2024 CANADIAN OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRIALS
- May 13-19, 2024
- Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- How To Watch
- Swimming Canada Olympic Selection Criteria
- Psych Sheets (Updated 05/10)
- Live Results
- Prelims – Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap | Day 3 Recap | Day 4 Recap | Day 5 Recap
- Finals – Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap | Day 3 Recap | Day 4 Recap | Day 5 Recap
WOMEN’S 100 FREE– FINAL
- World Record: 51.71 – Sarah Sjostrom, SWE (2017)
- Canadian Record: 52.59 – Penny Oleksiak (2016)
- 2021 Champion: Penny Oleksiak – 52.89
- OLY Qualifying/Consideration Standards: 53.61/53.88
Top 10:
- Penny Oleksiak (TSC) – 53.66
- Mary-Sophie Harvey (CAMO) – 53.71
- Brooklyn Douthwright (CNBO) – 54.33
- Taylor Ruck (UNCAN) – 54.47
- Rebecca Smith (CASC) – 54.70
- Sienna Angove (UNCAN) – 54.89
- Ainsley McMurray (CSLA) – 55.20
- Danielle Hanus (RAPID) – 55.44
- Sarah Fournier (CNQ) – 55.58
- Ella Jansen (HPCON) – 55.65
On Friday, 2016 Olympic champion Penny Oleksiak swam her fastest 100 freestyle race since June 2022, clocking a time of 53.66 to win the event at the 2024 Canadian Olympic trials. The last time she went under 54 seconds was at the 2022 World Championships in June 2022, when she went a time of 52.98 to finish fourth in the individual 100 free final.
PENNY OLEKSIAK FOR THE WIN
She posts a 53.66 in the 100m freestyle. Her fastest time in two years.
It’s not under the Olympic qualifying standard but good enough for a relay spot in the 4x100m. pic.twitter.com/Nnb2Yi6zDl
— Devin Heroux (@Devin_Heroux) May 17, 2024
Although Oleksiak punched her ticket to swim on Canada’s 4×100 freestyle relay at the Paris Olympics with her time, she missed the Olympic Automatic qualifying time of 53.61 by just 0.05 seconds. Her near-miss means she may not be able to swim the 100 free individually at the Paris. World Aquatics announced May 8 that due to a smaller quota of swimmers at the Games compared to previous years, it is possible that athletes with Olympic Consideration times would not qualify for Olympic events, as they are the lowest priority of swimmers behind those with AQTs, relay swimmers, and Universality swimmers.
No World Aquatics rule has stated that relay swimmers are allowed to compete in individual events, though SwimSwam has reached out to clarify.
Canadian trials is just Oleksiak’s third swimming competition since May 2023. She spent the majority of last year rehabbing her left knee and dealing with a left shoulder injury, missing the 2023 World Championships.
“It feels like I’m making my own decisions for once,” Oleksiak told CBC in April. “I’m really happy with where I’m at right now and what I’m trying to do is going to be transcending the sport. Right now I’m content with where I’m at with my life and what I’ve accomplished and what I want to do in the future. I want to go to the Olympics and have a long career.”
At the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Oleksiak finished fourth overall in the 100 free with a time of 52.59, setting a Canadian record.
I never knew these Olympic standards existed until Jake Mitchell did that amazing solo time trial to get there. How many countries will send two women who meet this 100 free standard? AUS USA GB CHN probably, do FRA SPN ITA HUN DEN have swimmers with these times? I hope Penny gets in with her consideration time!
As of right now, AUS, USA, SWE, CHN, GBR and FRA are the only countries with 2. Seems unlikely any others will join them.
America Privilege, lol. Canadian swim fans have always been acutely aware of them!
I think it’s a good sign that she’s .05 off. She’ll probably be the fastest woman who is ranked 1st in her nation with a consideration time, which I imagine will mean she’s the first to qualify among that priority level.
