The Speedo Sectional meet in Athens, Georgia will be without some of its biggest names Saturday night, as a group of SwimMAC’s professionals have not returned for the finals session, among them, Olympic gold medalist Ryan Lochte.
Lochte was the second qualifier in the 100 fly heading into tonight, and had previously won the 200 IM and taken second in the 200 free.
He’d also made some waves – figuratively, but not necessarily literally – by qualifying for finals of the 50 free, then taking a DQ and swimming the entire race underwater in the final.
SwimSwam’s on-deck reporter Tony Carroll has confirmed that Lochte is not on deck for finals, which started just about a half-hour ago, as of this report’s publication.
Word on deck is that a number of SwimMAC’s top athletes have left the meet, though there are no specifics as to whom that would extend to.
Lochte would have had a great finals showdown in the 100 fly with his teammate Tim Phillips, as both were 53.0s this morning, Phillips 53.04 and Lochte 53.07.
It’s possible that Phillips has also headed home, which would leave Club Wolverine’s Dylan Bosch, the 200 fly champ of this meet, as the top seed into the final.
SwimMAC had high seeds in a number of events, including the top qualifying spot in the women’s 100 breast (Micah Lawrence) and the second seed in the women’s 400 free (Kathleen Baker) and women’s 100 fly (Cammile Adams).
We’ll have a full recap after finals wrap up later tonight.
I attended this meet to watch my senior level swimmer compete. She like many other club level swimmers was attending as part of her training and is not yet tapering for her last meet of the season. I was rally disappointed in ABSC, the host team, for charging admission – $5 for each prelim session and $10 for each final session. Two years ago, this meet was free for spectators. Last year, they held the Bulldog Grandslam meet and specifically invited teams with pros like SwimMac. I understand charging admission then – it kept the crowd to a reasonable size. this year there was plenty of room in the stands for finals sessions – you could stretch out and take… Read more »
This is, at least partially, why people were complaining before the meet that these pro’s were coming to this meet. Pro’s and other college swimmers tend to over enter and then scratch out of prelims and finals. Now to be fair, it looks like most of the MAC swimmers were not entered for Sunday events. Plus, the Club Wolverine swimmers looked like they mostly stayed.
I think they do owe it to the fans to stick around and swim all of their events.
And Grevers in the 50 free as well.
That must be a record day!
Jaeger scratched the 400 free final in Athens too. 🙄
That weekend must be special.
And Lawrence in the 200 Breast too.
I believe that Mr Adrian scratched the 50 free final in LA too. 😆
It looks like these things happen more often in the sprint.
E Gamble, it’s very usual unfortunately in France too.
How many times this year I complained about a famous guy named Florent M. ?
Anyway, now if you want to be sure to watch your swimming idols, be present in prelims! 😆
Has anyone ever read meet results were Katinka H or Adam P swam prelims and scratched finals? Not me. Only in the USA. Yes, sometimes there are good reasons for scratches. But, if you want to grow the sport of swimming, than you must treat it with the professionalism that it deserves.
Agree with E Gamble. Does not represent the sports elite level swimmers very well. I hope they scratched in time to allow other swimmers in those events to get a second swim – who really wanted to be there to compete. What kind of example is it for the fans to see how caviler these team members treat their meet. What a disappointment. Have to say I;m not liking this trend by elite swimmers to show up to meets and pull stunts like that. I was on the fence with the underwater 50M stunt in finals but this is going a little too far. Time to class it up Ryan, don’t think your fans are not watching…..or do you care?
Sectionals is an ABC meet for these guys. Top age groupers swim off events, don’t suit up etc (ie- don’t out their best competitive foot forward) all the time at ABC meets while some lower end age groupers are at the top meet of their season at the same meet.
This is just a switching of roles… some top age groupers are at a big meet while these international level guys and gals are at a throwaway meet.
Every athlete has tune up meets, which is some other athletes big meet. Deal with it. Everyone is going to do what’s best for them.
It doesn’t really matter why they scratched. They are allowed to scratch if they did before the scratch deadline. They probably did what they felt was best for them, and not fans in the stands. If they did everything the fans wanted, they probably wouldn’t be as successful as they are.
It’s certainly cool to get to see the top people swim, but they can do what they want.