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The crowds were large and raucous. The biggest stars largely lived up to their billing. And plenty of promising young swimmers emerged over nine days in Indiana.
The U.S. Olympic swimming trials wrapped up Sunday night with the final two events at Lucas Oil Stadium, rounding out the roster for the Paris Games.
Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel are among those who will be going for gold in the City of Light, joined by potential new standouts such as Kate Douglass and Thomas Heilman.
Setting up a temporary pool inside the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts took the event to a whole new level. Nearly 300,000 fans turned out, with two sessions drawing crowds of more than 20,000.
The set-up drew rave reviews from the athletes.
“It’s been awesome. I think it blew away all of our expectations,” Ledecky said. “Just walking in the first day, it was incredible to see how it came together. Once it filled up with people, it made us all even happier.”
Star power
Ledecky won all four of her freestyle events, ranging from 200 to 1,500 meters, and she’ll again be the face of the American team as she competes in her fourth Olympics.
Ledecky won’t swim the 200, an event that produced only a fifth-place finish in Tokyo, and she’ll need to improve on her times in the 400 to have a shot at gold in that star-studded event.
But she remains the favorite in the 800 — an event where she’ll be going for a four-peat — and the 1,500.
Dressel, who took an extended layoff from swimming after Tokyo, won a pair of events in Indy and appeared to be regaining the form that produced five gold medals at the last Olympics.
“I’m really good at racing,” he said. “You put me in a race, I will make it close, as close as I possibly can, even if I have to try to kill myself to get there.”
Manuel, whose last Olympics were marred by overtraining syndrome, claimed an individual event on the final night of the trials with a victory in the 50 freestyle. She’ll also be a key performer on the 4×100 free relay.
She said her winning race “felt like the longest 50 of my life because I wanted it bad. I really wanted to swim an individual event.”
Bobby Finke, the winner of the 800 and 1,500 freestyle races in Tokyo, will get a chance to defend his titles after winning both events at the trials.
On the rise
Douglass showed why she is regarded as one of the world’s most versatile swimmers.
The 22-year-old New Yorker claimed spots in three individual races in Paris: the 200 breaststroke, 100 freestyle and 200 individual medley. She’ll also be a key performer on the relays.
She has all the makings of being the breakout American star in Paris, leading the charge to take down the powerhouse Australian women’s team.
“Making the team was part of the process, but we have bigger goals that we want to accomplish in Paris,” Douglass said.
Also keep an eye on Chris Guiliano, who will be the first male American swimmer since the great Matt Biondi to compete in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle events, and Heilman, who at 17 became the youngest male swimmer to make the U.S. team since Michael Phelps.
World records
The trials provided a chance to send a message to the rest of the world, but only two world records were broken in Indy.
Gretchen Walsh set a standard in the women’s 100 butterfly with a time of 55.18 seconds, She eclipsed the mark of 55.48 set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström at the 2016 Olympics.
Regan Smith broke the mark in the women’s 100 backstroke, touching in 57.13 to take down the time of 57.33 set by Australia’s Kaylee McKeown.
Put a ring on it
Lilly King sure had a trials to remember.
Not only did the breaststroke queen qualify for two Olympic events in her home state, she got a big surprise after her final race.
King’s boyfriend, former Indiana University swimmer James Wells, pulled out a ring, dropped to a knee and asked her to marry him.
She said yes with a kiss and a big hug.
Siblings, times two
The U.S. will have two sets of siblings on its Paris team, the first time that’s happened since 2004.
Gretchen Walsh and big sister Alex both claimed spots at the Olympics. So did Aaron and Alex Shackell, a teenage brother-sister duo from the Indianapolis suburb of Carmel.
“I’m so happy,” Gretchen Walsh said. “It’s such a relief for my family now that we’re going to Paris together. It’s a dream come true. I’m just so excited.”
Falling short
Claire Curzan, a relay silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, was one of the biggest stars of the 2024 world championships in Doha. She won four gold medals and six medals overall at a meet that was missing many of swimming’s biggest stars.
The 19-year-old failed to make the team for Paris. She made the finals in all three of her events, but her best finish was third in the 200 backstroke, missing an Olympic spot by 0.07 seconds. She settled for fourth in the 100 butterfly and eighth in the 100 backstroke.
Michael Andrew won a gold medal in Tokyo as part of the 4×100 medley relay, to go along with two fourth-place finishes and a fifth-place showing in his individual events.
He won’t be going to Paris after finishing fifth in the 50 free, eighth in the 100 breaststroke and failing to advance from the semifinals of the 100 butterfly.
Lydia Jacoby is also staying home. The Alaskan surprise of the Tokyo games, where she claimed a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke, placed third in her signature event at trials.
Best race
The best race of the meet came in very last event, the men’s 1,500 freestyle.
It wasn’t for the top spot — Finke won going away — but the runner-up also earned a spot in Paris.
David Johnston and Luke Whitlock were neck and neck nearly the entire race, before Johnston started to pull away with six laps remaining. Then it was Whitlock battling back, nearly catching Johnston with a stunning final lap.
But Johnston barely held on to touch 0.26 seconds ahead of Whitlock after nearly 15 minutes of swimming.
It was an especially gratifying result for second-place finisher, who narrowly missed out in his other events with a third-place showing in the 400 free and fourth place in the 800 free.
Johnston turned to a football analogy to motivate himself, which seemed appropriate with the trials being held at the cavernous home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
“I’m just going to get out there, just give it everything I have, and kind of throw a Hail Mary,” Johnston told himself. “I went out there and said Hail Mary and got to the wall second.”
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Yes, the event will be billed as a success and it was very entertaining to go and experience. Indy does have the ability to put on a great show. However, I was disappointed in the price of tickets. The ticket prices for the evening events were way overblown and likely unaffordable for most. As such, a tremendous amount went unsold. One could see hundreds and hundreds if not thousands of unsold tickets online each night and as a result a tremendous amount of empty seats. Had those tickets been more affordable, likely more would have been purchased and families given the opportunity to experience a fantastic sport.
The TV camera angle only showed the first maybe 20 rows of the “50 Yard line” center pool section. Yes, these were likely worth the single ticket $200+ price tag per night for the ultra premium view. However, having the same pricing for most other lower bowl sectons, then $160, $119 etc, were too much for a 2 hour and maybe 5-8 race event if even that many.
And best of luck to Lilly King and James Wells, I’m sure their love is pure. My friend who was approached by organizers months ago, turned down their request to propose to his girlfriend during the event. Glad the organizers finally found a couple to facilitate their production request. One could tell it was such an “organic” moment. In the era a fake news, fake reality shows and fake personalities, only par for the course for NBC and Indy organizers to orchestrate.
R. R. R – this is like any other event in Indy and any town. They are not affordable for a large subset of the community. Always baffled me why the community deals with the before and after, but aren’t welcome to the event itself. Follow the money I guess.
Was fun to watch at home anyway you look at it.
Most people don’t care anything about swimming. That’s the facts.