{"id":477054,"date":"2021-06-15T08:33:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=477054"},"modified":"2021-06-15T08:51:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-15T15:51:21","slug":"u-s-olympic-trials-leah-smith-edges-katie-ledecky-for-top-seed-in-womens-200-free-prelims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-olympic-trials-leah-smith-edges-katie-ledecky-for-top-seed-in-womens-200-free-prelims\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Olympic Trials: Leah Smith Edges Katie Ledecky For Top Seed in Women’s 200 Free Prelims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 200 free is a unique event in that has a cross section of the top women’s swimmers in the country and the prelims at the Olympic Trials produced some surprises.<\/p>\n

Leah Smith<\/strong> took the top seed in 1:57.52, ahead of Katie Ledecky<\/strong> (1:57.58), somewhat surprising, though there are still semifinals and finals to go in the event.<\/p>\n

Smith<\/a> narrowly missed spots on the Olympic team in the 400 IM and 400 free. Ledecky won the 400 free on night two<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Strong swims from Allison Schmitt, Paige Madden, Gabby DeLoof<\/strong> and Katie McLaughlin<\/strong> also highlighted the event as the top 16 advanced to tonight’s semifinals.<\/p>\n

There were some other surprises, including who didn’t swim the event.<\/p>\n

Simone Manuel, Olivia Smoliga<\/strong> and Catie DeLoof<\/strong> were late scratches the event, and Melanie Margalis<\/strong> earlier scratched, a little surprising considering the relay spots in the event, but the 200 free is not the top event for any of these contenders in other races.<\/p>\n

In the three circle-seeded events, very few of the contenders consider the 200 free their best event, perhaps just Allison Schmitt, Gabby DeLoof, Erin Gemmell, Claire Rasmus<\/strong> and perhaps Justina Kozan<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Katie Ledecky<\/strong> (distance), Torri Huske<\/strong> (butterfly), Paige Madden<\/strong> (distance), Abbey Weitzeil<\/strong> (sprints), Olivia<\/strong> Smoliga<\/strong> (backstroke), Leah Smith<\/strong> (distance), Erika Brown<\/strong> (sprints), Kaersten Meitz<\/strong> (distance), Brooke Forde<\/strong> (400 IM), Emma Weyant<\/strong> (400 IM), Isabel Ivey<\/strong> (backstroke\/butterfly) and Hali Flickinger<\/strong> (butterfly\/400 IM).<\/p>\n

Kelly Pash<\/strong> (1:59.73) won the final heat before the circle seeds and was the first competitor to break 2 minutes.<\/p>\n

Smith led off the circle-seeded heats with a 1:57.52, ahead of Forde (1:58.72) and Flickinger (1:59.13).<\/p>\n

Schmitt won the second circle-seeded head in 1:57.84, ahead of Gabby DeLoof (1:58.39) and Ivey (1:59.60).<\/p>\n

The final heat saw Ledecky win in 1:57.58 ahead of Madden (1:58.08) and McLaughlin (1:58.63).<\/p>\n