Four Gold Medalists to Compete at arena Pro Swim Series Atlanta

lilly-king-
Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Reigning Olympic champions Anthony Ervin (Valencia, Calif./SwimMAC Carolina), Lilly King (Evansville, Ind./Indiana University), Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md./Stanford Swimming) and Simone Manuel (Sugar Land, Texas/Stanford Swimming) are expected to highlight the field for next week’s arena Pro Swim Series at Atlanta, set for May 4-7 at Georgia Tech’s McAuley Aquatic Center.

Several members of last summer’s Olympic Team, who prepped for the Rio Games in Atlanta, are expected to compete. Included in this group are individual medalists Katie Meili (Colleyville, Texas/New York Athletic Club), Cody Miller (Las Vegas, Nev./Badger Swim Club) and former University of Georgia standout Chase Kalisz (Bel Air, Md./North Baltimore Aquatic Club).

On the local front, Kalisz will be joined by fellow UGA Olympians Gunnar Bentz (Atlanta, Ga./Athens Bulldog Swim Club), Hali Flickinger (Spring Grove, Pa./Athens Bulldog Swim Club) and Olivia Smoliga (Glenview, Ill./Athens Bulldog Swim Club), as well as three-time Olympian and Atlanta-area resident Amanda Weir (Lawrenceville, Ga./SwimAtlanta). A number of swimmers from Georgia Tech and Dynamo Swim Club also will be in action.

The four-day meet opens Thursday, May 4 with a 5 p.m. ET timed-final, distance freestyle session and continues through Sunday, May 7, with daily prelims at 10 a.m. ET followed by finals at 7 p.m. Single- and all-session tickets are on sale now online.

Two days of television coverage from Atlanta will air live on NBC Sports Network – Saturday, May 6 and Sunday, May 7. All three finals sessions also will be streamed live via NBC Sports, while a live webcast of the entire meet also will be available at usaswimming.org.

This event is the fourth of five stops of the 2017 arena Pro Swim Series. U.S. Olympians Josh Prenot (Santa Maria, Calif./California Aquatics) and U.S. Olympian Melanie Margalis (Clearwater, Fla./St. Petersburg Aquatics) are the current series leaders with 38 and 31 points, respectively.

The arena Pro Swim Series scoring system awards eligible swimmers prize money and points based on first-, second- and third-place performances at each meet in the Championship final only. The prize money and scoring system is as follows: First place, $500 (five points); second place, $300 (three points) and third place, $100 (one point).

At 2017 Phillips 66 Nationals, the point totals will double to 10 points for first place, six for second and two points for third place. The final series tally will be computed after the 2017 Phillips 66 National Championships, slated for June 27-July 1 in Indianapolis, and the prizes will be awarded at that time.

The top eligible male and female overall point total winners in the series will earn a one-year lease of a BMW vehicle, as well as a $10,000 series bonus.

Press release courtesy of USA Swimming.

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Billt
Billt
6 years ago

Beware of the King!

Michael Maloney
Michael Maloney
6 years ago

well well…At least we get to see who is taking this long course season seriously….where is everyone else….ie Baker.. Smith..Neal..Comerford..the list goes on….oh and please dont give me the i have classes excuse……This is why Ledecky..Manual are GOLD Medalist..because they WORK all the time not just when the TIME is convenient…Looks like KATIE is going to carry everyone on her back again like she did in Kazzan in 2015…just saying

David Rieder
David Rieder
6 years ago

Michael, we haven’t seen the psych sheet yet, so we don’t know for sure who will be there and who won’t be. That said, I do know that at least some of those you listed in your comment WILL be swimming in Atlanta.

It’s also worth pointing out that many college swimmers will smack dab be in the middle of exams right about this time, while Stanford, on the quarter system, doesn’t have exams until June. Plus, it’s just not feasible (for whatever reason) for some people to fly across the country regularly. Plenty of those who aren’t in Atlanta will come to Santa Clara, and vice versa.

Michael Maloney
Michael Maloney
6 years ago
Reply to  David Rieder

David thank you for your response..I admit I went off a little half-cocked. It just gets frustrating when you see the same names working hard to keep USA swimming in the news. With all the retirements the WORLD is looking at the USA to see if we will keep up the GREATEST tradition of winning. I feel sometimes that if the Swimmers show a ho hum approach to Meets leading up to the Nats and World Championship we MAY lose our BID for 2024….You can’t say it’s not on people’s minds with the way the Worlds political viewpoint is on US an France right now. We need good press all the time. Maybe I’m just an old man in a new world but USA swimming is the one thing in sports that has ALWAYS made me PROUD to be an AMERICAN. Thank you again for all you do for the sport.

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