{"id":503632,"date":"2022-04-27T15:38:08","date_gmt":"2022-04-27T22:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=503632"},"modified":"2022-04-28T07:08:56","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T14:08:56","slug":"u-s-international-team-trials-kieran-smith-drew-kibler-head-trio-of-145-200-frees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-international-team-trials-kieran-smith-drew-kibler-head-trio-of-145-200-frees\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. International Team Trials: Kieran Smith, Drew Kibler Head Trio of 1:45 200 Frees (VIDEOS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. International Team Trials: Kieran Smith, Drew Kibler Head Trio of 1:45 200 Frees<\/strong><\/p>\n

By the historical view, it was a shocking result, though it should\u2019ve surprised no one in the present. Of all the performances at the Tokyo Olympic Games by Americans, the biggest historical outlier came in the men\u2019s 800 free relay<\/a>, where, for the first time in 51 relays in non-boycotted Games, the U.S. failed to medal. It was a result that was both unthinkable yet inevitable when the times were stacked up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That underwhelming performance opened the door for change. And in have stepped in a new generation of mid-distance options. If the group doesn\u2019t necessarily contain a star quite of the caliber it does in other events, at least it possesses depth that was lacking this time last year.<\/p>\n

Kieran Smith<\/strong> led the way at U.S. International Team Trials Wednesday with a time of 1:45.25, followed by Drew Kibler<\/strong> in 1:45.32. Those are the two fastest times in the world this year, and the U.S. is the only nation with three sub-1:46 times.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy plan was to jump on the first 100 like I did last summer a lot of the times, and man that last 50 hurt really bad,\u201d Smith said on the broadcast. \u201cDrew\u2019s been putting together really good 200 frees, so I just knew I had to get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n