2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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Despite not officially pulling out of the event, Katinka Hosszu was a “DNS” in the women’s 200 butterfly prelims on Day 4 of the Tokyo Games, leaving only 16 swimmers racing the event.
Hosszu’s form has clearly not been anywhere near her best, failing to medal in the 400 individual medley on the opening day, and now she’ll save everything up to take a run at a medal in the 200 IM final on Wednesday morning.
The Hungarian qualified seventh into that final during last night’s semis in a time of 2:10.22. No one in the field has been sub-2:09 as of yet, making it pretty wide open, but Hosszu has yet to show any indication she’s capable of putting up that kind of time in the race.
Hosszu’s fastest 200 fly this year was the 2:08.14 she swam at the European Championships in May, winning the silver medal.
So with only 17 swimmers entering the 200 fly, and Hosszu dropping the race, all 16 of the prelim swimmers received a free pass through to the semi-finals, including Honduran Julimar Avila Mancia, a Universality entry. Avila Mancia did drop three seconds from her seed time in 2:15.36, but will still be the slowest swimmer in the semis by three seconds.
China’s Zhang Yufei led the heats in a time of 2:07.50.
If Hosszu had scratched beforehand, it’s possible this round could’ve been bypassed, as FINA rule SW.3.2.2 implies that a preliminary event can be bypassed if they aren’t necessary (though no rule explicitly states what defines being ‘necessary’).
Because of such a “sportsmanship” behavior she has to be deprived the privilege to swim in Olympic final in 200IM. What a waste of the lane in final race it will be. Give it to a swimmer who will cherish such event as the most memorable event in her sport career.
Making 16 swimmers to have one more race for absolutely no reason is not the act of selfishness. It has for sure a medical definition of some pathology.
An embarrassment to say the least. With faster B qualifiers watching from the stands!! Can we assume that the 2:11.45 is the qualification standard for 2024? Three seconds slower than this year?
In bird culture this is known as a dick move.
Haha how did this comment make it past screening
Too bad butterfly is hard to (legally) swim super slow. I wanted to see someone drop a 3+ minute 200 fly, get out and ask “why are we EVER swimming 3 rounds of 200s?”
The fastest 200m butterfly I ever swam was probably about 3:50 (never officially measured my speed). It’s amusing to me to know how that time would have made the semi-final here. I’m not athletic, but with enough practice, I figured out how to swim butterfly fairly relaxing, and even swam an 800m butterfly just before all the pools closed. Of course the longer I went, the more out of breath I’d become, so the faster I needed to go in order to breathe.
Oh, I’ve done an almost 4 minute 200 fly… in the back half of a 400 (LC, ouch!) having never raced more than 100 before and having only done that twice. First 200 was pretty comfortable in 2:27. Deliberately had a 10s breather off the wall so I didn’t kill myself. Next lap was OK – “the plan is working”, I thought. Then the piano hit and each of the last 3 laps was over a minute. My only concern in the last 75m was remaining stroke legal to get credit for finishing the race. I must have had a stroke count of close to 100 in the last lap. Never again LOL. I can still feel the neck pain.
They could have just gone straight from heats to finals .. no need for semis
Kaylee McKewon should of swam the 200IM, the field is pretty weak would of been easy medal and probably a gold one in that
I will now be rooting against her
What a b word