Paris Countdown: Olympic Games – as Always – Sure to Offer Intriguing Storylines
As the end of nine days of U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Indianapolis neared for Katie Ledecky, her focus started to shift ever so slightly.
The 10-time Olympic medalist had done what she’d aimed to at Lucas Oil Stadium, qualifying for the Paris Olympics in three individual events plus the 800 freestyle relay. Laser focused on getting to her fourth Olympics, a certainty she never takes for granted, Ledecky finally had time to take in the larger vista once the plane ticket was secured.
Ledecky didn’t need to name any of her rivals, but the picture was plenty clear for one of the most dominant and cerebral swimmers ever.
“I’ve known what to expect this whole year,” Ledecky said. “I know what’s ahead of me. I don’t think any of that has changed with this week or with anything over the last few weeks. So I know my competition, I know where I’m at, I know what I need to do. I have a pretty good feel for what I’m capable of doing.
“So I’m just going to stay focused on that, stay focused on my process and I’m just as excited going into these Games as I have (been) the past three. That’s the most important thing, and that’s what I think always brings out the best performances within me.”
Ledecky expressed a note of certainty ahead of an Olympics that returns a sense of normalcy. It has been a condensed three-year Olympic quad since the postponed Tokyo Games, one in which swimmers have navigated three World Aquatics Championships mashed into the calendar. For many Olympic veterans who only knew a COVID-19-blighted Olympics, with daily testing and no fans, Paris might as well be their first time, in any number of regards.
When the world’s top swimmers convene in Paris, though, it’ll be a rare chance for the swimming to take stage with few other distractions.
Who’s There
Ledecky, as ever, will be front and center. Her seven gold medals is one shy of Jenny Thompson’s record of eight for an American female swimmer. Her 10 total is two shy of Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin’s joint record for American women.
TOP OF THE WORLD: Ariarne Titmus maintains her world best status in Brisbane. Photo Courtesy Wade Brennan (Wade’s Photos)
To reach that echelon, Ledecky will take part in perhaps the most intriguing race of the meet, the 400 free. In Tokyo, she was beaten by Australian rival Ariarne Titmus, who bested Ledecky again at the 2023 World Championships in taking her world record. (Ledecky won the world title in 2022, when Titmus wasn’t in the field.)
With Canadian Summer McIntosh, the odds-on favorite in both the 400 individual medley and 200 butterfly, joining them along with China’s Li Bingjie and 2024 World Champion Erika Fairweather of New Zealand, it could be the most compelling race of the women’s program.
As the new world-record holder, Titmus will be the lead contender in the 200 free, an event Ledecky is eschewing despite qualifying at Trials. Titmus will have countrywoman and former record-holder Mollie O’Callaghan for company, plus McIntosh and Siobhan Haughey.
Men’s sprint freestyle promises to be as fascinating. A world record in the 100 free that remained stubbornly stuck in super-suited hands since 2009 has been moved twice since the last Olympics. While Caeleb Dressel didn’t qualify for a chance to defend his crown, the past two world-record-holders – Pan Zhanle of China and David Popovici of Romania – will have plenty of company in the chase for gold. That includes Tokyo silver medalist/Rio gold medalist and 2023 world champion Kyle Chalmers and top American hope Jack Alexy.
That may be the race of the men’s meet in the non-Leon Marchand division. The NCAA star and home-country hope is slated to swim the 200 fly, 200 breast and both individual medleys, plus duty on at least France’s men’s medley and 800 free relays.
Marchand has proven an ability to excel over a vast program. At Worlds in 2023, he set a world record in the 400 IM, a European record in the 200 IM and a national record in the 200 fly, winning all three. The 200 breast figures to present a challenging pathway to gold, though a medal is attainable. All of it depends on how the indomitable Toulouse native handles the pressure of being a face of the Games, something that coach Bob Bowman has weathered with at least one transcendent star of the past.
Who’s Missing
Of the Tokyo individual medalists, a total of 25 – 12 men, 13 women – won’t get the chance to defend their medals. That includes nine gold medalists, though nearly half of those missing out on Paris (12) are bronze medalists from Tokyo.
Some, like Dressel in the men’s 100 free or Emma McKeon in the women’s sprint events, will contest streamlined Paris programs. Others, like surprise Tokyo winners Ahmed Hafnaoui and Lydia Jacoby, will miss the meet altogether, due to injuries and failure to qualify, respectively. And there’s of course the absence of Russian participants for their role in the war in Ukraine, which rules out double backstroke gold medalist Evgeny Rylov and two-time medalist Kliment Kolesnikov.
From the Worlds Stage
The 2023 World Championships was the last full-strength one, many of the top names skipping the 2024 edition in Doha to prep for their respective trials. At those Worlds in Fukuoka, two swimmers did something unprecedented.
Both Chinese male breaststroker Qin Haiyang and Australian female backstroker Kaylee McKeown became the first swimmers to pull off a single-stroke three-peat, winning at 50 meters, 100 and 200 at the same World Championships.
Qin did it with a world record in the 200 and an Asian mark in the 100. McKeown, who is also a 200 IM contender, set a meet record in the 100 and a national record in the 50.
Without the 50 strokes, the job becomes a little easier in Paris. But that achievement sets the benchmark for what each can achieve.
What Will the Worlds Experiment Yield?
While a valuable qualification opportunity, the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha was not exactly top-line talent. One measure: Swimmers from 30 different countries medaled there, as opposed to 22 in Fukuoka in 2023 and 19 in Budapest in 2022.
Could that range beget new faces on the podium? Doha seeded Paris with a field of dark-horse candidates. Daniel Wiffen, so agonizingly denied in Fukuoka, stamped his contender status with two Doha golds for Ireland. Hugo Gonzalez of Spain has leapt into the limelight in backstroke, as has Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro.
Fairweather was the most notable winner on the women’s side, getting gold for New Zealand in the 400 free. But the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen has stated her candidacy for medals, along with countrywoman Tes Schouten.
