Morning Splash: A View of Olympic Trials from Press Row

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Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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By David Rieder

Olympic Trials has been circled on calendars across the country for so long that it’s hard to believe we’ve almost made it. Crazy as it may seem, the meet—the single meet that some swimmers have been anticipating since the last Trials four years ago—begins two weeks from today in Omaha, Neb., with heat one of the men’s 400 IM diving in at 10 a.m. central time.

The meet will draw 15,000 spectators to each of the eight finals sessions, more than three times the capacity of any American crowd that has watched a swim meet live since—you guessed it—Olympic Trials four years ago. USA Swimming offers no free passes onto the Olympic team, so those fans can expect the greatest swimmers in the world to be on their game in Omaha.

And there is nothing better than watching athletic greatness unfold before your eyes. Witnessing a swimmer record a time that has never been achieved before—and then watching their reaction—is something special.

I know that I will never forget watching my first—and to this point, my only—world record. It was two years ago, at the National Championships in Irvine, Calif.

A year earlier, Katie Ledecky had broken world records in both the 800 and 1500 free at the World Championships, but her most stunning performance at that meet had been her 3:59.82 gold medal swim in the 400 free, where she posted the second-fastest time ever.

The world record at that point belonged to Federica Pellegrini, a 3:59.15 set with the aid of high-tech suits at the 2009 World Championships. No one else had ever broken 4:00 until Ledecky’s breakthrough performance in 2013.

And on that warm Southern California evening in August 2014, that world record went down.

Everyone in the venue knew something special was brewing. PA announcer Sam Kendricks had the crowd roaring, and even we in the media section could feel the buzz and then the collective anxiety of everyone on deck as she started to tire over the last two laps.

And then, when we saw the 3:58.86 on the scoreboard and saw Ledecky pound the water in joy, we applauded.

Seven months after that and on the other side of the country, I watched Missy Franklin become the first woman to break 1:40 in the short course yards 200 free. Franklin, coming off a miserable performance at the Pan Pacific Championships where she was felled by back spasms, won three individual events at those NCAAs and led Cal to a team title, but the 200 free was the most memorable.

Expecting a challenge from Stanford freshman Simone Manuel, Franklin abandoned her typical strategy of building throughout the race and went all out from the start. She split under 23 seconds to the feet at the first 50 and then hung on for dear life.

When Franklin saw the time 1:39.10 on the scoreboard, she pumped her fist in ecstasy. Upstairs, I felt fortunate to have witnessed a signature moment from a swimmer who, although not yet 20 years old, had firmly established herself as an all-time great.

One year later, I stood next to the lane one starting block at the McAuley Aquatic Pavilion as Townley Haas swam a 1:30.46 in the 200-yard free, demolishing Simon Burnett’s decade-old U.S. Open record of 1:31.20.

No one was surprised to see Haas ahead the whole way—a few days earlier he had split a 1:30.52 on Texas’ 800 free relay days—and during the race it was quickly clear that Burnett’s record was on its last legs. Still, the shock of seeing the digits on the scoreboard landed this reporter on his knees.

You can bet that, with everything on the line, there will plenty more moments like this at Trials.

But obviously not every swimmer in Omaha will be making the Olympic Team—in fact, the vast majority will arrive at the meet knowing full well they have no shot at qualifying for Rio.

Georgia head coach Jack Bauerle reminded me of that when we spoke a few days ago. Bauerle was the head coach for the women’s Olympic team in 2008 and three times the World Championships squad, but for all of the athletes he has coached onto Team USA, he knows that many others have different goals.

“We want athletes to be on this team, and we want athletes to go medal,” Bauerle said. “But we also have some with different aspirations. Some want to get a second swim. Some want to be in the final. Some just want to swim their best swim ever at that place. We want all of them to have to have a reason to be there.”

And then there are those that just barely squeak under the qualifying time for Olympic Trials—and there will certainly be new additions to that group before the entry deadline on June 20. For these swimmers, the opportunity to swim in the competition pool for one preliminary event will be the signature moment of their swimming careers.

When Pam Swander arrived in Charleston, S.C., in March to take over as head coach of the new South Carolina Swim Club, none of the almost 500 swimmers on the team had Olympic Trials cuts—that is still the case, in fact. But Swander saw a handful of athletes not far off their cuts and decided that they should go for it.

“I think the quest is noble,” Swander said. “When the kids are little, and they see on TV the venue and the flames, they just want to go and be a part of it.”

This group will attend the Sizzlin Summer Invite next weekend in Atlanta for their last chance at the cuts. But even if they don’t succeed, Swander thinks the effort will still have been worth it.

“When a kid has a goal, and there’s something that they’re truly passionate about, it drives their focus,” she said. “They’re happier, they’re working toward that goal and they’re on task in practice. I think it’s just all the way around makes them a better individual.”

And just like there’s a buzz when an athlete is on the cusp of a record-breaking performance in the final at Olympic Trials, there’s the same aura surrounding those athletes on the verge of making the meet.

Just yesterday, in fact, I got to watch one individual race some broken swims off the blocks in preparation for his attempt Friday. That individual, who I first met as a goofy 15-year-old boy but is now a tough-racing 18-year-old man, had his teammates and coaches whooping and cheering as his head bobbed up and down on each of his powerful breaststroke lunges. All knew exactly what is at stake.

The Olympic Trials bring out the best in our sport, just because so much is on the line for every single athlete involved. For those at the top of the psych sheets, it’s the opportunity to represent their country on the biggest of stages. Those on the verge of making it would be qualifying for the most prestigious meet they’ll ever swim in.

Trials will be something special for me, too—the biggest meet I’ve ever covered, the biggest event I’ve ever covered. Now I am a reporter, but I was a swimmer first. I may not have ever reached that level, but I know exactly how these athletes feel, present at the biggest meet of their lives, aiming to do something great.

There’s no cheering allowed in the press section, so I’ll go ahead and say this now: kudos to every athlete swimming at Olympic Trials. You distinguished yourself just by making it, first by going for your cuts and now standing behind the blocks in what is usually a basketball arena.

Now, whatever your goal is, go for it.

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David Abineri
David Abineri
7 years ago

I too am looking forward to the trials but I am hoping that the announcer will announce the swimmers’ names correctly and NOT drag each name out 5 times as long as it should be so that each swimmer receives the attention they deserve with their names being correctly pronounced.

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