U.S. Trials’ Impact On World’s Top 5 In Each Event: Women’s Edition

With the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials having concluded on July 3rd, we took a look at where the best of the stars n’ stripes’ men stood among the rest of the world in terms of event rankings headed into Rio. With the Games now less than 20 days away, let’s also review the women’s top 5 rankings in each event to get a feel for what impact Omaha had on the rest of the world.

In terms of #1 ranked swims, Australian women still claim the most, with a collective 5 individual events. Cate Campbell is the definitive sprint queen to beat, leading the world in both the 50m freestyle and the 100m freestyle races, the latter of which she busted out a new World Record of 52.06 earlier this month.

Teammates Madeline Groves and Belinda Hocking hold the world’s fastest 200m butterfly and 200m backstroke times, respectively, while double World Champion Emily Seebohm rocks the #1 100m backstroke mark in the world for the Aussies.

Whereas the American men only hold one world #1 in Josh Prenot’s 200m breaststroke, the women currently claim 3 world topping times, with 2 courtesy of Katie Ledecky. The freestyle specialist holds the fastest marks in the 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle events, and also carries a #2-ranked time in the women’s 200m freestyle.

Indiana rising sophomore Lilly King is the other American woman with a #1 rank, holding the swiftest mark of 1:05.20 in the 100m breaststroke.

Although no #1 times currently to her credit, Stanford grad and first-time Olympian Maya DiRado shows up big-time in the rankings with 3 individual times in the top 5. DiRado is ranked 3rd in the 200m IM, 5th in the 400m IM and 4th in the 200m backstroke.

However, where the American women are lacking anyone in the top 5 may possibly predict some trouble come relay-time, as Bronte Campbell and Emma McKeon join Cate in the world’s top 5 100m freestyle rankings, each with a sub-53-second mark to boot. The U.S. women don’t have any representation in the top 5 of the longer sprint free event nor in the splash n’ dash.

Of note, the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke events are also void of American women within the world’s top 5 times headed into the 2016 Olympic Games.

Below is a complete list of the world’s top 5 times headed into Rio for each women’s event.