Also, while Sherdog probably doesn't care, since swimming isn't too popular around here, the US girl's team has a whopping 10 teenagers on the squad (of 26 total swimmers). So our prospects for 2024 look even better than for this Games:
https://swimswam.com/2021-us-olympic-trials-heres-a-look-at-the-final-olympic-roster/
I'm flummoxed over why Caeleb Dressel is only listed for four events (50 Free, 100 Free, 100 Fly, 4x100 Free Relay). He is both our fastest 100m freestyler and 100 flyer, so he is the obvious choice for either of those legs for our 4x100 Medley Relay depending on which gives us the greatest advantage after considering the times of his prospective substitute for either leg. Most likely he'll swim the Fly. Ultimate composition of relays is up to the coaches, so unlike the individual events, what you see on that page isn't set in stone. Dressel could be stringently narrowing his events to manage his energy. Maybe he didn't get in the volume over the past year because of COVID. It screwed up every swimmer's training mesocycle.
So I wasn't too surprised he scratched the 200 Fly at the trials without swimming it at all, but I thought he would attempt to get a sub-1:46 in the 200m Free to secure confidence from the coaches to be placed on the 4x200 Free Relay team since that event is pretty much a guaranteed medal. Instead, he swam just the prelims, then scratched, and his time only stood up as the 8th fastest of any 200m Free swam at the Trials. Ultimately, it's still possible he could win as many as 6 Golds, but it looks like he won't swim more than 5 events.
Anyway, he's the best swimmer in the world, and pretty obviously the fastest man in the water in history, IMO. I expect him to crush Cielo's 50m Freestyle WR at the Games. His speed dominance when he swims his best is mind-boggling.
Caeleb Dressel is Aquaman: GOD of the Pool
I feel bad for this Italian-American kid, Luca Urlando. He swam a faster time in the 200m Fly two years ago at 19 years old than Phelps did at the same age to break his own WR as it stood then. This time is still the fastest American time by a staggering -1.22s in the event since 2019 (that includes the winning times at Trials). But he didn't do that great at the Trials. He still swam the 2nd fastest time overall; only problem is he did it in the Semifinals, but then finished 3rd in the Finals, so he didn't secure a berth for the event. I'm wondering if COVID really fucked up his training.
The showdown in the women's 100m backstroke between Regan Smith (USA) and Kaylee McKeown (AUS) is set to be one of the thrillers for the Games. Kaylee stole Regan's WR with her swim at the Australian Trials, but Regan is also in top form, right now.
https://www.twincities.com/2021/06/...troke-world-record-of-lakevilles-regan-smith/
Any of our resident Brits should throw your support to your man Adam Peaty. Watching him swim sprint breaststroke is astonishing. It's like he is swimming a different stroke than everybody else in the race. He's on a different planet.
Meanwhile, tune in to your country's respective broadcast to see if the announcers are skeezy enough to bring up the juicy drama from Japan. The best all-around swimmer in the world, in the vein of Phelps, who reigns supreme in the de facto decathlon of swimming, the 400m IM, is the Japanese swimmer Daiya Seto. He was demoted from Captain status of the Japanese team last October because some nosy tabloid exposed that he was meeting a woman in a hotel playing hanky-panky on his fellow elite swimmer wife. He ought to be competing in the 200 Fly, 200 IM, 400 IM, and 4x200m Free Relay:
https://nypost.com/2020/10/16/world-champions-affair-rocks-olympic-swimming-world/
Meanwhile, guess who won't be there? That cheating bitch Sun Yang!!! Whoooo!!!!!!
Chinese Swimmer had his own blood samples smashed with hammer **UPDATE** His Career is Over!
