Day 7 Finals Live Recap

2024 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

It’s Friday night everyone — what else would you want to be doing but watching and talking about swimming? It’s time for the seventh night of finals at 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials. There are five events tonight; we’ve got three finals at the top of the session and then two semifinals to close out the night.

The men’s splash and dash kicks off the night. This should be a frenetic race; it took a sub-22 (and for Adam Chaney, multiple) to make the final and while the top two could come from anywhere in the pool, it feels hard to bet against Chris Guiliano right now given the week that he’s had. But Jack Alexy won’t make it easy for him and neither will Caeleb Dressel, who’s facing his 50 free final/100 fly double semi tonight. Ryan Held and Michael Andrew will vie for a top two spot as well.

It should be the Regan Smith show in the 200 backstroke; she’s been having an excellent week in Indianapolis and is the American record holder in this event. She had the 200 butterfly final before last night’s semis but this is her only race tonight so she’ll be full throttle. There’s an interesting race developing behind her as Katie Grimes looks to unseat some of the best backstrokers America has to offer.

The last final of the night is the men’s 200 IM, which looks like it will be complete chaos. Chase Kalisz grabbed lane 4 with a strong swim in the semis while Carson Foster had a quieter race, moving through in 4th. That’s opened the discussion about whether this is is going to be the Foster/Kalisz show like the 400 IM of if there’s room for Shaine Casas or maybe even Kieran Smith to get into the top 2.

MEN’S 50 FREESTYLE — Final

World Record: 20.91 — Cesar Cielo (BRA), 2009
American Record: 21.04 — Caeleb Dressel, 2019 / 2021
U.S. Open Record: 21.04 — Caeleb Dressel (USA), 2021
World Junior Record: 21.75 — Michael Andrew (USA), 2017 / 2017
2021 U.S. Olympic Trials Champion: Caeleb Dressel, 21.04
2024 Olympic Qualifying Time: 21.96

Final:

Caeleb Dressel (FLOR), 21.41
Chris Guiliano (ND), 21.69
Matt King (TFA), 21.70
Jack Alexy (CAL), 21.76
Michael Andrew (MASA), 21.81
Ryan Held (SUN), 21.85
Quintin McCarty (WOLF), 21.97
Adam Chaney (FLOR), 22.08

Caeleb Dressel is back on top.

After qualifying for Paris in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay by virtue of his third place finish, Dressel has added his first individual event to his schedule by storming to the win in the men’s 50 freestyle.

Dressel exploded off the blocks and charged through the splash and dash, clocking a 21.41 for the win. Not only is that his fastest time since 2022, it ranks him 4th in the world this year, .07 seconds ahead of his Florida training partner Josh Liendo.

2	Benjamin PROUD	GBR	21.25	04/06
3	Vladyslav BUKHOV	UKR	21.38	02/16
4	Caeleb DRESSEL	USA	21.41	06/22
5	Josh LIENDO	CAN	21.48	05/18

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Chris Guiliano added a tenth from his semifinal swim, but still got his hand on the wall a hundredth ahead of Matt King for second place. With the swim, Guiliano becomes the first American man since Matt Biondi to qualify for the 50/100/200 freestyle individually. While finishing a heart-breaking third place in as small a margin as possible, King took a tenth off his lifetime best in 21.70.

WOMEN’S 200 BACKSTROKE — Final

World Record: 2:03.14 — Kaylee McKeown (AUS), 2023
American Record: 2:03.35 — Regan Smith, 2019
U.S. Open Record: 2:03.80 — Regan Smith (USA), 2023
World Junior Record: 2:19.64 – 2:03.35 — Regan Smith (USA), 2019
2021 U.S. Olympic Trials Champion: Rhyan White, 2:05.73
2024 Olympic Qualifying Time: 2:10.39

Final:

Regan Smith (SUN), 2:05.16
Phoebe Bacon (UW), 2:06.27
Claire Curzan (TAC), 2:06.34
Kennedy Noble (WOLF), 2:07.52
Rhyan White (WOLF), 2:07.64
Katie Grimes (SAND), 2:07.72
Isabelle Stadden (CAL), 2:08.77
Teagan O’Dell (MVN), 2:09.21

Regan Smith took control of this race from the start. She opened in a 29.16, .18 seconds under Kaylee McKeown‘s world record pace. She picked up more time on the second 50 with a 31.28, flipping in 1:00.44 and .29 seconds ahead of McKeown.

McKeown always brings a strong back half to her races and it was on the third 50 that Smith began to fall off the pace. But she still held a commanding lead of almost a second ahead of the rest of the field, where there was a close race developing for second between Claire Curzan and Phoebe Bacon.

Smith said after the race that she “ran out of gas” on the final 50 meters but still held it together with a 32.90 split, the fastest in the field. She touched in 2:05.16, earning her first Olympic 200 backstroke berth.

Meanwhile, Curzan was running second for the first 185 meters of this race. She held just a .03 second advantage over Bacon, which looked bigger as they came down the stretch. But Bacon found an extra gear in the closing meters, splitting 32.92 to Curzan’s 33.02. At the touch it was Bacon who became the two-time Olympian in 2:06.27, getting the better of Curzan’s 2:06.34