{"id":404852,"date":"2019-12-04T10:52:18","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T17:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=404852"},"modified":"2019-12-05T22:40:38","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T05:40:38","slug":"2019-us-open-swimming-four-storylines-to-follow-in-atlanta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/2019-us-open-swimming-four-storylines-to-follow-in-atlanta\/","title":{"rendered":"2019 US Open Swimming: Four Storylines to Follow in Atlanta"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US Open this weekend is stacked in terms of who is attending. Olympic champions\u00a0Simone Manuel<\/strong> and Katie Ledecky\u00a0<\/strong>and swimming superstars Caeleb Dressel <\/strong>and Regan Smith <\/strong>will be in attendance.\u00a0This is not a surprise considering it is the Olympic year (in four weeks) and everyone is trying to get their long course fix in. The US Open is taking over for Winter Nationals, which has traditionally been held during the first weekend in December as a short course yards meet, but changed to long course last season, and has now been renamed to be the US Open.<\/p>\n

This weekend is a great opportunity for the US National team to take advantage of some long course racing to cap off a great fall season that saw the birth of the International Swimming League. With many of the top American swimmers busy with the new league and racing short course meters, the hype of the approaching Olympic year has almost been forgotten, which may end up being a good thing for many of the pro athletes that could see the ISL as a nice distraction from the intense grind required to train for the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

But the ISL is already over for members of the DC Trident and New York Breakers that did not advance to the Las Vegas final, so it is full-on long course mode from here until August. This weekend’s US Open feels sort of like an “opening day” in other professional sports, with this meet being, for many, the first big test to see where they are before heading to Olympic Trials in June. Yes, the Greensboro Pro Swim Series happened in November but a lot of the best swimmers were not there. At the US Open this weekend, there doesn’t seem to be a big swimmer absent, save for perhaps some of the Cal pros Nathan Adrian<\/strong>,\u00a0Ryan Murphy\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Tom Shields<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

US Open Details:<\/strong><\/h3>\n
    \n
  • When:\u00a0<\/strong>December 4 (with 800s) – December 7<\/li>\n
  • Where:\u00a0<\/strong>McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, Georgia<\/li>\n
  • Who: <\/strong>PSYCH SHEET<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Streaming Info:\u00a0<\/strong>Available here<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Live Results:\u00a0<\/strong>Available here<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    With so many good swimmers converging in Atlanta this weekend, let’s take a look at some of the storylines worth following this weekend.<\/p>\n

    #1: Someone Will Break Out This Weekend As a Contender<\/h3>\n
    \"lilly-king-\"

    Lilly King broke out as an Olympic contender at the 2015 Winter Nationals; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

    We don’t know who it will be. And we probably won’t know who will break out this weekend until we see the end results at the Olympic Trials in June. Swimming fans may have a good\u00a0idea\u00a0<\/em>of who will make next summer’s Olympic team based on what happened this summer at the World Championships, Pan American Games, World University Games, etc. But the truth is, we don’t really know anything. And this weekend’s US Open will give us a good opportunity to see who is in the right shape to make a push for the Olympics next summer.<\/p>\n

    For example, in 2015 at the Winter Nationals in Seattle, a freshman breaststroker from Indiana not a lot of people had heard of named Lilly King\u00a0<\/strong>swam a lifetime best in the 100 breast at 1:06.43. It was quicker than her time at US Nationals that summer, where she put herself ninth in the world at 1:06.6. In that race in December 2015, King showed no fear in taking on the reigning World champion Yulia Efimova<\/strong>, three months before she failed a drug test for meldonium,<\/a> taking it out fast and eventually being run down by the Russian. There was a lot of foreshadowing in that race four years ago and at the time, no one knew they had watched the first meeting between two swimmers that would go on to be one of the biggest stories of the Olympic Games eight months later<\/a> and be one of the best running rivalries<\/a> in the sport of swimming today in 2019.<\/p>\n