On Day 2 of the inaugaral 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore, the small American team was completely shut out of the finals.
But have no fear. The future of American swimming is well. Keep in mind that there are other nations who are sending the pick of the crop of young swimmers. Not that the swimmers on Team USA are slouches. They are all very good swimmers who are likely to become top-level college athletes, and possibly even future Olympians.
But when you look at the swimmers that the USA left home (mostly because they are competing in the Pan-Pacs or Junior Pan Pacs, which would have created a huge schedule conflict), you realize that had the USA sent their full A-squad to the meet, they would dominate. For example, Missy Franklin. At only 15, she won multiple medals at last weeks USA National Championships. But she is missing this meet to compete for Pan-Pac Championships, which are obviously a much higher-scale competition.
One of those teams that was still able to send top-athletes is South Africa, most notably Chad le Clos, who is becoming the star of the meet. Le Clos followed up a silver in the 400 free on day 1, the meets first event, with a gold in the 200 IM on the second day. His time of 2:00.63 ranks him 23rd in the world right now. As the Youth Olympics grow as an event, and hopefully continue to attract more talent like this, they will surely grow in popularity. Times like le Clos’ gives some serious legitimacy to the event, and assuages fears from several federations (notably the British) that the level of competition wasn’t worth the time and the money of sending a squad.
There were several other impressive times posted on the second day. Hungarian Borglarka Kapas won the women’s 200 fly in a time of 2:08.72. This time makes her the 15th fastest in the world this year, and would have placed her in the A-final in this event today at the European Championships. Unfortunately for her (and fortunately for the YOG organizers), her Hungarian countrymates finished are seeded 1-2 at Euro’s, leaving her in Singapore, but this shows that Hungary has become a huge player in this event internationally.
On day 2, America will have at least two solid medal hopes in Erich Peske, who is seeded 6th headed into the final of the 100 fly, and Kaitlyn Jones, who is a favorite to make the podium in the 200 back.
The swimming world needs to sit up and take note of the Youth Olympics, because it’s an awesome event, and there is definitely worthwhile swimming happening.
For more results, check out the official results site of Singapore2010. Click “Sports S-Z”, then on the swimming link, and scroll through for race-by-care breakdowns.