Aaron Shackell of Carmel swims to berth in Olympics

Aaron Shackell of Carmel took first place in the finals of men’s 400 freestyle Saturday night at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to qualify for this year’s Olympic Games in Paris.

The Carmel Swim Club swimmer upset Tokyo bronze medalist Kieran Smith, who finished second and will likely receive his second Olympic berth.

Shackell set a new personal best of 3:45.46, easily clearing the Olympic qualifying time. Shackell trimmed 1.54-seconds off his previous best, set in 2023 at Summer Juniors.

Shackell is also competing in the 200 free, 200 fly, and 100 fly at the trials.

Luke Whitlock of Noblesville, who was the top qualifier in the men’s 400-meter freestyle event during preliminary heats Saturday, finished fifth in the finals.

Also on Saturday, Katie Ledecky qualified for her fourth Olympics, cruising to victory in the 400-meter freestyle .

Cheered on by a crowd of 20,689 at the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, Ledecky touched the wall in 3 minutes, 58.35 seconds.

She improved on her time of 3:59.99 in the morning preliminaries and set herself up to make a run at another gold against a loaded field at the Paris Games.

The Australian “Terminator,” Ariarne Titmus, is the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder (3:55.38) in the 400 free. Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh is also expected to contend for the top spot on the podium.

The 27-year-old Ledecky is set to swim four events at her nation’s trials, all of them freestyle events ranging from 200 to 1,500 meters. She already has six individual gold medals—more than any female swimmer in Olympic history.

“I’m pretty excited,” Ledecky said after the victory ceremony. “I never imagined I would go to a fourth Olympic Games.”

The expected second spot on the Olympic team will go to Paige Madden, the runner-up behind Ledecky at 4:02.08.

Meanwhile, Gretchen Walsh, a 21-year-old from the University of Virginia, set a world record in a semifinal heat of the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 55.18.

Walsh was more than a half-second under world-record pace at the turn and finished strong to eclipse the mark of 55.48 set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Walsh held her hand over her mouth as she looked at the scoreboard in disbelief, a “WR” beside her name. But she’s still got some work to do to make her first Olympic team.

The 100 fly final Sunday night also includes Torri Huske, Regan Smith and Claire Curzan—all medalists at the Tokyo Games.

Shackell’s sister, Alex, also advanced to the final and will be looking to join her sibling on the Olympic team.

Aaron Shackell swims to a berth in the Olympics. (IBJ photo/Mickey Shuey)