The majority of the scratches for the first preliminary session of the 2013 U.S National Championships and World Championship Trials came in the 100 freestyle, though for one reason or another, few of them were huge surprises.
In the women’s 100 free, the scratches were Katie Ledecky, Gillian Ryan, and Catherine Breed.
Ledecky and Ryan are both distance swimmers who have significantly better chances at qualifying in the 800 free at the end of the session than they do in this 100 free. There was a lot of excitement, with how much speed improvement Ledecky has shown this year, surrounding her possibly swimming the 100 through the 1500 freestyles, in some combination of relays and individuals, at this meet or at the World Championships in Barcelona.
Even though her 800 free, where she’s the Olympic Champion, will only be swum in the finals session, she decided not to go for a morning 100 that might earn her a relay spot even if she were to scratch the final.
Breed is coming off of a second ACL surgery after NCAA’s, and according to writer Mike Watkins, her focus will be the World University Games in July.
In the men’s 100 free, Garrett Weber-Gale scratched as well. He had given no indication that he’d skip this meet altogether, but he has said publicly that he’s committed to swimming as a part of Team USA for the Maccabiah Games, a global event for Jewish athletes, and as such would skip Worlds even if selected. It appears that at least the men’s 100 free, he’s not even going to try.
Also scratching the 100 on the men’s side is Harvard’s Chris Satterthwaite, who on paper was the 19th seed.
There were at least three other scratches on the first day: Erin Emery from the Sandpipers of Nevada scratched the 800 free as the 25th seed, Bridget Casey from Notre Dame scratched the 200 fly as the 21st seed, and Ryan Kao from La Mirada scratched the 1500 free as the 16th seed.
Prelims in 30 mins : yahoooooooooooooooooooo let’s rock the pool in
Smart coaches.
Don’t scratch the 50 GWG, you’re in my picks!
Very good decisions from Katie and Gillian! They are very smart girls.
He’s been so loyal to Texas and Coach Eddie Reese, no knock against him at all, but maybe he needs a change of scenery? Change the style of training? He’s not that young anymore and it could be time to dial it down from the Texas workouts he’s been doing for about a decade now.. Maybe try Salo, Durden or Marsh for a season and see? Couple months at each?
I honestly think GWG is done – he is “milking it” now for publicity purpose to help out his foodie business.
Haven´t heard of him for a while.. thought he was retired..
I totally agree on that . Since 2010 short course world championships in Dubai , he really didn’t show anything . He is probably better with a cooking life now .
he’s had a tough time, but don’t forget he swam a 47.3 a couple of years ago in the prelims of the 4×100 medley relay. not sure if he’s still good for that but if he can replicate that, he can be a huge asset.
At 2011 world right? He went faster than Adrian did at finals that year..
Shanteau was also faster than Gangloff.. victory all hail to Phelps that time..
According to GWG’s twitter account, he still seems to be in Austin, TX.