Missy Franklin Will Swim Both 200 Free and 100 Back Finals on Thursday at Pan Pacs

In post-race comments on Thursday morning at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, American swimmer Missy Franklin says that she has decided to swim both the 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke finals.

In post-race comments, Franklin described her ongoing back spasm issue as a “little bit of discomfort,” but that she is going to race both finals anyway. That’s despite, in the 200 free, having no medals on the line, as she was the 3rd-fastest American finisher and thus will be in the B-Final (only two per country can swim in the A-Final).

Franklin does have a pragmatic reason to stay in that race, however. She has to defend her spot at Worlds. Pan Pacs prelims times do not count for Worlds qualifying, but if Shannon Vreeland were to beat Franklin’s  1:56.40 from Nationals in the A-Final, and Franklin’s B-Final swim wasn’t faster than Vreeland’s A-Final swim, than Vreeland would get the individual spot for Worlds alongside the presumed Katie Ledecky nomination. Ledecky’s 1:55.16 from Nationals looks golden right now, if she doesn’t improve it in the final, but Vreeland is capable of a 1:56.40.

Then Franklin will swim in the A-Final of the 100 backstroke, where she’ll be challenged by Australians Emily Seebohm and Belinda Hocking, the top two seeds after prelims.

Franklin also explained how she hurt her back in the first place, which was on a backstroke start. Her backstroke start has never been very good, but she seemed to really struggle on it in prelims of the 100 meter race – perhaps a sign of some timidness there. She did more than enough to final, though, and with that out of the way will have a touch more confidence in finals.

See the full day 1 prelims recap here.

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Jim C
9 years ago

If Franklin scratches then Leah Smith would also get a shot at her Irvine time, not that it is likely Smith could match it.

KeithM
9 years ago

Seems like she may be worried about Vreeland beating her time from Irvine. Obviously Missy wants to swim all her events in Kazan. I’m just concerned that she’ll further aggravate something putting her participation/preparation for Kazan in jeopardy altogether. Certainly, I’m in no position to judge her situation or her health. I just hope everything works out for her.

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Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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