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With the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials done and dusted, let’s take a look at where the best of the stars n’ stripes stand among the rest of the world with the Olympic Games in Rio scheduled to kick-off just 20 days from now. We’ll review the men’s world rankings in this piece, strictly looking at the top 5, before publishing a separate post for the women.
When looking at the top 5 in each event around the globe, Australia holds the most #1 ranked swims of the season for the men. Backstroking dynamo Mitch Larkin owns the top marks in both the 100m and 200m distances, while teenager Mack Horton holds the top seed in the 400m freestyle and “The Professor”, Cameron McEvoy, claims a #1 rank of his own in the stunner of a time he threw down in the men’s 100m freestyle at Australian Trials – 47.04.
Conversely, America has just one top-ranked swim in Cal weapon Josh Prenot‘s 200m breaststroke from Trials. His mark of 2:07.17 from Omaha was just .16 of a second off of the current World Record and sets Prenot up as a major player to top the podium in Rio.
What the United States lacks in number of #1 times, however, they make up for in #2 placements, highlighted by 31-year-old Michael Phelps‘s 200m IM and 100m butterfly outings from Trials. Cal grad Nathan Adrian sits as the 2nd-fastest swimmer in his gold medal event from 2012, the men’s 100m freestyle, while Kevin Cordes, David Plummer and Ryan Murphy also hold the world’s #2 times in the 100m breaststroke, 100m backstroke and 200m backstroke, respectively.
Two notable performances that stand out within the rankings include Conor Dwyer‘s 200m freestyle time of 1:45.41 that is positioned as 3rd best in the world headed into Rio. Although within the top 5, Dwyer’s outing did not take place in Omaha, but rather in Santa Clara at an Arena Pro Swim Series stop. His time in Omaha was 1:45.67 to finish 2nd to Texas young gun Townley Haas, with both of those men’s Omaha marks sitting out of the world’s top 5.
The other eye-opening performance within the landscape of the world’s best is Pebley‘s 100m backstroke time. His 52.95 from Omaha is ranked 5th in the world but finished just 4th at Trials and, therefore, out of the competition in Rio. The fact someone can rank within the world’s top 5 yet out of the Olympic Games speaks to the immensely speedy depth in the event by the American men.
Below is a complete list of the world’s top 5 times headed into Rio for each men’s event.
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 IM
PHELPS
1.54.66
2 | Kosuke HAGINO | JPN | 1.55.07 | 04/08 |
3 | Ryan LOCHTE | USA | 1.56.22 | 07/01 |
4 | Shun WANG | CHN | 1.57.05 | 08/11 |
5 | Thiago PEREIRA | BRA | 1.57.11 | 08/10 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 400 IM
HAGINO
4.06.05
2 | Chase KALISZ | USA | 4.06.75 | 08/06 |
3 | Daiya SETO | JPN | 4.08.47 | 08/06 |
4 | Jay LITHERLAND | USA | 4.11.02 | 06/26 |
5 | Thomas FRASER-HOLMES | AUS | 4.11.09 | 04/07 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 50 Free
MANAUDOU
21.32
2 | Bruno FRATUS | BRA | 21.37*relay | 12/18 |
3 | Anthony ERVIN | USA | 21.40 | 08/12 |
4 | Cameron McEVOY | AUS | 21.44 | 04/13 |
5 | Andrii GOVOROV | UKR | 21.46 | 08/11 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 100 Free
McEVOY
47.04
2 | Kyle CHALMERS | AUS | 47.58*WJR | 08/10 |
3 | Nathan ADRIAN | USA | 47.72 | 06/30 |
4 | Pieter TIMMERS | BEL | 47.80 | 08/10 |
5 | Santo CONDORELLI | CAN | 47.88 | 08/10 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 Free
YANG
1.44.63
2 | James GUY | GBR | 1.45.19 | 04/17 |
3 | Chad LE CLOS | RSA | 1.45.20 | 08/08 |
4 | Conor DWYER | USA | 1.45.23 | 08/08 |
5 | Paul BIEDERMANN | GER | 1.45.45 | 05/08 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 400 Free
HORTON
3.41.55
