Two full days of the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials have wrapped, and the swim team that will represent the United States at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo has added 3 new members.
2021 U.S. Olympic Roster Update After Night 2
Men’s 400 IM
- Chase Kalisz, 4:09.09
Men’s 400 free
- Kieran Smith, 3:44.86
Women’s 400 IM
- Emma Weyant, 4:33.81
Women’s 100 Butterfly
- Torri Huske, 55.66
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
- Michael Andrew, 58.73
Women’s 400 Freestyle
- Katie Ledecky, 4:01.27
Torri Huske and Michael Andrew qualified for their first Olympic Games by way of victories in the 100 butterfly and 100 breaststroke, respectively. For Huske, she lowered the American Record in the 100 fly for the second time in as many days. For Andrew, though he was about half a second shy of his American Record set in the semifinals on Monday, he still managed a victory with a 58.73, just 0.01 ahead of runner-up Andrew Wilson.
Katie Ledecky punched her ticket to Tokyo, winning the 400 freestyle in a decisive 4:01.27. Ledecky is also the heavy favorite to win the 200, 800, and 1500 freestyles, and could be in the mix for a top-4 finish in the 100 freestyle, if she pursues the race beyond the prelims. It is swimmers like Ledecky who will qualify for the Olympic team in multiple events that open up more positions on the roster for 2nd-place finishers and relay alternates.
Remember, the 2nd place finishers haven’t officially made the team yet due to limits on roster size. Only 26 men and 26 women are allowed to represent Team USA in the pool in Tokyo, based on the prior schedule of 13 individual events, making for 2 roster spots per event. The addition of the men’s 800 free and women’s 1500 free to the 2020 schedule–increasing the individual event schedule to 14 races–did not change the number of positions available on the roster.
Per the USA Swimming Selection Criteria, swimmers are selected for the team in four “priorities.” There are a few other nuances, including what happens if the rosters run out of room before all the swimmers in a certain priority are added, but that’s usually not an issue.
- Priority #1. The first priority will be comprised of both (i) the four best finishing Available Swimmers based on finish order during the Finals of the Qualifying Competition in each of the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle Events, and (ii) the best finishing Available Swimmer based on finish order during the Finals of the Qualifying Competition in each of the individual Events other than the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle.
- Priority #2. The second priority will be comprised of the second best finishing Available Swimmer based on finish order during the Finals of the Qualifying Competition in each of the individual Events other than the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle.
- Priority #3. The third priority will be comprised of the fifth best finishing Available Swimmer based on finish order during the Finals of the Qualifying Competition in each of the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle.
- Priority #4. The fourth priority will be comprised of the sixth best finishing Available Swimmer based on finish order during the Finals of the Qualifying Competition in each of the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle.
TENTATIVE QUALIFIERS FOR TOKYO
Men’s 400 IM
- Jay Litherland, 4:10.33
Men’s 400 free
- *
Women’s 400 IM
- Hali Flickinger, 4:33.96
Women’s 100 Butterfly
- Claire Curzan, 56.43
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
- Andrew Wilson, 58.74
Women’s 400 Freestyle
- Paige Madden, 4:04.86
Curzan, Wilson, and Madden will all be first-time Olympians once their roster positions are made official. As the 400 freestyle represents one of four races Ledecky is expected to qualify in, the 2nd place positions such as the one Madden would occupy will open up.
*USA Swimming was put in an odd situation Sunday night when only one man–Kieran Smith–swam under under the FINA ‘A’ cut in the men’s 400 freestyle. In order to get a second swimmer qualified to swim the race in Tokyo, USA Swimming is expected to hold a time trial in Omaha to see if anyone else can crack the FINA ‘A’ cut in the event. Zane Grothe has posted a 3:45.78 within the qualifying period, but was a dismal 3:50.80 during Wave II prelims, placing 11th. Even so, the second roster position currently belongs to Grothe, though it has not been awarded to him, officially. Furthermore, an upcoming meet in Mission Viejo is just one of three remaining opportunities (outside of Wave II Trials) for swimmers to make their FINA ‘A’ cuts for the Olympics. You can read that story here, but to quote the most relevant information:
The #2 spot currently belongs to Zane Grothe thanks to a 3:45.78 at the 2019 World Championships. To be bumped, a swimmer doesn’t have to beat that time in Mission Viejo, they just have to hit the Olympic “A” standard of 3:46.78 AND have placed higher than Zane at Trials. So this means that the swimmers eligible to do so are: Ross Dant, Chris Wieser, Trey Freeman, Brooks Fail, Jake Mitchell, Andrew Abruzzo, Mitch D’Arrigo, Jake Magahey, and Coby Carrozza.
