Noblesville’s Whitlock becomes youngest male to make U.S. Olympic swim team since 2000

Three years ago, Luke Whitlock of Noblesville watched the Tokyo Olympics and dreamed of the day he could compete on the American team.

Now he’s being mentioned in the same sentences as Michael Phelps.

The 18-year-old soon-to-be college freshman at the University of Florida became the youngest male swimmer to qualify for the U.S. Olympic swim team since 2000  on Tuesday night by finishing second to two-time Olympic gold medalist Bobby Finke in the men’s 800-meter freestyle.

Finke, the defending Olympic champion in the event, finished in 7 minutes, 44.22 seconds. Whitlock was next at 7:45.19. He is the youngest American to make the team since Michael Phelps’ breakthrough moment at age 15. And that’s not all.

In his first U.S. Olympic Trials competition Saturday, Whitlock also broke Phelps’ age-group record for 17- and 18-year-olds by 0.31 seconds with a time of 3:46.55 in the 400 freestyle prelims.

“I’m having a good week so far, and I’m just trusting my training to kind of go out fast and hold on,” Whitlock said. “I’m not really sure how I split it (Tuesday), but I think I went out pretty aggressive and I’m hurting pretty bad, but it was worth it.”

Whitlock didn’t even appear to be out of breath Tuesday following the second-longest distance swim at this week’s nine-day meet at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Instead, he sounded exhilarated by the swim and the results he produced just a short drive away from his home in Noblesville.

Whitlock is the second Indianapolis-area teenager to qualify for the U.S. men’s team this week, joining Aaron Shackell, who is from Carmel.

For Whitlock, it meant every bit as much as it did to Shackell to accomplish their greatest feats yet in front of their hometown fans—and inside the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts home stadium. Finke finished fourth in 400 while Whitlock was fifth.

On Tuesday, they again finished side by side—only this time as Olympic qualifiers. And Whitlock will get one more shot to make the team in this weekend’s grueling 1,500 freestyle before heading to Paris.

“It means everything,” Whitlock said. “I have a ton of family here cheering me on so I just wanted to do it for them and the crowd and everything. It’s nice. I don’t have to travel for trials and everything, so it’s awesome.”

Other events

Bouncing back from a close-but-no-Olympics call in her first race, Regan Smith set a world record in the women’s 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. swimming trials on Tuesday night.

The 22-year-old Minnesota native touched in 57.13 seconds, easily beating the mark of 57.33 set a year ago by Australia’s Kaylee McKeown.

Smith was just 17 years old when she first set a world record in the 100 back at the 2019 world championships. But she struggled to deal with the sudden, newfound fame, ceding dominance in the event to McKeown.

“A long time coming,” Smith said. “It’s about time.”

There was never any doubt about Smith’s talent, but a lack of confidence was almost crippling at times.

She’s been working with a sports psychologist since October, which helped turn things around from mental standpoint. Her coach, Bob Bowman, best known for his work with 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps, took care of the physical side with a grueling training regimen.

“This is incredibly rewarding,” Smith said. “When I was a teenager, I had not done much. There was no pressure on me. I was always the youngest. No one expected much from me. I could go into it fearless.”

Once she tasted success, it was hard to get back on top. She made the U.S. team for the Tokyo Olympics, but finished third in the backstroke as McKeown took the gold.

“I’ve always had it physically, but I didn’t have it mentally,” Smith conceded. “I just didn’t have it up here,” pointing toward her head.

Showing how much her confidence has grown, Smith bounced back emphatically after getting edged for a spot on the U.S. team in the 100 butterfly, where she finished third behind Gretchen Walsh and Torri Huske.

Flipping to her back, Smith set the second world record of the trials, following Walsh’s mark in the semifinals of the 100 fly.

Katharine Berkoff claimed the second expected Olympic spot for the U.S. with a time of 57.91.

Two of America’s biggest swimming stars, Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel, had impressive debuts at the trials, though there’s still work to do to make it back to the Olympics.

Dressel was the third-fastest qualifier in the preliminaries and semifinals of the men’s 100 freestyle, both times finishing behind Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano of the University of Notre Dame. Dressel will have to beat at least one of them in the final Wednesday night to earn a chance to defend his Olympic title in that event.

Manuel was the fastest qualifier in the women’s 100 free preliminaries and took the second spot behind Torri Huske in the semifinals.

Dressel and Manuel are both coming back from long layoffs that cast doubts over whether they’d be able to qualify for Paris.

The winner of five gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, Dressel mysteriously walked away in the midst of the 2022 world championships, later revealing he needed an extended break to rekindle his love for the sport.

Manuel, the first Black female swimmer to capture an individual gold medal, was diagnosed with overtraining syndrome ahead of the last Olympics. She barely managed to qualify for the U.S. team, then shut down all physical activity under a doctor’s care to allow her body to recover.