Morning Splash: Waiting All Week for the Last Two Events

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

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By David Rieder

It’s day seven—we gave up remembering the actual day of the week a long time ago—and we’re back at the pool for yet another day of prelims. This last session of qualifying heats will only have two events on the docket, and that means the waiting game is over for favorites Madison Kennedy and Connor Jaeger.

Kennedy knew all along that her best chance to make a first Olympic team would come in the 50 free, even with six swimmers likely going to Rio for relay purposes. Kennedy ended up finishing ninth in the 100 free in 54.18, which was a time drop of more than four tenths of a second. She is seeded first in the 50 free in 24.45, recorded in April at the Arena Pro Swim Series meet in Mesa, Ariz.

But Kennedy has some very tough competition in the 50, with newly-crowned Olympians Abbey Weitzeil and Simone Manuel leading the way. It’s never easy to separate the field in the women’s splash-and-dash, and these next three rounds should be just that way.

Then there’s the other event on the program, the men’s 1500 free, which figures to not be quite as hotly-contested. Jaeger is seeded first by 12 seconds, and after his impressive come-from-behind victory in the 400 free on night one (yes, almost a week ago), he figures to be set up for a good one in the 1500.

Jaeger has not competed since Monday, when he was 11th in the semifinals of the 200 free. But Jaeger is used to such an event schedule with the 400 and mile almost a week apart, having gone through that routine at Trials four years ago and at the World Championships in 2013 and 2015.

“You have to be ready to go the full seven days apart. We’ll do some training in between—that’s what we did four years ago,” Jaeger said in early June. “I did a threshold practice while I was there in between the races. So we’ll definitely do some type of threshold touch while we’re there just to maintain and just stay ready for that race.”

Jaeger and University of Michigan associate head coach Josh White really had no choice but to go back up in distance and intensity during the week—swimming the mile on full rest plus an extra week is hardly optimal. The process is tricky, but Jaeger should have plenty of margin for error this time, and he’ll be prepared to adjust if need be come Rio.

The week for Kennedy has been different—she flew out from Charlotte after the meet had already begun so she would not get bored waiting around—and also so that she would miss less time at her full-time job.

Kennedy is 28 years old and has never swum at a World Championships or Olympics. She narrowly missed out on missing the London team four years ago, ending up fifth in the 50 free and eighth in the 100. With the form she’s showed so far this year and the relative parity of women’s sprinting in the U.S., this has to be her best shot.

Jaeger has already been on an Olympic team—two, in fact, having finished sixth in the 1500 free in London before his stellar performance in the 400 free this week in Omaha. But this 1500 will be Jaeger’s best chance at an Olympic medal in his career.

He will likely have to get well under 14:40 to get on the podium, especially with Gregorio Paltrinieri, Mack Horton and Ryan Cochrane all good bets to swim fast come Rio. Jaeger’s American record in the event stands at 14:41.20, but after a substantial time drop down to 3:43.57 in the 400 free, Jaeger figures to have more in the tank in the longer distance.

Two very different event, two very different swimmers, but for both a major opportunity for success they have yet to experience. For Jaeger, Trials are just the dress rehearsal. For Kennedy, it’s the real deal.

So yes, this morning’s prelims session and Sunday evening’s finals session may consist of few events—and these prelims will be long, with 11 heats of the mile that take more than three hours—but Olympic Trials are not over yet. For Kennedy and Jaeger, these are the moments they’ve been waiting for all week long.

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