Taylor Ruck Sneaks Past Olivia Smoliga for 100 Back Victory in Atlanta

Photo Courtesy: Vaughn Ridley/Swimming Canada

Women’s 100 Back

Taylor Ruck continues to provide reasons why she is the swimmer to watch in Atlanta, collecting her fourth gold medal of the TYR Pro Swim Series stop. But her win in the women’s 100 back was far from easy. First, the 17-year-old had to chase down Team USA’s Olivia Smoliga, who flipped at the 50-meter mark with a sizable lead. Ruck turned up the heat in the back half of the meet to surge past Smoliga and win by the smallest of margins–.01 seconds.

Ruck claimed the gold in a time of 59.13, while Smoliga settled for second and a 59.14. Both athletes finished beneath the 2017 pool record of 59.38, set by Ali Deloof. Additionally, their times shifted Ruck and Smoliga to third and fourth in the world rankings for 2018.

Italy’s Federica Pellegrini grabbed third overall with a time of 1:00.56, followed by Canada’s Jade Hannah and her time of 1:00.60.

Alexia Zevnik of Wolfpack Elite took fifth with a 1:00.83, just ahead of Italy’s Carlotta Zofkov’s 1:01.03.

Deloof picked up seventh with a 1:01.62 and eighth went to Argentina’s Andrea Berrino and her 1:02.19.

                            === A - Final ===                            
 
  1 Taylor Ruck      17 HPC-Ontario       1:00.38      59.13P  949  
    r:+0.65  29.08        59.13 (30.05)
  2 Olivia Smoliga   23 ABSC/UGA          1:00.26      59.14P  949  
    r:+0.65  28.50        59.14 (30.64)
  3 Federica Pelleg  29 Italy             1:00.61    1:00.56   883  
    r:+0.73  29.30      1:00.56 (31.26)
  4 Jade Hannah      16 HPCenterVictoria  1:01.04    1:00.60   882  
    r:+1.56  29.47      1:00.60 (31.13)
  5 Alexia Zevnik    23 Wolfpack Elite    1:00.98    1:00.83   872  
    r:+0.81  29.86      1:00.83 (30.97)
  6 Carlotta Zofkov  24 Italy             1:01.37    1:01.03   863  
    r:+0.77  29.79      1:01.03 (31.24)
  7 Ali Deloof       23 Univ of Michigan  1:01.31    1:01.62   839  
    r:+0.67  29.99      1:01.62 (31.63)
  8 Andrea Berrino   24 Argentina         1:01.68    1:02.19   816  
    r:+0.67  30.19      1:02.19 (32.00)

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Francis Schmitz

6 years ago

Just saw it live on NBCSN

Halim Yussuf

6 years ago

Taylor is really very good.