The Week That Was: Olympic Swimming Begins With Amazing Performances

Jul 25, 2021; Tokyo, Japan; Ariarne Titmus (AUS) after the women's 400m freestyle heats during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports
Ariarne Titmus -- Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher -- USA Today Sports

The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

This week, the Tokyo Olympics swimming competition finally got underway with four finals Sunday morning (Tokyo time) and another four Monday. Australia and the United States have each captured two gold medals so far. Meanwhile, Carson Foster swam a faster 400 IM than the time that won Olympic gold, and controversy over COVID-19 vaccinations dominated the swimming conversation right before the Olympics.

Read the five biggest stories of the week in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.

The Week That Was #1: Tokyo Olympics Swimming Begins; Australia on Fire

Jul 25, 2021; Tokyo, Japan; Team Australia members Bronte Campbell, Meg Harris, Emma McKeon and Cate Campbell celebrate their gold medal during the medals ceremony for the women's 4x100m freestyle relay during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Summer Games at Tokyo Aquatics Centre. Mandatory Credit: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Network

Australia’s gold-medal winning women’s 400 freestyle relay team — Photo Courtesy: Rob Schumacher — USA Today Sports

By John Lohn, Matthew De George, Dan D’Addona and David Rieder

The Tokyo Olympics is underway with eight gold medals already awarded at the Olympic Aquatics Centre. Gold-medal winners so far include the USA’s Chase Kalisz in the men’s 400 IM, Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui in the men’s 400 free, Japan’s Yui Ohashi in the women’s 400 IM, Australia in the women’s 400 free relayCanada’s Maggie MacNeil in the women’s 100 fly, Great Britain’s Adam Peaty in the men’s 100 breast, Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the women’s 400 free and the United States in the men’s 400 free relay.

Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay: The outcome was expected and, yet, Australia still found a way to dazzle as the first day of finals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo came to a conclusion. All it took was a world record in the 400-meter freestyle relay – and quite a global mark it was.

The foursome of Bronte CampbellMeg HarrisEmma McKeon and Cate Campbell blasted a time of 3:29.69 at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre to wipe nearly a half-second off the previous world record of 3:30.05, and hand Australia its third consecutive Olympic crown in the event. Cate Campbell, the oldest of the sister combination, has been the common denominator on all three relays.

Few events on the Olympic program are no-doubt-about-it affairs, but the outcome of the first relay of the Tokyo Games truly has been long known. Australia boasts a sprint contingent that is unrivaled, the rest of the world envious of the Dolphins’ depth. Members of the Aussies’ prelim squad, Mollie O’Callaghan and Madison Wilson were cheerleaders during the final, and their skills certainly would have been welcomed by any other nation.

Women’s 400 Freestyle: 

Hype is – and always will be – a major element of the sports world. Rivalries are built up, with the media and fans alike eager to witness a moment in history. Frequently, these much-anticipated showdowns unfold as duds, the actual event unable to live up to lofty and sometimes unrealistic expectations.

Occasionally, though, something special is produced.

On the second day of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, the final of the women’s 400-meter freestyle earned legendary-event status, as Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and American Katie Ledecky battled in an epic duel that will go down in Olympic lore. Ultimately, it was Titmus who prevailed, as she ran down Ledecky over the last 100 meters and touched the wall in 3:56.69, the second-fastest time in history. Ledecky, who had the lead for most of the race, clocked in at 3:57.36, the No. 4 all-time performance, but not quite quick enough to retain her Olympic crown.

#2: Carson Foster Swims 4:08.46 400 IM in Austin

carson-foster-

Carson Foster — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By David Rieder

The eyes of the swimming world are focused squarely on Tokyo right now with the Olympics swimming competition underway. Nineteen-year-old American Carson Foster will not be in Tokyo after finishing third in the event at U.S. Olympic Trials behind Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland, but Foster swam a 400 IM Friday evening that reminded the world that even after missing the Tokyo team, he will be battling for international medals in that event in short order.

Foster swam a time of 4:08.46, lopping two seconds off his previous lifetime best in the event. Foster had previously recorded a 4:10.50 in prelims at Olympic Trials before swimming a 4:10.86 in finals, a half-second behind the fast-finishing Litherland. Foster’s time topped world champion Daiya Seto’s mark of 4:09.02 that was the fastest in the world for 2021 and made the Cincinnati native the ninth-fastest performer in history, along with the fifth-quickest American behind Michael PhelpsRyan Lochte, Kalisz and Tyler Clary.

