Morning Splash: 200s Take Middle Stage on Day Three at Olympic Trials

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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By David Rieder

Everyone likes a nice 200, right? It’s the not too long that swimmers have to fight through the aerobic fatigue for minutes on end—or worse, get bored—and not too short so that there’s no time to build momentum. It’s right in the middle.

Well, better hope you like 200s, since that’s all that’s on tap for this morning’s prelims at Olympic Trials—the women’s 200 free, men’s 200 fly and women’s 200 IM on tap. Semifinals of those three events will be contested this evening, along with the final of the men’s 200 free.

Of the different 200s, the 200 IM is in a class of its own, basically still a sprint. A new stroke each 50 allows swimmers to rest different muscle groups and give greater efforts on the middle laps than in a 200 of one stroke.

The majority of the top contenders in the 200 IM at Olympic Trials are those coming down from the 400 IM—like Maya DiRado, Caitlin Leverenz, Ella Eastin, Bethany Galat and Elizabeth Beisel. But there are also those like Natalie Coughlin and Alicia Coutts, both past Olympic medalists in the event, who specialize in 100s of stroke and have come up to the 200 IM.

And then there are the mid-distance specialists that never touch the 400 IM and don’t really bother messing with 100s either, and the best example in this field is No. 2 seed Melanie Margalis.

Margalis qualified for the 100 breast final Monday evening but pulled out to focus on swimming both the 200 free and 200 IM today—and then the 200 breast beginning Thursday. She has trained her body to go fast in races ranging from 115 to 145 seconds, regardless of how her arms and legs are moving. For the 200 IM, that works.

*Any conversation about the men’s 200 fly has to begin with Michael Phelps, and rightly so. Phelps has redefined the limits of what can be done in the 200 fly, as he has been the first man to break the 1:55, 1:54, 1:53 and 1:52 barriers in the event.

Phelps has redefined the 200 fly on the scoreboard and also in the water. So many flyers have adapted their stroke to resemble the smooth, flat, efficient motion that Phelps has honed over the years, and such mechanics have become almost a must in order to compete in the event on the highest level.

*And then there’s the 200 free. Is it a sprint? Well it certainly can be—just ask Simon Burnett, whose U.S. Open record of 1:31.20 lasted a full decade, even as his best event long course was certainly the 100 free.

Stanford’s Lia Neal tried to sprint the 200 at NCAAs this year, but after leading by more than a second at the 150, she faded badly on the way home and ended up third.

Long course? Maxime Rooney went all-out from the get-go in his 200 free prelim Monday morning, recording the fastest 150 split before coming home in 29.72 to end up 14th after prelims. Caeleb Dressel, certainly a sprinter, tried his hand at the 200 free at Trials and ended up 32nd, barely breaking 1:50.

But specialists in just about everything else seem to be doing alright in the 200 free. Entering the meet, few would have considered the 200 free prime territory for Jack Conger, Clark Smith or Tyler Clary, but all go into tonight’s final with an excellent chance to qualify for the American 800 free relay at the Olympics.

Smith, Townley Haas and pre-race favorite Conor Dwyer are all excelling as 400 specialists coming down to the 200, and it could be the same scenario in the women’s event. Katie Ledecky and Leah Smith have the hot hand right now, having posted the top two times in the world in the 400 free Monday night, and it will be hard to stop them from earning individual Olympic bids in the 200 free as well.

For two other favorites, the 200 free will be their attempt at salvaging what was a rough start to the Trials. Defending Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmitt will turn towards her signature race after fading badly down the stretch of her 400 free, where she ended up fifth in 4:09.25.

Then there’s 2013 World Champion Missy Franklin, who looked absolutely lost for 85 meters of her 100 back semifinal Monday, getting almost nothing out of her start or turn. She did manage to squeeze into the final as the seventh qualifier, but she was more than a second behind the times that Olivia Smoliga and Kathleen Baker posted in the semifinal.

Can Franklin find refuge in the 200 free? During a mostly-disappointing World Championships last summer, Franklin still managed to pull out solid swims in 200-meter races, so maybe that’s just her sweet spot at this point in her career.

The 200 free will also feature contenders as varied as sprinter Simone Manuel, IMer Maya DiRado and butterflyer Katie McLaughlin—along with women actually focused on the 200 free like Shannon Vreeland.

The field that will assemble for the men’s 200 free final tonight includes swimmers of all shapes and sizes, and the women’s equivalent could be quite similar. And that should not be so surprising—it’s almost hard not to train for the 200 free, the true middle distance of the stroke of which almost every swimmer has done the most laps.

But not everyone can excel at the 200 free—only six men and six women get to move on to Rio for relay action, and quite a few men who loaded their eggs in that basket (Rooney and Michael Weiss, among others) ended up with some cracked shells as they missed outside of the final eight.

The 200-meter distance—especially the 200 free—brings athletes from all different specialties together. But not all of them find the competition so welcoming.

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