Entries for USA Swimming’s Olympic Trials meet are due today, the competition itself a mere six days away from beginning, and the swimming events at Rio will kick off in less than 50 days. Swimmers and swim fans around the globe are getting hyped for this sport’s biggest stage.
Arguably in no other sport do athletes train so much for such a short, intense amount of competition. Four years of preparation — morning practices, afternoon practices, dryland, racing in-season and at championship meets — will come down to seconds of racing, with a few precious tenths or hundredths of a second determining the difference between a ticket to Rio and staying home at Trials, or a medal or 4th place in Rio.
Swimmer and swim fan Chad Patterson (who wants to give a shout out to all of of Utah’s swimmers) created a video with a montage of video from the 2012 London Games focusing on Team USA’s gold medals. If you haven’t yet, watch the video to see clips of Matt Grevers winning the 100 back, Tyler Clary with an improbable win the 200 back, Michael Phelps winning his third consecutive gold medal, Dana Vollmer‘s world record in the 100 fly, and Missy Franklin securing one of her four gold medals, among other Team USA victories in 2012.