Swimming great Katie Ledecky punches ticket to Paris Games, Gretchen Walsh sets world record in Indy

INDIANAPOLIS – Katie Ledecky qualified for her fourth Olympic Games and Gretchen Walsh set a world record on the opening night of the United States Olympic swimming trials in Indianapolis on June 15.

As expected, seven-gold Olympic champion Ledecky dominated the 400m freestyle in 3min 58.35sec before a crowd of 20,689 fans at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the National Football League’s Indianapolis Colts.

“I never imagined I’d get to go to a fourth Olympic Games,” Ledecky said. The 27-year-old from Maryland said the joy of making the US team never gets old and credited her coaches and teammates for her longevity in the sport.

“I feel like I enjoy this more and more each year and I think that’s a testament to the people around me my whole career,” she said.

“Great communities that keep me excited about the sport, great teammates that push me every day, great coaches that believe in me and push me to reach for bigger and bigger goals.

“That’s how I’ve been able to be consistent and I pride myself on that consistency.”

Paige Madden was second with a personal best of 4:02.08 but has not yet qualified for Paris.

Ledecky is widely considered the greatest female swimmer of all time and is just the eighth American swimmer to make at least four trips to the Olympics, where she will look to add to her tally of 10 Games medals.

Walsh kicked off the night with a bang, setting a world record in her women’s 100m butterfly semi-final to send a message to the world with just over a month before the Games.

Walsh led from the outset, made the turn at a world-record pace and looked up in disbelief after she touched the wall in 55.18 seconds as the crowd erupted.

“I’m over the moon, just so happy,” said Walsh.

“It’s such a surreal experience. I’m trying to convince myself that just happened. I’m in awe.”

Her time beat the previous mark of 55.48sec, which was set by Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom in 2016.

Indiana native Aaron Shackell punched his ticket to his first Olympics with a victory in the 400m freestyle.

“Ever since I learnt my dad was an Olympian I always wanted to be an Olympian myself,” said the 19-year-old Shackell, whose father Nick represented Britain in swimming at the 1996 Atlanta Games.

“It wasn’t always easy. For a long time I wasn’t even good at swimming and honestly didn’t like it until a few years ago.”

The trials are being held over nine consecutive nights in Indianapolis, which has transformed into a swimming paradise, complete with a 66-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower located near the downtown stadium.

The throng of fans was the biggest to ever witness a swimming meet, breaking the record of 16,000 set at the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Meanwhile, Australia’s national swimming coach Rohan Taylor has urged his Olympic team not to get distracted by the Chinese doping scandal that has rocked the sport, calling it “a waste of energy”.

Reports in April revealed 23 Chinese swimmers tested positive for the prescription heart drug trimetazidine – which can enhance performance – ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

They were not suspended or sanctioned after the World Anti-Doping Agency accepted the explanation of the Chinese authorities that the results were caused by food contamination at a hotel they had stayed in.

The scandal blew up again on June 14 when the New York Times claimed three of them – including two Tokyo 2020 gold medallists and a current world record holder – tested positive for banned substances in separate cases several years earlier.

China argued the trio ingested that substance inadvertently through contaminated meat.

Taylor said it was not worth wasting time worrying about something they had no control over.

“I think for us, internally, we can only control what we can control,” he said on the final day of Australia’s Olympic trials on June 15, national broadcaster ABC reported.

“The narrative is quite clear and that’s all we can do. We have to trust that Wada and World Aquatics are going to continue to investigate and that we are aligned with a clean sport.

“That’s where we’re at the moment and we’ll continue to monitor that, but as far as it’s distracting us in competition, I think it’s not a controllable thing for us.

“For it to be a distraction, it’s probably a waste of energy.”
REUTERS, AFP