{"id":478706,"date":"2021-06-19T13:08:25","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T20:08:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=478706"},"modified":"2021-06-19T13:13:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T20:13:02","slug":"u-s-olympic-trials-day-7-notebook-how-erika-brown-reinvented-herself-to-make-tokyo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-olympic-trials-day-7-notebook-how-erika-brown-reinvented-herself-to-make-tokyo\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Olympic Trials, Day 7 Notebook: How Erika Brown Reinvented Herself to Make Tokyo"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Olympic Trials, Day 7 Notebook: How Erika Brown Reinvented Herself to Make Tokyo<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the fall of 2017, University of Tennessee sophomore Erika Brown<\/strong> was one of the feel-good stories of college swimming as she propelled herself from a non-NCAA qualifier as a freshman to one of the country\u2019s top sprinters by sophomore year. By the end of that season, she was SEC champion in the 50 free, 100 fly and 100 free, and she finished second at the NCAA championships in the 50 free and 100 fly.<\/p>\n

But that was all in short course. Her biggest weapon was a mighty underwater dolphin kick that she used to cover more than half the distance in each of her races. Long course, Brown was not there yet. At U.S. Nationals in 2018, Brown finished 15th in the 100 free, 14th in the 50 fly, 12th in the 100 fly and 14th in the 50 free.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat summer was really difficult. I did not perform the way I wanted. I think everything happens for a reason. It motivated me to continue working really hard and really focusing on all the details,\u201d Brown said. \u201cObviously my underwaters really helped me in short course, so I had to focus on my stroke and distance per stroke and making those turns really count, so accelerating into the those turns, and I can\u2019t use as many underwaters, so I really had to focus on my stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of a few years, Brown figured out long course racing. But while she was primarily a butterflyer first and a freestyler second in her college career, it would be freestyle that brought her to a level where she could be competitive in long course. In a year and a half, she dropped her time from 54.5 to 53.4, which she swam in December 2019 and again in January 2020. With up to six spots available on the women\u2019s 400 free relay at the Olympics, she looked to be in good shape to challenge for an Olympic team.<\/p>\n

After the Olympic delay and a successful ISL season with the Cali Condors, Brown had not recorded any super impressive times in 2021 prior to Trials, her season-best effort in the 100 free a 54.45. And her Trials got off to a rough start when she finished 32nd in the 100 fly, her time of 59.82 more than a second off her best time. Then she was 25th in the 200 free in 2:00.82, this time more than three seconds off her seed time. In the 100 free, Brown was seventh in prelims and eighth in the semifinals, squeaking into the final by just 0.02 over reigning Olympic gold medalist Simone<\/strong> Manuel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was pretty disappointed with how my 100 fly and 200 free went,\u201d Brown said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve mainly been training for this 100 free and 50, so I just tried to keep a positive attitude and focus on what I was here to do, and with every 100 I swam, I got better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown was in lane eight, far away from the rest of the field\u2014but she went out fast and got the job done. She flipped second and held onto that position<\/a>, touching in 53.59, securing the spot in Tokyo that, despite all her success, seemed so unlikely at many points over the past few years.<\/p>\n

Ryan Murphy Trials Comparison<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Defending double backstroke gold medalist Ryan Murphy<\/strong> took care of business<\/a> in qualifying for his two events at the Tokyo Olympics, and despite an imperfect five years where he never won any individual world titles, he\u2019s in position for another strong effort at the Tokyo Games. Neither of Murphy\u2019s swims this week overtook Russian rivals Kliment Kolesnikov<\/strong> or Evgeny Rylov<\/strong> in the world rankings or otherwise lit the world on fire, but he ended up being just off his winning times from the 2016 edition of these Trials.<\/p>\n