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The Tokyo Olympics have concluded, and while pool swimming was over before the second week of the Games, open water, water polo and diving were all in the spotlight. The women’s and men’s 10K races in Tokyo saw Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha and Germany’s Florian Wellbrock earn gold medals. Meanwhile, in the United States, many of the country’s top swimmers who did not make the trip to Tokyo were in action at the Speedo Summer Championships at two sites, in Irvine and Greensboro.
Read the five biggest stories of the week in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.
The Week That Was #1: Cunha and Wellbrock Earn 10K Golds
Women’s 10K swimming medalists, from left, Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands, Ana Marcela Cunha of the Brazil and Kareena Lee of Australia — Photo Courtesy: Kareem Elgazzar/USA TODAY Sports
By David Rieder
Women’s 10K: Competing in the warm waters of Tokyo Bay at the Odaiba Marine Park, the 25 women qualified for the 10-kilometer marathon swim went off at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in Tokyo. As the field spread itself out, American Ashley Twichell opened up a lead and held that lead for most of the race, but Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha hung with Twichell and went in front at various points. As Cunha tried to break away, two swimmers managed to stay close, the Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal and Australia’s Kareena Lee. Van Rouwendaal, the defending gold medalist from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, hung in the back of the pack for much of the race before accelerating down the stretch, and in the final 500 meters, it became clear that none of the other swimmers in the race were going to earn a medal. Cunha remained a bodylength ahead, while van Rouwendaal and Lee fought for silver.
Cunha got to the pad in 1:59:30.8 to earn her first Olympic medal and the second ever for Brazil in open water Poliana Okimoto took bronze at the Rio Olympics.A moment later, van Rouwendaal touched in 1:59:31.7 to secure the silver medal, and Lee got to the wall third for the bronze medal in 1:59.32.5.
Men’s 10K: Twice during the pool in the Tokyo Olympics, Germany’s Florian Wellbrock held significant lead in an Olympic final with 50 meters to go, only for rivals to overtake him down the stretch. That was not going to happen in the open water as 26 men gathered at Odaiba Marine Park for the men’s 10K. Wellbrock went out hard and held the lead for most of the race, only briefly surrendering the lead to France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier. After a pack of about six swimmers were close heading into the last of seven laps of the course, but Wellbrock just annihilated the field at that point and pulled away to win gold.
Wellbrock finished in 1:48:33.7, winning by 25 seconds. The only race was for silver as Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky edged out Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri by just over two seconds, 1:48:59.0 to 1:49:01.1.
#2: Speedo Summer Championships in Greensboro and Irvine
Trenton Julian — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The Speedo Summer Championships took place two meets taking place on opposite sides of the country. Half the swimmers are in Greensboro, N.C., while the other half are in Irvine, Calif. The meet replaces the standard end-of-summer championships for senior-level and junior-level athletes, with the two usual events combined due to typical low turnout when the meets are around the same time as the Olympic Games. Older swimmers and 18-and-under swimmers had different time standards required for qualification. Most of the top American swimmers either just finished competing at the Olympics or are taking the summer off after narrowly missing the Olympic team.
