Kate McCarville on Dropping Nearly 7 Seconds from Prelims to Win the 400 IM

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)
• Prelims Live Stream (USA Swimming)
• Prelims Live Stream (NBC Olympics)
• Finals Live Stream (Olympic Channel)
• Wave I Psych Sheets
• Wave I Live Results

Reported by Spencer Penland.

WOMEN’S 400 IM – FINALS

• World Record: Katinka Hosszu (HUN) – 4:26.36 (2016)
• American Record: Katie Hoff – 4:31.12 (2008)
• US Open Record: Katinka Hosszu (HUN) – 4:31.07 (2015)
• World Junior Record: Yu Yiting (CHN) – 4:35.94 (2021)
• 2016 Olympic Champion: Katinka Hosszu (HUN) – 4:26.36
• 2016 US Olympic Trials Champion: Maya DiRado – 4:33.73
• Wave I Cut: 4:51.79
• Wave II Cut: 4:47.72

Podium:

1. Kate McCarville (SPA) – 4:47.15
2. Katie Trace (OSU) – 4:48.76
3. Katie McCarthy (EDI) – 4:50.72

Kate McCarville took the race over relatively early, and didn’t look back. She established her greatest lead on breaststroke, and managed to hold off a charging Katie Trace on the free leg. McCarville swam a new lifetime best by 1.6 seconds, also coming in under the Wave II standard. She’ll get another shot at the race in Wave II.

Katie Trace picked up her 2nd advancement to Wave II, pulling away from the field sans McCarville at the end to finish 2nd by a big margin. Trace and McCarville, both of whom competed in the 200 fly last night, used their butterfly speed to their advantages, getting out to a big lead over the rest of the field on the first 100 of the race.

The youngest qualifier of this Olympic Trials cycle, Kayla Han, won the B final of the race. Han, who was 12 last week when she qualified and is now 13, put on some unbelievable closing speed to go from a distant 4th to 1st on the free leg. She touched in 4:51.08, just off her personal best from last week.