2 | Sun YANG | CHN | 3.41.68 | 08/06 |
3 | Conor DWYER | USA | 3.43.42 | 08/06 |
4 | Gabriele DETTI | ITA | 3.43.49 | 08/06 |
5 | Connor JAEGER | USA | 3.43.79 | 06/26 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 1500 Free
PALTRINIERI
14.34.04
2 | Connor JAEGER | USA | 14.39.48 | 08/13 |
3 | Mack HORTON | AUS | 14.39.54 | 04/14 |
4 | Gabriele DETTI | ITA | 14.40.86 | 08/13 |
5 | Jordan WILIMOVSKY | USA | 14.45.03 | 08/13 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 100 FLY
SCHOOLING
50.39*OR
2 | Laszlo CSEH | HUN | 50.86 | 05/21 |
3 | Michael PHELPS | USA | 51.00 | 07/02 |
4 | Chad LE CLOS | RSA | 51.09 | 11/07 |
5 | Tom SHIELDS | USA | 51.20 | 07/02 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 FLY
CSEH
1.52.91
2 | Michael PHELPS | USA | 1.53.36 | 08/09 |
3 | Masato SAKAI | JPN | 1.53.40 | 08/09 |
4 | Tamas KENDERESEI | HUN | 1.53.62 | 08/09 |
5 | Chad LE CLOS | RSA | 1.54.06 | 08/09 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 100 BREAST
PEATY
57.13 *WR*OR
2 | Cameron VAN DER BURGH | RSA | 58.69 | 08/07 |
3 | Cody MILLER | USA | 58.87 | 08/07 |
4 | Yasuhiro KOSEKI | JPN | 58.91 | 08/06 |
5 | Kevin CORDES | USA | 58.94 | 06/26 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 BREAST
PRENOT
2.07.17
2 | Ippei WATANABE | JPN | 2.07.22*OR | 08/09 |
3 | Dmitriy BALANDIN | KAZ | 2.07.46 | 08/10 |
4 | Marco KOCH | GER | 2.07.69 | 01/30 |
5 | Anton CHUPKOV | RUS | 2.07.70 | 08/10 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 100 BACK
MURPHY
51.85*WR*OR
2 | Mitchell LARKIN | AUS | 52.11 | 11/06 |
3 | David PLUMMER | USA | 52.12 | 06/27 |
4 | Jiayu XU | CHN | 52.31 | 08/08 |
5 | Matt GREVERS | USA | 52.54 | 12/03 |
2015-2016 LCM Men 200 BACK
LARKIN
1.53.17
2 | Ryan MURPHY | USA | 1.53.62 | 08/11 |
3 | Evgeny RYLOV | RUS | 1.53.97 | 08/11 |
4 | Jacob PEBLEY | USA | 1.54.77 | 07/01 |
5 | Jiayu XU | CHN | 1.54.79 | 04/08 |
I’m worried for America this year
Phelps will be fine… personally I still think he breaks 3 World Record, the way I saw it, he shut it down in both the 100 and 200 then tried picking it back up when Shields was coming up along side him. The US should still win at least 5 mens gold medals and the women should at least win 3 or 4
Too bad there’s not a 4×100 back relay
How lame must it be to be the fourth and fifth fastest 100 backstrokers in the world and not get to go to Rio
Jacob Pebley who is fifth fastest in the world actually is gong to Rio and will swim, albeit in other event, the same situation also happens to Emma mckeon who is fourth fastest in the world and doesn’t get to swim 100 free in Rio.
How many number 1 positions USA had 4 years ago before London?
Individual events:
Allison Schmitt (200 free)
Missy Franklin (100 back, 200 back)
Matt Grevers (200 back)
Rebecca Soni (100 breast, 200 breast)
Dana Vollmer (100 fly)
Michael Phelps (100 fly, 200 fly, 200 IM)
Ryan Lochte (400 IM)
Elizabeth Beisel (400 IM)
So that’s 12.
typo.. Grevers should have been 100 back
Since we’re only talking about the men here, it’s three.
Thanks Zika Ziki.
And the result was 9 golds out of these 12 events.
Add Adrian (100 free), Ledecky (800 free), Clary (200 back), the men’s 4X200 free, men’s 4X100 medley, women’s 4X200 free and women’s 4X100 medley relays and you have the impressive total of 16 golds out of 32 events in the pool.
This year USA leads only the men’s 200 breast, women’s 400 free, women’s 800 free and women’s 100 breast.
And fastest add up time of 3 relay men medley and both 4×200 of the 4 leading only 2 are sure gold and possible more would be both men fly and 100 back. Sorry but can’t pit adrian as possible mcevoy is very far ahead
Yes, I think around 10 golds in Rio for USA.
I think our USA team is in trouble.
Well looks like the USA is still ultra dominant in backstroke if I was Larkin I would be scared…
Dat 100 back doe…