A robust and intriguing Tuesday night at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, which selects the team to compete in next month's Paris Olympics, spotlighted top stars in various stages of recovery from the worst the sport can give them — all of them survivors, to varying degrees.
The star and flag bearer was Regan Smith, who in the women's 100m backstroke final reclaimed the world record she had broken three years earlier in 57.13 seconds, 0.2 seconds faster than the time set by Kayleigh McKeon of Australia, who had taken it from Smith. The win also earned Smith a place on her second US Olympic team, while runner-up Kathryn Berkoff (57.91) also qualified.
No world records had been set at the U.S. Trials since 2008, but two have already been set in the first four days of the meet, including a new record in the 100 butterfly on Saturday, when Gretchen Walsh clocked 55.18 seconds.
“the same as, [expletive] “Yeah, it's been a long time coming,” the 22-year-old Smith said of her reaction when her world record time appeared on the scoreboard. “I was just so excited and didn't think I'd ever be able to do it again. I'm just so happy that I finally believe in myself.”
Asked what the difference is between the 17-year-old phenom who broke the 100 backstroke record (57.57) at the 2019 world championships and the one who reclaimed it on Tuesday, she replied: “When I was 17… it was so easy. There was no pressure. I was always the youngest. Nobody expected much from me. So it was easy to go into the race without fear. Tonight I'm in a totally different place in my life than I was before. I'm a lot older. The pressure is different. The expectations are different. … I've had a lot of down times, but I've learned a lot.”
Also on Tuesday night, scarred American superstars Caleb Dressel and Simone Manuel made a huge comeback from rock bottom with some impressive swims in the 100m freestyle semifinals.
Dressel and Manuel, both 27 and already two-time Olympians and multiple gold medalists, and both returning from long absences from competition, breezed into Wednesday night's final, with Dressel finishing in 47.53 seconds, the third-fastest time among men, and Manuel finishing in 53.16 seconds, the second-seeded time among women.
Dressel, a five-time gold medalist in Tokyo, came into this event as a complete unknown after eight months away from competition for mental reasons that began with her abruptly withdrawing from the 2022 world championships in Budapest. Tuesday night's swim was her fastest since the summer of 2021 and the clearest sign yet that she is close to recovery, if not already back to top form.
Manuel has been away from the international stage since the 2021 Tokyo Games, the summer after she revealed she was suffering from overtraining syndrome, which involves severe mental and physical fatigue. Manuel, who won four medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, including becoming the first black woman to win an individual gold medal in the 100m freestyle, considered quitting competition but instead took five months off and has been slowly regaining her strength since then.
Entering Wednesday night, Dressel and Manuel needed to finish in the top two to secure a spot in the 100-meter individual freestyle in Paris, in the top four to secure a relay spot and in the top six to earn a bonus relay spot, according to a complex roster calculation that will only be confirmed at the end of the meet.
In Tuesday's other final, two-time Tokyo gold medalist Bobby Finke, who trains with Katie Ledecky at the Gator Swim Club in Gainesville, Fla., won the 800 freestyle in 7:44.22 to qualify for his second Olympic Games. Luke Whitlock, 18, came back late to take second in 7:45.19 and will accompany Finke in Paris. He is the youngest swimmer to make the U.S. national swimming team since Michael Phelps, 15, competed in the 2000 Sydney Games.
For Smith, the past few years have been a series of setbacks and disappointments that have sent her career into a downward spiral. She missed out on a spot on the 2021 U.S. Olympic team in her favorite event, the 200 backstroke, and had a disappointing performance in Tokyo by her lofty standards. She battled fear and anxiety during races. She went nearly five years without a personal best in the backstroke. She changed coaches twice and left Stanford after just one season.
“Going into the 2021 Trials, I was at my lowest point, confidence-wise,” she said. “I didn't want to be there. I wasn't excited. I had no confidence in myself. I didn't want to be there … [to make the team] Because I thought they could do it better than I could. It makes me really sad when I think about it now.”
But since joining coach Bob Bowman's elite training group in the fall of 2022 (largely because Bowman's high-intensity work suits Smith's preferred training methods), Smith has made steady progress and was back in top form at the meet. On Sunday night, Smith ran the 100 butterfly in 55.62 seconds, the fifth-fastest time ever, but she didn't make the team because rivals Walsh and Tori Huske were faster.
With a strong performance on Tuesday night, she has put the wounds of that disappointment behind her, and she still has the 200 backstroke and 200 butterfly to compete in – the former where she is the former world record holder and the latter where she is the top seed – and then it's off to Paris for what is expected to be an epic showdown between Smith and McKeon in the 100 backstroke.
“I hope so,” Smith said when asked if he thought a new world record could be set in Paris. “56 [seconds] “Whether it's me or one of my competitors, it's certainly a possibility. … I'm not going to underestimate myself. It was a great race, but it wasn't a perfect race.”
