In a rare long course version of the Arena Pro Swim Series at Minneapolis next weekend, Michael Phelps is entered to swim 6 events.
Phelps’ event lineup will be the primary events that he’s become most synonymous with later in his career, with a small wrinkle of adding the 100 back.
- 100 fly
- 200 fly
- 100 free
- 200 free
- 100 back
- 200 IM
Most of the United States’ big names will be in attendance at this meet, including Ryan Lochte, Katie Ledecky, and Missy Franklin.
Ledecky and Franklin will have one premier matchup to begin the meet with a bang in the very first event: the women’s 200 free. That event will also feature as a 3rd seed Allison Schmidt, and the public’s first viewing of her racing since settling in to her new training locale in Tempe, Arizona with Bob Bowman.
While Franklin is focused on a relatively limited schedule of her four primary events (100 free, 200 free, 100 back, 200 back), Ledecky is opening up her schedule with 8 entries. While Ledecky is known as the world’s best distance swimmer, as she’s aged she’s shown more-and-more of her ability in different events.
Lochte has a schedule that one might expect, with a small wrinkle of adding the 400 free to his more traditional 100 fly, 100/200 back, 100/200 free list. He’s not entered in any IM’s, and so for a weekend at least there will be no Phelps vs. Lochte nostalgia in those particular events.
While this is a long course meet, NCAA teams haven’t been scared away with new NCAA rules allowing long course times to qualify for the NCAA Championships. That includes the Cal women and Olympic hopefuls Rachel Bootsma, Liz Pelton, and Egyptian Farida Osman. A group from Princeton will also be at the meet, among others.
The most notable absence is California Aquatics pro Nathan Adrian, the defending Olympic Champion in the 100 free. Adrian was originally scheduled to swim at the World Cup events in Asia this week, but withdrew from those meets. At the time he told SwimSwam that he was going to be focusing on this Pro Swim meet instead, making his absence ominous.
The meet runs from November 12th-14th at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center.
so there will be no Phelps v Lochte in 2im 🙁 🙁 disappointed…next time maybe?
good to see MP back in the free events. can’t wait to watch my boy swim!
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
go MP
WHOOO! LETS GO GOAT! HE’S GOING FOR THE WIN IN ALL SIX!
good to see you here too Bob! 🙂
fist pump! hip hip hooray
Of course I’m here! 🙂 who wouldn’t want to watch the GOAT swim? 🙂
HIP HIP HOORAY!
Here’s my theory. At this point in his career Adrian prefers staying close to home and not disrupting his Olympic focused training to travel to basically insignificant meets just to show up and crush a couple sprint events and risk injury.
This doesn’t explain “he told SwimSwam that he was going to be focusing on this Pro Swim meet instead”.
Very interesting to see what MP can do in the 200 free. It could be his fourth individual event in Rio, but he will swim it only if he has chances to win, so a time of 1:46 high or 1:47 flat would be a good base to work from.
He will not swim that event in Rio.
It would be pure madness.
Only the relay.
but he will swim the 100free in Paris in 2024 against Yannick Agnel for the gold
😀 😀 😀
Though it is probably the weakest event in the world over the last two or three years.
Could Swimswam make a proper interview with Adrian about his no-show? It is not the first time, second time, as I recall this is the third time he wouldn’t swim when he’d schedule to swim.
I understand the LCM format for all these meets, yet I still find the SCY format for the Minneapolis meet far more interesting. Seeing the pros do SCY is a rare occasion.
it gives me a headache every time i watch swimmers doing 800/400 free scy…too many turns…dislike. prefer lcm any time at any meet 🙂 🙂
Nathan Adrian just swam a 42.08 for the 100 yd free in an exhibition event at the Cal v. NC State meet.