If more than one of those swimmers gets the “A” cut in Mission Viejo, the Bahamas, or at a Time Trial later this week, then whoever finished highest of those swimmers who hit the “A” cut go to Tokyo.
I have a question. Is a swimmer set the best time in the heats and did not participate in the semis or final can he still make the olympic team
They can be chosen for a relay if they’re on the roster otherwise. But no, they cannot make an individual event that way.
Is 26 women and 26 men numbers legislated by FINA or just a number that the United States has mandated? If the latter, then it would be ridiculous to deny anyone an Olympic berth if they have qualified with the time and the place. With a new event for each sex, they should have at least bumped the number up to 28 for each sex no matter whose number it is. Being this cheap is not a good look.
It’s set by FINA. The IOC allocates a certain number of athletes to international federations for different events. For example, when the open water event got added to the Olympics, the IOC did not give FINA any extra athlete slots, so FINA carved about 50 swimmers out of pool swimming to accommodate it.
Katie Ledecky won’t be swimming 4:01 in Tokyo .. Titmus don’t get pulled into a false sense of security ..
No false sense of security but Ledecky looks so heavy legged and unathletic compared to Titmus. I was impressed that Ledecky conceded she thought the time would be much faster. In other words, she didn’t dramatically back off. It just wasn’t there. Ledecky has rightfully been the underdog since 2019. When a young athlete pulls a surprise upset, the next meeting the confidence level soars and the margin of victory increases. I remember mentioning that after the 2019 result. Ledecky cannot afford to chase Titmus. She needs to establish the lead and hope Titmus tightens up late.
This is such a cool team already, it’s currently on pace to be a noticeably younger team (between 22.1 and 23 years old right now, depending on who goes between Mitchell, Grothe, and everyone else that’s still fighting for that 2nd spot) than Rio (23.3). An extra year really did the youth some good.
So with 8 spots for top 4 in 100 and 200 free, 12 for other event winners (100, 200 of fly, back, breast and IM, 50 free,400 free, 800 free, 1500 free) only 6 of 12 second place swimmers are assured, and another 6 are duplicate dependent – thus once 6 duplicates occur, all second place winners are assured. If less than 6 duplicates occur, they use ” Modified World Ranking” to rank the 2nd places swimmers. Question – do they use only times done in the Trials, or if a swimmer has a better time done elsewhere, either before trials or in a time trial after trials, would that time be used? And what if Zane Grothe winds up in… Read more »
“World Ranking. World Ranking means the World Ranking list printed from the
World Rankings Powered by USA Swimming found at usaswimming.org found on usaswimming.org at approximately 8:00 a.m. CDT on June 12, 2021 21, 2020 and covering the period of March 1, 2019 through and including June 7, 2021 14, 2020.
Modified World Ranking. “Modified World Ranking” means the World Ranking list as modified by integrating all times from the Finals of the Qualifying Competition. An athlete’s Modified World Ranking shall be determined by his/her time from the Finals of the Qualifying Competition. The results of the semifinals and preliminary heats of the Qualifying Competition will be used to determine finish order immediately lower than those in the Finals (i.e., ninth place and below).”
https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/national-teamdocuments/swi-2020-oly-athlete-pool-amended-6-8-2021—final-clean-version—signed.pdf
We were chatting about it earlier, and there should plenty of enough doubles that they should be able to take everyone, but, as we found out with the 400 free, anything can happen…
Congratulations to Katie. I know she is disappointed with her time, but she is a 3 time US Olympian, and that is something special.
It’s not even that special
where are your medals and hard work ??😃
Yet Michael Andrew nearly choked.
Give him a break
He was swimming his first major final as a favourite
He will only improve mentally after this experience
Nope!
Did Michael Andrew really need to swim the heats of the men’s 100 meter backstroke?
Indeed , the Path to success sometimes goes through the eye of a needle . All of this only benefits the best life / sport experiences . Learning is what i see in all of it .
But he didn’t….he won…did you think that Phelps nearly choked when he almost lost to Cavic by the same margin? Or Gary Hall Jr when he almost lost the 50 in Athens by the same margin?
We know u never nearly choked in your life endeavors or passionate projects …or failed at something u loved .
It’s insane that MA can literally win Trials, break the American record by nearly half a second, become the third fastest man in the history of this event, and put himself in serious contention for medals in Tokyo and people still criticize him.