2David
POPOVICI
ROU46.8806/19
3Jack
ALEXY
USA47.0806/18
4Chris
GUILIANO
USA47.2506/18
5Maxime
GROUSSET
FRA47.3306/18
View Top 31»

Liendo’s winning time on Thursday night would have placed him 2nd at the 2024 World Championships, 6th at the 2023 World Championships, 1st at the 2022 World Championships, and 4th at the Tokyo Olympics.

Yuri Kisil (48.19) also booked his spot in Paris for the individual 100 free while Finlay Knox (48.29) and Javier Acevedo (48.58) are slated to join them on Canada’s 4×100 free relay.

After posting her fastest 100 back since Tokyo on Wednesday night (57.94), reigning Olympic silver medalist Kylie Masse triumphed in the 200 back (2:06.24) with her quickest time since Tokyo (2:05.42).

Rising Tennessee junior Regan Rathwell snagged the second qualifying spot with a runner-up finish in a personal-best 2:09.38. She hadn’t been under 2:12 since undergoing shoulder surgery for a torn labrum in October of 2022.

The highlight of Thursday’s action came in the first event of the evening, the women’s 400 IM, where 17-year-old phenom Summer McIntosh lowered her own world record from 4:25.87 to 4:24.38.

SPLITS COMPARISON

MCINTOSH – 2024 MCINTOSH – 2023 HOSSZU – 2016
100 59.18 59.47 1:00.91
200 2:06.30 (1:07.12) 2:06.39 (1:06.92) 2:08.39 (1:07.48)
300 3:23.43 (1:17.13) 3:25.31 (1:18.92) 3:24.50 (1:16.11)
400 4:24.38 (1:00.95) 4:25.86 (1:00.56) 4:26.36 (1:01.86)

The big difference-maker was improvements on McIntosh’s breaststroke leg, the weakest of the four strokes. She was 1.8 seconds better on that leg, which offset being three tenths slower over the other 300 meters.

Ella Jansen, 18, narrowly missed the Olympic ‘A’ cut (4:38.53) with her runner-up finish in 4:38.88, but she will likely still make the team by virtue of her personal-best 4:37.35 from last September.

Nobody qualified for the Paris Olympics in the men’s 800 free, but the race did provide a thrilling finish. At 18 years old, Timothe Barbeau overtook (8:00.61) top-seeded Eric Brown (8:03.04) on the final lap to win his first national title.

Aurelie Rivard accumulated the most Para points in the women’s 100 free, touching a couple seconds shy of her S10 Canadian record (58.14) in 1:00.19. She said it was a slower than she wanted to go, but it gives her an idea of what to work on this summer. The Paralympic ‘A’ cut for S10 swimmers in this event stands at 1:03.43.

“I need to finish stronger than my rivals, hopefully,” said Rivard, who won gold in this event at the past two Paralympics.

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About Riley Overend

Riley is an associate editor interested in the stories taking place outside of the pool just as much as the drama between the lane lines. A 2019 graduate of Boston College, he arrived at SwimSwam in April of 2022 after three years as a sports reporter and sports editor at newspapers …

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