Katie Ledecky got started on a very busy night at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials by winning the 200-meter freestyle Wednesday, claiming a spot in her second individual event at the Tokyo Games.
Ledecky was set to return about an hour later as an overwhelming favourite in the 1,500 freestyle, a new event for the women at these pandemic-delayed Olympics.
The 200 free was one of four gold medals that Ledecky won at the Rio Games. She'll get a chance to defend that title after touching in 1 minute, 55.11 seconds, a full body length ahead of the field.
Allison Schmitt, who won this event at the 2012 London Games, is headed to her fourth Olympics at age 31 after holding off Paige Madden by one-hundredth of a second for the runner-up spot behind Ledecky.
Schmitt's time was 1:56.79, which gives her a likely individual event in Tokyo as well as a spot on the 4x200 free relay. Madden and Katie McLaughlin, who was fourth in 1:57.16, will also head to the Olympics as relay swimmers.
“I knew it was going to be close," Schmitt said. “I didn't know how close it was until I got out of the water and saw one-hundredth on the board.”
As Schmitt crossed the deck, her longtime teammate and good friend Michael Phelps raced down from the stands to give her a long embrace. Both swimmers have disclosed their struggles with depression even while performing brilliantly in the pool.
“I don't even know how to put it into words,” Schmitt said. “He's been a brother inside the pool and outside the pool. It helped me so much. Even now, when he's not swimming, he's a huge part of it.”
Ledecky already won the 400 free, though she wasn't as fast as expected. She's also heavily favoured in the 800 free, another race she won at Rio, which means she could swim as many as four individual events and perhaps a couple of relays at the Tokyo games.
“Katie is amazing," Schmitt said. “As her teammate and her friend, I'm going to be right there along the way cheering her on.”
Ledecky is one of at least two swimmers the Americans are counting on to be big stars at these Olympics, the first since 1996 that won't include Phelps. He retired after Rio with a record 23 gold medals and 28 medals overall.
The other is Caeleb Dressel, who was the top qualifier in the semifinals of the 100 free with a time of 47.77.
Nathan Adrian, an eight-time Olympic medalist who won the 100 free at the 2012 Olympics and captured a bronze in Rio, failed to even qualify for the final after finishing sixth in his heat and 13th overall at 48.92.
His last chance to make it back to another Olympics at age 32 will be in the 50 free.
“Goodness," Dressel said when asked about Adrian failing to advance. “When we have six guys under 48 (seconds) heading into this (final), there’s real talent here. It’s real deep. It’s great for the sport, but it’s tough to get your hand on the wall first.”
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