Leah Smith, a relay gold medalist at last year’s world championships, clung to Ledecky’s heels all the way, slicing almost three seconds off her personal best to finish second in 4:00.65. Only the top two finishers earn spots to the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which begins in August.
Advertisement
“It was just weird, because my warm-ups have been feeling really great”, Franklin said after she swam a preliminary heat of the 200 freestyle Tuesday morning. My whole theme for this meet is just that it is well with my soul, and I fell asleep listening to that hymn in my mind last night and just knowing regardless of what happens I know that I’m a daughter of God and I just – my prayer is that I can reflect his glory this whole meet and now heading into Rio just be a light for him. Lochte, an 11-time Olympic medalist, raced out to a big lead on the first two legs but had nothing left for the breaststroke and freestyle. “Leah really embraces the races a lot like I do”. Ledecky, who exploded on the global scene with an 800-meter free triumph in London four years ago, is entered in the trials in every freestyle event from 50 meters through 800 meters.
Defending Olympic 100m backstroke champion Missy Franklin, one of America’s star performers at London 2012, was dangerously close to missing out on qualification in the event as she finished 0.04 seconds inside the required time.
Leah Smith, who also made the team by finishing second to Ledecky in the 400 free Monday, was second quickest in 1:56.47. “I think we’re really going to represent the USA well in that event”.
“Nobody wants to go, ” Phelps said via The Score about the Games.
“An wonderful race”, Ledecky said.
“I honestly tried not to think about it”, she said. Chase Kalisz, Jay Litherland and DiRado qualified on the first night of the trials, and Cordes and Miller joined Smith and Worrell as first-time qualifiers Monday. “But I’m happy to get the first one underway and just keep going from there”. The Kiwi’s best 400 free time this year of 4:08.28 has her 30th in the world rankings, but she’s only contested one major meeting – when she qualified for Rio at the NZ Open Champs earlier this year in 4:08.28.
She will be joined in the crucial race by 33-year-old Natalie Coughlin, a 12-time Olympic medallist, along with Olivia Smoliga, who recorded the fastest time as she clocked 59.16sec. “I’m so excited for [Smith], we are going to crush it in Rio”. He was named to the national team past year. So that’s what my goal is for this week, and hopefully I get my ticket there.
Advertisement
Shaking off the pain of a groin injury, Lochte got through the morning preliminaries and posted the fifth-fastest time in the evening semifinals. I think I’m trying a little bit too hard and thinking a little bit too much.
