James Sica - (Author)

Olympics Day 3 Notebook: Critical Stretch Coming for Team USA After every bounce benefitted the United States on day one of the Tokyo Olympic swimming competition, day two brought some less joyful outcomes. Torri Huske barely missed her best time in the 100 butterfly final, but she ended up fourth, ...

Olympics: Day Three Finals Heat Sheets; Four Straight Gold-Medal Battles On Tap The heat sheets have been posted for third morning of finals action at the 2021 Olympics. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tokyo time Tuesday morning (9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT Monday in the USA), the session will include four fi...

Even Olympians Pull on the Lane Line: Israel's Denis Loktev Tugs in 200 Free Swimmers hear the same refrain all the time from their coaches: don't pull on the lane line. Many, of course, still try to grab on for a little boost in practice, particularly when they are swimming easy backstroke and mayb...

France's Yohann Ndoye-Brouard Disqualified in 100 Back Semifinals After Crashing Into Wall While defending Olympic champion and world-record holder Ryan Murphy was swimming his way towards the top seed for the men's 100 backstroke final, a swimmer had a very different outcome three lanes over. Franc...

Olympics: Regan Smith Regains 100 Back Olympic Record, Sets Up Huge Showdown for Gold with McKeown and Masse In the women's 100 back prelims, Canada's Kylie Masse, the USA's Regan Smith and Australia's Kaylee McKeown all broke the Olympic record in back-to-back-to-back heats, and as the only three s...

Olympics: Tatjana Schoenmaker Beats Lilly King Head-to-Head in 100 Breast Semifinals After Tatjana Schoenmaker took down Lilly King's Olympic record in the women's 100 breast prelims, Schoenmaker scored a triumph over the American in a semifinal showdown. With Schoenmaker in lane four and King in la...

Olympics: Day Three Prelims Heat Sheets Now Available; Ledecky Goes for Double in 200 Free & 1500 Free Following a second fascinating morning of finals at the Olympics, day three's prelims will begin Monday evening in Japan at 7 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET in the U.S.), and the heat sheet for that se...

Olympics: Men's 400 Free Relay Lineups Released; Caeleb Dressel Leading Off For USA in Tokyo Debut The full start lists are out for the men's 400 free relay final at the Tokyo Olympics, and as expected, superstar Caeleb Dressel will lead off for the United States in his first race of the meet. Dress...

After Swimming Faster 400 IM than Olympic Gold Medalist, Carson Foster More Motivated Than Ever Six weeks before Jay Litherland moved up from sixth place after 300 meters into silver medal position at the finish in the men’s 400 IM final at the Olympic Games, Litherland pulled the exact same comebac...

Olympics Day 2 Notebook: Time for Emma McKeon’s Individual Shining Moment? Emma McKeon has been an international force for Australia since 2013, a presence never missing from the Dolphins’ lineup in any of the relay events at an international meet during that eight-year span. She has won 17 medals a...

Olympics: Prelims-Leading Italians, Dressel-Led Americans and Outside Smoke Russians to Battle for Gold in Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay Prior to the 2000 Olympics, the American men were undefeated in Olympic competition in the men’s 400 freestyle relay. But since then, every time we have seen this even...

Olympics: Day Two Finals Heat Sheets Posted; First Ledecky-Titmus Showdown Highlights Busy Morning The heat sheets have been posted for second morning of finals action at the 2021 Olympics. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tokyo time Monday morning (9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT Sunday in the USA), the session w...

Olympics: United States Overcomes Apparent Weakness for Hot Start in Tokyo It would have been easy to excuse a slow start for Team USA on day one. Coming out of Olympic Trials, the team had significant weaknesses across various events, particularly on the men’s side. The U.S. men won medals in all b...

Tokyo Olympics: Day Two Prelims Heat Sheets Posted; Five Individual Events + Men's 400 Free Relay After Olympic swimming kicked off with five finals, day two prelims will begin Sunday evening in Japan at 7 p.m. local time (6 a.m. ET in the U.S.), and the heat sheet for that session is now available....

Olympics: Adam Peaty Cruises to 57.63 in 100 Breaststroke Semifinals; Americans Michael Andrew and Andrew Wilson Sneak into Final Simply, it is unfathomable that anyone besides Adam Peaty will take gold in the men's 100 breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics. The British superstar has been the dominant ...

Olympics Day 1 Notebook: American Kalisz and Weyant with 400 IM Opportunity Prior to the Olympics, there was a clear favorite for gold in both the women’s and men’s 400 individual medley races, although the women’s favorite looked shaky off a challenging year. That favorite, Katinka Hosszu, did not ...

Olympics: American Women Need Entirely New Squad for 400 Freestyle Relay Final In recent years, the American women have had some success in the 400 freestyle relay. At the 2017 World Championships, they edged out Australia for gold by three tenths, even though the Aussies were missing legendary spri...

Olympics: Heat Sheets Posted for Day One Finals and First Five Gold Medal Races The heat sheets have been posted for the first morning of finals action at the 2021 Olympics. Beginning at 10:30 a.m. Tokyo time Sunday morning (9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT in the USA), the first swimming gold medals of th...

Carson Foster Swims 4:08.46 400 IM at Austin Sectionals, Fastest Time in the World The eyes of the swimming world are focused squarely on Tokyo right now with the Olympics swimming competition underway. Nineteen-year-old American Carson Foster will not be in Tokyo after finishing third in the event ...

Ireland's Shane Ryan Out of 100 Backstroke at Tokyo Olympics Ireland's Shane Ryan, a semifinalist in the 100 backstroke at the Rio Olympics, is withdrawing from that event in Tokyo because of "persistent shoulder pain... specific to swimming this one stroke." Swim Ireland announced the news Friday i...