Technically Maggie MacNeil ranks above her and could choose to swim it individually if she liked, but presuming she gives up the spot, Penny should be the first priority B cut in the world
2024 TYR Pro Swim Series – San Antonio
Women’s 100 meter freestyle
OQT – 53.61
Douglass – 52.98
Huske – 53.08
Walsh – 53.17
Manuel – 53.25
Needing to pick up the pace:
Weitzeil – 53.67
https://www.swimcloud.com/results/274521/event/3/0/
Great swim and progression over the past few months even if that time was a tad off.
You are Penough!
Cannot possibly be the end of that. Penny and Mary should be doing a time trial on Sunday or something to try and get those A cuts. Confident they’ll be able to do it.
There are Time Trials all week, so the opportunity is there…
Well time trials ended today so that’s not possible anymore. But according to Priority 3, they could swim the individual event if they arrived top 2 at trials and they achieved the A cut during the qualifying period. Since there’s still a months left to the qualifying period, they could go to Mare Nostrum, or any other qualifying meet, and get their cut there to guarantee their spot.
Can’t quite figure if this phrasing is intended to mean “no last chance to hit the A cut” or “no new swimmers after Trials,” but this is the last line of the Selection Procedures.
I think Penny would be covered by priority 4. In terms of being nominated on the team for the 100f. She won the event, she has the OCT. Penny has time to get the OQT.
and my interpretation is that Aqua is not saying no to OCT right now, it’s a ‘maybe’.
i know this discussion seems to be focused on Penny’s situation but
Imho only allowing ‘relay swimmers’ to then enter events biases the process to events that have relays. There may be other events where the OQT narrows the field too much for events such as 800m free etc. Aqua needs to think this through. Perhaps base it on performance rankings during the qualification period… Read more »
Same for Lorne in the 400im
Further to the priority order, assuming the intent was to reduce the total number of athletes, not necessary “entries”, then ideally priority B swimmers who are already on the team as a Relay swimmer, should be allowed to race as they are ‘already there’. They’re not adding to the athlete roster, simply the entry list.
And again in events with a potential thin number of A only qualifiers, there’s a risk of a competitive gap that could start before you get to the theoretical top 16 in the world. Imagine a “universal” priority swimmer sneaking into the semis?
Without making a statement on what should happen, here’s where the sort of circular logic kicks in.
If someone is added to a team as a relay-only swimmer, then they swim an individual event, then they are no longer a relay-only swimmer. Each country is allowed a certain number of relay-only swimmers. If they’re swimming an individual event, then they’re no longer a relay-only swimmer.
So then does Penny count against Canada’s relay-only swimmer limit, or does she not? If the only selection priority (AQUA) by which she’s added to the team is “relay only swimmer” but she isn’t a relay only swimmer…
That’s sort of the infinite loop that leads me to believe she doesn’t get bonus races after… Read more »
Thankyou for explaning so well. Which makes it even more inferiating that both WAqua and SNC haven’t figured this out especially in what is a high profile blue ribbon event for both. Some notes below:
So…unless a chunk of female sprinters outside of the Aus, US, Swe, China, HK, Dutch countries suddenly produce an “A” Q time (who could possibly still this… Read more »
Lol this is actually true. If they don’t allow B cuts then we will end up with universality swimmers in the semis of the blue ribbon event.
I’m almost certain that switch in status only becomes problematic AFTER close of nominations (ie countries have to submit their teams/entries to individual events).
It’s quite common that a swimmer may qualify for a particular event but a reassessment of their scheduling hints that its not ideal hence they drop that event and if the 3rd place finisher in said event has the requisite QT then its a seamless operation. Case in point, McKeon finished 2nd in 200FR at 2021 AUS Trials but stepped aside. Wilson 3rd place had QT and was thus upgraded from R/O status. All ahead of cut-off date.
The difference is that Wilson had the A cut. Oleksiak doesn’t have the A cut and therefore by AQUA and IOC standards she does not qualify individually
Maybe this is understood but Lorne’s situation is different from Penny’s. The World Aqua rule clearly states that for a country to have 2 entries in an event both have to meet the OQT. Since the winner of the 400 IM trials has the OQT then Canada can only enter 1 in the event.