Penny Oleksiak has announced that she plans on attending another meet before the 2024 Paris Olympic qualification period ends on June 23rd. Oleksiak just missed earning the Olympic ‘A’ cut in the 100 freestyle after swimming a 53.66 at Canadian Trials earlier this week, just 0.05 seconds off of the ‘A’ standard.
Penny Oleksiak telling me just now she’s planning on going to a meet at some point to try and meet the Olympic qualifying standard in the 100m free
Watch for that folks. She’s very determined.
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) May 19, 2024
Oleksiak’s swim of a 53.66 marked her fastest time since 2022. She already punched her ticket to Paris for the Canadian relay but hopes to earn an individual qualification by participating in another upcoming meet. Oleksiak won the 100 free at the 2016 Rio Olympics and was just off of the podium in the event at the 2020 Tokyo Games.
With the qualification period ending on June 23rd, there are not a lot of meets that allow swimmers to earn an Olympic cut at. The biggest meet (which is a series of meets) that Oleksiak could swim at is the Mare Nostrum series which will take place at the end of May through the beginning of June.
If Oleksiak participates in all three stops, she will have numerous chances to hit the qualification standard of a 53.61. It also would not be the first time that Oleksiak competed in Mare Nostrum. She swam at the three-stop series in 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022. She also swam at one of the stops in 2023.
It also is important to note that Oleksiak’s old coach Ben Titley moved from Canada to Spain to coach in Barcelona. The 2nd of three stops in the Mare Nostrum series takes place in Barcelona.
Oleksiak also would not be the only Canadian at Mare Nostrum as backstroker Ingrid Wilm is on the list of expected attendees.
I wonder if Julie Brousseau can do the same for the 400m free, as well as the 200m free (assuming Summer does not swim it).
Good luck to her. I hope she gets it.
If I finished second in an event l, I can still try to qualify too?
Yes. Jake Mitchell swam a time trial to hit the qualification time after finishing second in the 400 free in 2021 at US Trials.
It is my understanding if no one in Canada made the qualification time at trials than anyone even if you didn’t swim at trials swam the qualification time they could go.
However if no one qualified at trials and 3 swam the qualifying time after the two who placed top 2 at trials would get priority even if someone else was faster.
They’ve lowered the quota of swimmers for the Olympics, and swimmers with the Consideration standard in individual events are lowest priority. So Penny might be invited to the individual event as things stands, but it’s a lower chance than previous Olympics. Getting the A cut is the only way to make it in safely.
Good job she’s not from GB or Japan where the QTs are insane.
Right?! You basically gotta be within a second of all the world records to even make the team
Go Penny!
Kind of related, kind of not- does anyone lnow how the cuts are defined? Seems harder in the hundreds than longer distances. Is it off of a certain percent away from podium, final or semi final time of recent champs??
It’s based on the top 16 prelims times, basically the time to make semis. Then the OCT is 2% slower i believe (or something like that)
“Seems harder in the hundreds than longer distances”
It’s because shorter events are more competitive and therefore top 16 times in the hundreds
are relatively faster than in 400, 800 or 1500.
She mentioned that she was gonna have a one month training block on the after-show with Devin Heroux and Brittany MacLean. So it sounds like the meet she’s planning to go is Mel Zajac. It’s in one month in late june and in the same time zone in BC as her training club in California.
Mel Zajac meet does make the most sense. The way Penny has been progressing over the last few months I like her chances of making the OQT A cut.
Mare Nostrum will be crowded with swimmers who want to hit A times. Exciting!