We’re in for a treat next week. The Arena Pro Swim Series stops in Atlanta and the second night features a heavyweight tilt in the women’s 100m free between Simone Manuel and Penny Oleksiak. The Rematch if you will. In every sport these types of matchups never go as we imagine. In baseball the most anticipated pitching duals often turn into early inning blowouts and in our sport we see headscratchers at every meet. It’s especially so this time of year.
Manuel v. Oleksiak II is an early in-season gift which will give all of us who love this sport a chance to remember what those two accomplished last August, late into the night, on a cold and drizzly night in Brazil. Heading into Rio, Australia was a powerhouse in this event featuring with 5 swimmers in the top 10 and 12 of the top 14 swims overall. When the swimmers marched out everyone who understands this sport even a little bit predicted Australia taking gold and silver. The realistic battle would be for bronze. Sarah Sjostrom or Ranomi Kromowidjojo? I picked Kromo reckoning a double gold medalist would be hard to topple but I didn’t feel that strongly one way or the other. There, 1-4 taken care of.
I figured 5 and 6 would be between the two Americans who were seeded fairly close together. Both Abbey and Simone took a year off from school to train for this but as I saw it, the women’s 100 free was one of America’s weaker events. The smart play would have been to pick Weitzel for 5th but Manuel has an eerie calmness to her coupled with an I-got-this look to her face. I wrestled with this for a while and decided on Manuel. I didn’t feel confident about it though.
Oh look there’s Penny! Fantastic achievement for Penny Oleksiak, a Canadian teenager, getting into this final and rubbing elbows in the ready and room breathing the same rarefied air as swimming royalty. This will undoubtedly be a great experience for her and hopefully she’ll be able draw on it four years from now. I watched the walkout and was hoping she’d beat Ottesen and not come in last. I wasn’t confident about this pick either. Then the race started. It went as most thought with one of the Campbells hitting the 50 wall first under world record pace and the other one not too far behind. Simone was right there in a medal position and Penny was way back. 4th, 5th and 6th were bunched together.
We all know what happened. Inexplicably both Australians ran out of gas and Simone reeled them in. I still don’t know how to process what Oleksiak did on her last 50 overtaking so many tough-to-topple swimmers and touching at the same time as Simone for a shared gold. Oleksiak’s last 50 was, by far, the coolest thing I’ve ever seen at a swimming pool. In an age where we structure our diets around our blood types and monitor our iron levels, Oleksiak had the same excited look at the start as a little kid does jumping into a lake off a dock with water wings. She just might be the one who uncomplicates a sport the rest of us had taken a long time complicating. Oleksiak could be the swimmer who can take her headphones out of her ears after detailed pre-race instructions and simplifies things into so-i-just-swim-there-and-back……and-beat-these-7-people. Right?
We get a chance to relive it next week in Atlanta. American networks won’t break away from their basketball playoff coverage to show it live and with hockey playoffs going on it won’t get any mainstream media attention in Canada, but Simone and Penny racing one another will be a special treat for people like us. Don’t even try predicting a winner.
Great article by Kierra Smith – check out her blog for more of the same!
Should he a good matchup to watch mid season. Personally based of what we’ve seen in 2017 sofar I think Manuel has the edge, but Oleksiak has proven that she is a racer, so it should be interesting.
In Budapest this should be a great race to watch. Manuel has the mental advantage being the olympic champion, but Sjostrom seems to have put her focus on speed this year, especially in freestyle. While shes traditionally been a back halfer in the race, in her recent PB she took the race out much faster than before, taking advantage of that 23.83 50 speed. Without the 200 she has a lighter schedrule that will make her able to compete faster in… Read more »
Not sure I’d “take it as read” that Manuel’s record breaking SCY season will flow straight on over to her LCM. Was it not the case that her 2014-15 NCAA season was stellar but her intl LCM showings nothing special ? She redshirted 2015-16 to train LCM and we saw the hot times in Rio.
WERE these times more the result of the specific circumstances of those races/”that one brief shining moment”/meet of a lifetime or WILL we future LCM progression. Each of the above scenarios may have validity but, as if yet, we cannot know what will pan out.
With Oleksiak, we’ve seen that “meteoric” advance that sometimes occurs with swimmers of that age and it has coincided… Read more »
Cool article, written with real passion.
I’d just say that “Oleksiak last 15 metres were incredible”, because was really astonishing the amount of space that Penny gained towards all the other swimmers in the final fraction of that Olympic final.
