Review of SwimSwam's 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials Predictions – Men's

2024 U.S. Olympic Selection

The U.S. Olympic Trials are expected to be unpredictable, and that proved to be the case last week during an unforgettable nine days of racing in Indianapolis, where many of the biggest stars were pre-race favorites but there were also quite a few surprises.

SwimSwam's official pick placed her tied for 34th out of nearly 1,000 entries in the Pick 'em Contest, but that only reflects the top four picks from each event.

With an overview of all our picks and taking into account the eight finalists in each event, let’s take a look back at how SwimSwam’s picks were selected.

For the men, we correctly predicted seven of the eight finalists in two events, the 400m Freestyle and the 800m Freestyle, which is an improvement over the women's 200m Freestyle, where we only predicted seven of the eight finalists.

Additionally, six of eight finalists were selected for the 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke and 200m butterfly, with five of eight finalists in the remaining events.

Ten finalists withdrew from their respective events before the qualifying rounds or after the early rounds. These included: Daniel Diehl The three athletes who will not be competing in the 400m individual medley are:

*Brinegar withdrew from the 1500m freestyle on the same day after serving a four-year suspension for doping.

Below are the athletes ranked from 1st to 8th based on where we predicted they would finish. Their final rankings are shown in the far right column. “Moving In” at the bottom of each event refers to the athletes we did not predict would make the finals, and in the bottom right corner you can see how many of the eight finalists we correctly selected.

50 Freestyle

100 Freestyle

200 Freestyle

400 Freestyle

800 Freestyle

1500 Freestyle

100 backstroke

200 backstroke

100 breaststroke

200 breaststroke

100 Butterflies

200 Butterfly

200 Individual Medley

*Julian qualified 15th and withdrew from the semi-finals.

400 Individual Medley

summary:

• Of the 29 swimmers who made finals in events we didn’t expect, three made finals in multiple events. Chris Juliano (50/200 free), Adam Cheney (50 free, 100 refunded) Will Modglin (100 backstroke, 200 individual medley).
• Giuliano also placed third in the 100m freestyle, which he ended up winning, and was runner-up in two events that didn't even qualify for the finals. The Notre Dame star Matt Biondi In 1988, he qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle.
• In addition to Juliano, who competed in the 50m freestyle and 200m freestyle, Hunter Armstrong (100m freestyle for the 400m freestyle relay) Brooks Curry (800m freestyle relay and 200m freestyle) He also qualified for the Olympics in events he was not expected to compete in.
• The women's prediction review noted that some athletes were clearly fatigued after the grueling schedule over the nine-day event, and that despite early performances, some athletes performed far below their ability in some races. Aaron ShackelHe won the 400m freestyle on day one, advanced to the 200m freestyle final in the subsequent swim-off, and finished 41st in the 200m butterfly despite being selected to place seventh.
• As with the women's division, he correctly predicted the winners of all but two events, missing only the 100m freestyle and the 400m freestyle, where Giuliano made a comeback. Jack AlexieShackell wins by a narrow margin Kieran Smith In the 400m freestyle.
• I correctly picked the top two finishers (in no particular order) for only six of the 14 events, and I didn't pick the following events:
• Paris Olympians who were not selected for the team: Brooks Curry, Blake PieroniDavid Johnston, Keaton Jones, Charlie Swanson, Josh Matheny and Luca Urland.