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
- Finals – Day 1 Recap
Day 2 Prelims Heat Sheet
It was a relatively quiet afternoon at the scratch table for today’s events amongst the expected A-Finalists, but one other big name outside of the top 10 has withdrawn from today’s events. Four-time Olympic medalist Taylor Ruck has opted out of today’s 200 free.
A member of the 2016 Bronze medal-winning 4×200 free relay, Ruck entered the competition as the 17th seed with a seed time of 2:01.33, which she achieved at the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville this past January. Ruck, who has been as fast as 1:54.44, recently changed training bases, having relocated to ASU this past winter. Ruck did not compete in the 200 free at the Doha Worlds but was a member of the 4×200 relay, where she split 1:59.59.
Ruck may just be strategizing here and hoping to perform her best in events where she is seeded higher. On paper, Ruck is still entered in the 100 back (#4 seed), 100 free (#4 seed) and 50 free (#1 seed). Ruck has started to shift more to the sprint events, as she slowly has started trading out the 200 back in favor of the 50 free. At the 2021 Olympic Trials, Ruck placed 5th in the 100 free, 12th in the 200 free, and earned 2nd in both backstroke events
The one swimmer across all of the events who has scratched out of the top ten is Finlay Knox, who has opted out of the 100 back. Knox appeared on the entries sheet as the number six seed with a time of 55.25, which stands as a personal best time from the December VPSC Winter Invitational.
This scratch should not surprise many swim fans. Knox won the 100 breast last night in a new personal best of 1:00.66, dropping his personal best by a quarter of a second. While the time sits outside of the Olympic Qualifying Time of 59.49, his result likely punches a ticket to Paris as part of the Men’s 4×100 medley relay. With that spot obtained, it seems unlikely that Knox would try to go after the backstroke leg in the relay as well.
With the scratch, Knox still is entered in five events. He is scheduled to swim the 200 free, where he is the #2 seed behind Javier Acevedo, the 100 free (#5) and the 100 fly (#3). Knox is also the top seed in the 200 IM where he will look to improve upon his 2024 Worlds Gold medal performance of 1:56.64.
Knox’s scratch would move William Beckstead-Holman into the top 10. However, he, too, has scratched. Initially entered as the #11 seed with a time of 55.86, the new #10 falls to youngster Ethan Ekk. Ekk, who is entered with a time of 56.69, had a great performance yesterday in the 400 free, finishing just off the podium in 4th place with a time of 3:53.85. Beckstead-Holman is still entered in the 200 free (#39), 100 free (#34), 50 free (#28) and 100 fly (#28).
All Top 30 Scratches
- Men’s 400 IM: Bill Dongfeng (#18 – 4:33.98), Justin Jung (#19 – 4:34.76), Jack Haycock (#26 – 4:36.99)
- Women’s 200 Free: Taylor Ruck (#17 – 2:01.33)
- Men’s 100 Back: Finlay Knox (#6 – 55.25), William Beckstead-Holman (#11 – 55.86), Benjamin Loewen (#15 – 56.97), Andrew Xie (#27 – 57.79)
- Women’s 100 Breast: None
She’ll win that 50Fr and then they can take her for any relays they want
Surprising, but also not at the same time.
not related, but has anyone else not been getting swimswam stories and posts on Instagram? does anyone know why this is happening? i feel like i haven’t seen a swimswam story in like a week
Meta has soft-blocked us and won’t tell us when/why/how to clear it, because the account shows no issues or marks. Apparently every time we check to see if it’s cleared, the 48 hour clock resets. It’s a whole CF that is probably going to wind up with us having to take them to court.
If anybody knows anybody at Meta who would like to help us with this, I would appreciate it…
The law firm of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe beckons.
AKA the US division of the famed UK firm Sue, Grabbitt and Runne. Regrettably advice from SWS own advisors Norfolk & Chance is not optimistic with regards their prospects. 😏
what does CF in this context mean?
I’m going to assume he means a fuster cluck
ahaha thank, I would have never guessed that, thought it was some swimming/media jargon I wasn’t aware of : P
I would have thought she would have still swam the event to be on the 4X200 relay, even if she didn’t qualify to swim it as an individual event in Paris.
She had said in an interview a few weeks ago ( perhaps longer) that she wasn’t sure she would swim 200fr at the trials. She finished 5th in the 50 fr in a near personal best in Doha as well as a sub 53 relay leg. Encouraging performances for those events. Perhaps best she’s fresh for those.
Such a shame that when Summer is peaking, Oleksiak and Ruck are deteriorating in 200 free.
Crazy that they were bronze medalists in Rio and Gwangju before McIntosh.
If the stars really aligned and McIntosh, ruck, oleksiak and MSH were all swimming near their best at the same time (which is not unreasonable looking at their ages) we probably could see a 1:53/1:54/1:54/1:55~7:38 relay for Canada if they all swam even okay, could probably push for 7:37 or even 36 if the stars really aligned. Australia would probably still be favored but they’d have a shot at the WR/gold
I used to think that too with USA. Back when we had top Schmitt, top Ledecky, top Franklin (all 1:53s or low 1:54s), plus any fourth female. Unfortunately, their top swims never overlapped for the Olympics. I guess the good thing about that is it always leaves room for more breaking of WRs.
USA Swimming has won the women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay at the 2013/2015/2017/2022 World Aquatics Championships during the Katie Ledecky era.
If Katie Ledecky wasn’t ill at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships, USA Swimming most likely would have won the gold medal in the women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay.
Katie Ledecky
W 4 x 200 FR-R
Relay Splits
2017 – 1:54.02 (healthy)
2019 – 1:54.67 (first day back from illness)
Katie Ledecky pulled out of Days 3 & 4 of the aforementioned competition due to illness.
Allison Schmitt was suffering from depression. USA Swimming was fortunate she even returned to the sport.
Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky swam on the same women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay in 2013, 2014, 2015.
Missy Franklin was a train wreck at the 2016 Summer Olympics and replaced on the women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay by Madeline “Maya” DiRado. The 2016 Summer Olympics also marked the first sub 1:54 relay split from Katie Ledecky.
If you give Schmitt her PB leadoff, then PB splits from Ledecky, Franklin and Hoff you get 7:36.24, more than second faster than the WR.
If you do the same with Aus, MOC leadoff, Titmus, McKeon and Neale you get 7:35.15.
If you give McIntosh her PB leadoff, Ruck and Oleksiak their PB splits and MSH a 1:55.50 (which to my knowledge she’s never even been close to, but I might be missing a split) that’s still slower than the current WR.
Makes sense. She’s been much sharper in the sprints than the 2FR lately.
Yeah, but I hope there’s still a chance she’s in good shape to swim on the relay in Paris