Yes, she close that race very faster than every other swimmer, even faster than Sjostrom, a famous back-half racer.
Oleksiak (like Chalmers on the men’s side) is a tremendous finisher from the flags to the wall.
Sara will sweep the 50/100 and I think Simone is on the podium in both also. Oleksiak has no chance.
That’s not fair to say that about oleksiak just because she is younger. For gods sake she took home the gold medal in rio. I think she will surprise everyone again. Taking the gold.
Reading this article took me back to Rio. Thanks for that. It was one of my favorite races.
Prior to Rio there was an expectation of Australian gold and silver, with bronze favored to go to Ned. After the W 4×100 free relay, the C1/C2 order was still expected for gold and silver, but I think bronze was up for grabs. I think many people expected Olesiak to medal after seeing her swim in Rio. She was in lane 5, right next to Cate. She had swam a pb in the semis. She had won a silver medal earlier in the 100fly. Simone on the other hand was a genuine surprise. But the biggest surprise was a shutout of… Read more »
Whilst C1 was most definitely seen as a lock for gold, C2 came into RIO very “underdone” due to a preparation racked with injury and illness issues which saw her a non-starter more often than a starter. Her relay split hinted that 52 v high was ‘where she was at” and therefore she was going to be playing for minor coin at best in the 100 and probably out of the medals at 50.
As for them going forward, I see it as very uncertain. Whilst C2 is probably mentally stronger than big sister; its highly debateable that she has the “topside”/WR potential of C1. Her main issue is whether her body can hold out through to Tokyo. As for… Read more »
I share your disappointment. It was actually never “Oleksiak vs Manuel I”. There was Cate Campbell and peloton. In no way I want to lesser Penny’s and Simone’s achievements. 52.7 is outstanding time. If to forget for a moment of Campbells and rubber suits results only two swimmers in history were faster but for a few one hundreds of a second only. Great times. It is that 52.06 of Cate Campbell is so unbearably bright that other stars still being there are just not visible.
Same as extremely respectful 4 min at 400 is just a good swim behind Katie Ledecky.
I love this article
I think Manuel will win but it maybe close. I don’t think either will go under 52, but it will be good to see where they line up. 53 low for both.
Will go under 52?
Did you know that Cate’s WR is “only” 52.06, and Steffen’s 52.07 was considered as one of the harder women’s rubber-suited WRs to break?
Simone Manuel made 53.2 back in 2014 when she was 18. So her improvement to 52.7 two years later shouldn’t surprised anybody.
Penny Oleksejak made surprising jump from absolutely unimpressive 54.51 to elite 52.7 in one year.
So Simone’s case should be considered more, how to say it, reliable or stable or predictable, whatever.
But for some reason any article that i read about Oleksiak don’t express any doubts that she will be under 53 again. Simone’s perspectives are discussed in more cautious manner.
Maybe it is because of the reaction of these two girls on the news of gold medal. Penny Oleksiak hasn’t found any unusual with her race but was surprised that that is… Read more »
At her age(16), is very common for a teen to drop huge amounts of time. I saw her(Oleksiak) very close, and she is skinny with a lot of mass muscle to fill up.I believe the “no doubts articles” of her dipping into 52 zone was the fact of her being younger than most of top sprinters in the World.At her age, Cielo was only 51 high in 100free.Save injury, mental breakdown or any over the top occurrence, we could expect a lot more of Penny in a near future.
If they have the same improvement trajectory, Penny will be swimming 47s a few years from now.
Not to mention Penny went 52.72 in the semi-final in Rio. She’s already swam under 53 seconds twice.
I am a touch worried about this summer though. Although it’s safe to assume she’s over her minor shoulder injury when she swam almost a second faster in the 100m freestyle and almost 2 seconds faster in the 100m butterfly in trials than she did a month before, I’m still kind of worried she won’t be as fast this year. The meet in Atlanta should be worth watching to see if she’s continuing to improve at that kind of rate or not.
Leisel Jones made a huge surprising jump in Sydney at the age of 15 and kept on improving in the next 8 years. Earvin made surprising jump in 50 and especially 100 from the age of 17 to 18 in Sydney and Fukuoka. and then nothing until London. but it was clearly talent that separated him in Rio.
Cate made surprising jump all the way from 24.9 at the age of 14 to 24.1 at the age of barely 16, and God knows what.. probably swam 55? at the age of 14-15, to 53.1 at the age of 16.
Sarah made the biggest shock in 2009 Rome at the age of 15 by breaking the WR and defeating… Read more »