Foster later spoke with Swimming World and discussed his reaction to swimming faster than Kalisz’s eventual winning time from the Tokyo Olympics.

The Week That Was #3: Maya DiRado Criticizes Michael Andrew for Not Being Vaccinated

maya-dirado-

Maya DiRado — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

By David Rieder

Maya DiRado, who won four medals for the U.S. team at the 2016 Olympics, posted a Twitter thread Tuesday evening commenting on the announcement by first-time U.S. Olympian Michael Andrew that he has not been vaccinated against COVID-19. Andrew discussed his decision to not be vaccinated in a virtual media session from the Olympic team’s training camp in Hawaii on July 8. Andrew said that prior to Olympic Trials, he “didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” but he then claimed that he had no plans to be vaccinated in the future.

DiRado, who retired after claiming an upset gold medal in the women’s 200 backstroke at the Rio Olympics in one of the most stunning moments of those Games, wrote that “As a former member of Team USA, I’m disappointed in @SwimmerMichael‘s decision to attend the Olympics unvaccinated and his reasoning behind it.”

She then posted a thread of eight tweets that detailed her three main issues with Andrew’s stance against vaccination. She discussed that it would be honoring the American scientists who developed the COVID-19 vaccines by getting the shots, and she explained that in her experience on the Olympic team, athletes did everything they could to put the U.S. team’s interests ahead of their own. She believed that getting vaccinated and minimizing risk during the Tokyo Games should have been the highest priority for each swimmer.

Later, Tom Shields responded on Twitter and criticized DiRado for “shaming” Andrew. Shields rhetorically asked that, as a member of the USA Swimming’s board, “What part of that responsibility involves shaming one of our Olympian’s (sic) on the eve of competition?”

Shields, who swam on the 2016 team with DiRado and is on the 2021 team with Andrew, went on to point out that he does not necessarily disagree with DiRado’s point about the importance of vaccines, but he questioned her timing and the medium of her comments and also potential ostacization of unvaccinated individuals and potential mental health consequences.

#4: Ous Mellouli to Compete in Tokyo Olympics After All

Ous Mellouli — Photo Courtesy: Qatar Swimming

By David Rieder

Days after Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli said he would be skipping the Tokyo Olympics after a legal battle with the Tunisian swimming federation, he has now confirmed he will compete in the 10k open water race as originally planned. Mellouli announced the decision on his Instagram account and separately confirmed the news to Swimming World.

Mellouli wrote his Instagram caption in Arabic, but according to a translation of the text, Tunisian Olympic Committee president Mehrez Boussain “pledged to settle the dispute between me and the Tunisian Swimming Federation after the Tokyo Olympics and insisted on me participating in the marathon final on August 5.” Mellouli qualified for the race after finishing 10th in the marathon qualifying swim in Setubal, Portugal, on June 20.

“President Bossian believes in my abilities to honor Tunisia and ascend the first places in Tokyo and pledged to provide the necessary and appropriate conditions for the Olympic champion to prepare for the Paris Olympics 2024 if I was able to do so,” Mellouli said in his Instagram post (via Google Translate). “I am grateful to the Olympic Committee for this diplomatic intervention and this high sportsmanship that, if you apply, will not be rejected or rejected.”

The Week That Was #5: USMS Nationals Take Place in Greensboro

masters-usms-bill-durell

Photo Courtesy: USMS

USMS held its first National Championships in two years this week in Greensboro, N.C. The meet was held in short course yards (delayed from its original May dates) and featured reduced capacity and split sessions, with swimmers aged 60 and older competing in the morning and swimmers 59 and younger competing in the afternoon. Seventeen USMS national records were broken over the course of the week. Read recaps from the five days of the meet.

On the first day of the meet, 70-year-old Bill Durell swam butterfly for his entire 1650 race. Read the story from USMS’s Daniel Paulling.

Bill Durell climbed out of the pool with ease following his first event Wednesday at the U.S. Masters Swimming Short Course National Championship in Greensboro, North Carolina. The 1,650 yards he had just swum hadn’t worn down the 70-year-old.

No, he doesn’t tire easily despite having done his entire race butterfly.

“It’s the weirdest event I’ve ever done,” he says. “That one is psychologically the most difficult to swim. The third and fourth lengths are the worst. The first two [lengths], you’re just getting in the water, but the third and fourth, it sets in: ‘Oh, my God, how many more do I have to do?’

“It’s just methodical. You just need to get in the groove. It takes about 20 (lengths) to do that. That is the only event I’ve ever swum where the further you go, the easier it becomes.”

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