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

Mireia Belmonte

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.

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 IM

KatinkaHUN
HOSSZU
08/09
2.06.58*OR
2Siobhan-Marie
O'CONNOR
GBR2.06.8808/09
3Maya
DiRado
USA2.08.7908/09
4Melanie
MARGALIS
USA2.09.2108/09
5Shiwen
YE
CHN2.09.3308/08
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 400 IM

KatinkaHUN
HOSSZU
08/06
4.26.36*WR
2Maya
DiRADO
USA4.31.1508/06
3Mireia
BELMONTE
ESP4.32.3908/06
4Hannah
MILEY
GBR4.32.5408/06
5Elizabeth
BEISEL
USA4.33.5505/13
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 50 Free

CateAUS
CAMPBELL
04/14
23.84
2Pernille
BLOOM
DEN24.0708/13
2Ranomi
KROMOWIDJOJO
NED24.0705/22
4Simone
MANUEL
USA24.0908/13
5Aliaksandra
HERASIMENIA
BLR24.1108/13
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 100 Free

CateAUS
CAMPBELL
07/02
52.06*WR
2Bronte
CAMPBELL
AUS52.5804/11
3Penny
OLEKSIAK
CAN52.70*OR*WJR08/11
4Simone
MANUEL
USA52.70*OR08/11
5Sarah
SJOSTROM
SWE52.7804/01
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 Free

KatieUSA
LEDECKY
08/09
1.53.73
2sarah
SJOSTROM
SWE1.54.0808/09
3Federica
PELLEGRINI
ITA1.54.5506/26
4Emma
McKEON
AUS1.54.8304/10
5Katinka
HOSSZU
HUN1.55.4111/06
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 400 Free

KatieUSA
LEDECKY
08/07
3.56.46*WR*OR
2Leah
SMITH
USA4.00.6506/27
3Jazmin
CARLIN
GBR4.01.2308/07
4Boglarka
KAPAS
HUN4.02.3708/07
5Coralie
BALMY
FRA4.03.4008/07
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 800 Free

KatieUSA
LEDECKY
08/12
8.04.79*WR*OR
2Jazmin
CARLIN
GBR8.16.1708/12
3Boglarka
KAPAS
HUN8.16.3708/12
4Jessica
ASHWOOD
AUS8.18.1406/05
5Mireia
BELMONTE
ESP8.18.5508/12
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 100 FLY

SarahSWE
SJOSTROM
08/07
55.48 *WR*OR
2Penny
OLEKSIAK
CAN56.46 *WJR08/07
3Kelsi
WORRELL
USA56.4806/27
4Dana
VOLLMER
USA56.5608/06
5Xinyi
Chen
CHN56.7208/07
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 FLY

MireiaESP
BELMONTE
08/10
2.04.85
2Madeline
GROVES
AUS2.04.8808/10
3Natsumi
HOSHI
JPN2.05.2008/10
4Franziska
HENTKE
GER2.05.7705/07
5Yilin
ZHOU
CHN2.06.5208/09
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 100 BREAST

LillyUSA
KING
08/08
1.04.93*OR
2Yulia
EFIMOVA
RUS1.05.5008/08
3Katie
MEILI
USA1.05.6908/08
4Ruta
MEILUTYTE
LTU1.05.8203/11
5Alia
ATKINSON
JAM1.05.9311/06
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 BREAST

RieJPN
KANETO
04/09
2.19.65
2Yulia
EFIMOVA
RUS2.21.4103/04
3Taylor
McKEOWN
AUS2.21.4504/12
4Rikke
PEDERSEN
DEN2.21.6905/20
5Jinglin
SHI
CHN2.22.2808/11
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 100 BACK

EmilyAUS
SEEBOHM
11/03
58.34
2Katinka
HOSSZU
HUN58.4508/08
3Mie
NIELSEN
DEN58.7305/19
4Kathleen
BAKER
USA58.7508/08
5Kylie
MASSE
CAN58.7608/08
View Top 26»

2015-2016 LCM Women 200 BACK

MayaUSA
DI RADO
08/12
2.05.99
2Katinka
HOSSZU
HUN2.06.0308/11
3Belinda
HOCKING
AUS2.06.4904/13
4Emily
SEEBOHM
AUS2.06.5904/13
5Daria K.
USTINOVA
RUS2.06.9204/22
View Top 26»

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Iasmin
7 years ago

Dirado seemed very dinamic at trials.

Dying Breed
7 years ago

Shouldn’t there be an asterisk in the shape of a hypodermic needle next to Efimova’s name?

Peter
7 years ago

Hasn’t Ashwood swum a 4:03.33 or something like that?

bobo gigi
Reply to  Peter
7 years ago

She swam her PB of 4.03.34 last year at worlds. This year her best is 4.03.71 so far.

Alec
7 years ago

I don’t think Dirado was fully rested at trials.

Seemed to get better as the meet went on, her best swim was her last, the 200 back final.

She’ll be better in Rio.

bobo gigi
Reply to  Alec
7 years ago

I agree. She didn’t have to be at 100% at trials. She had a big margin in her events. The best Maya is yet to come. I like more and more her 200 back gold medal chances.

NotSoFastSwimmer
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

Bobo, do you know if Balmy is using the same prescription as Muffat did in 2012? She seems to be peaking at the right time.

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