INDIANAPOLIS — In August, a video clip of a television interview featuring Australian sprint legend Cate Campbell started making the rounds of the American elite swimming community. The 2023 world swimming championships had just ended in Fukuoka, Japan, where the Aussies notched more gold medals than the United States at a major meet for the first time in 22 years, and Campbell, trash-talking like a beefing rap star, was still riding that competitive high.
“Such sore losers,” she said of the Americans. “Australia coming out on top is one thing, but it’s just so much sweeter beating America.” She spoke of her disgust about the way the Americans rang their “infernal” cowbells and chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!” She delighted in having to hear “The Star-Spangled Banner” fewer times during medal ceremonies. “Bring on Paris,” she concluded. “That’s all I have to say to the U.S.”
Nearly 11 months later, Paris, for all practical purposes, is here.
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End of carouselOn Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, the U.S. Olympic swimming trials came to a sloshing, rousing close — with Simone Manuel and Bobby Finke claiming victories in the final two events, the women’s 50-meter freestyle and the men’s 1,500-meter freestyle. For the 46 swimmers — 26 men and 20 women — chosen to represent Team USA, the focus will quickly shift to the Paris Olympics and to what awaits them at Paris La Défense Arena. Namely, the Aussies.
On Sunday night, the sparsest finals crowd of the meet — which was held for the first time in an NFL stadium — saw Manuel, a five-time Olympic medalist, out-touch Gretchen Walsh, 24.13 seconds to 24.15, in the 50 free. It was an echo of the 2021 trials, when Manuel, a shell of herself as she fought against a condition known as overtraining syndrome, gutted out a victory in the 50 free to sneak onto the team in the last women’s race of the meet.
Manuel, who already had made this year’s team as a relay swimmer, said Sunday night that she had been feeling a lack of confidence after Saturday night’s mediocre showing in the semifinals but that she went back and watched old race videos of herself when she was at her towering peak. “I really wanted to channel that Simone,” she said, “because I know I’m a winner.”
In the men’s 1,500, Finke, a two-time gold medalist in Tokyo in 2021, did what he typically does — pull away from the competition, this time in 14:40.28 — but the drama was for the second spot on the team. David Johnston (14:52.74), who finished third and fourth in his other two finals here to narrowly miss earning a spot, held off a furious charge from Luke Whitlock to take second place by 0.26 seconds.
“I just had to fight with everything I had to get there,” Johnston said. “I’m glad I saved my meet. … I told my dad: ‘I’m in a football stadium. I’m down 0-2, and I’m going to throw a Hail Mary.’”
The U.S. team is full of highly decorated legends — Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel, Ryan Murphy, Manuel and others — and precocious first-timers, a category that includes rising sprint stars Walsh and Chris Guiliano, plus 17-year-old butterflyer Thomas Heilman, the youngest male American to make the team in 24 years. Kate Douglass, a multi-stroke standout who could swim in as many as six events in Paris, appears poised to be one of the breakout American stars of the Games.
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The Americans like to say their Olympic trials are a tougher, more mentally grueling meet than even the Summer Games themselves. But what awaits these swimmers in Paris is sure to test their fortitude at least as severely — when their opponents are no longer each other but, among others, a Chinese team embroiled in a doping controversy, a slew of international phenoms with designs on breaking through and, of course, the Australians.
Australia held its swim trials the week before the United States, which provided a nifty measuring stick for the U.S. swimmers against which to gauge their performances here. The results were encouraging. In lining up times from Brisbane and Indianapolis side by side, the overwhelming conclusion is that the Americans, as many of them promised a year ago following Fukuoka, are in an advantageous position.
Of the 28 individual races contested at the two sites, American winners posted lower times than their Australian counterparts in 18 events. Of course, an on-paper comparison means nothing. Aside from the variables of human athletic performance, there is the matter of other swimmers from other countries who could have a say in the makeup of the medal table. To that end, it is worth noting that the consensus best overall male and female swimmers in the world are neither American nor Australian but French (Leon Marchand) and Canadian (Summer McIntosh).
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There will be precious few American locks for gold medals in Paris, even from Ledecky, who heads into the Olympics ranked second in the world, and not her customary first, in two of her three individual events — behind McIntosh in the 800 free and behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus in the 400 — while holding the season’s best time in only her longest race, the 1,500.
“I know my competition. I know where I’m at. I know what I need to do. I have a pretty good feel for what I’m capable of doing,” said Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist who, among other historical milestones within reach, needs two more golds for the most by a female swimmer in history. “I’m just as excited going into these Games as I have the past three, and that’s the most important thing. And that’s what always brings out the performances in me.”
The Campbell interview was barely mentioned in the run-up to the Olympic trials or in the first part of the meet; everyone was far more focused on making the team. But as the roster began to take shape and the attention started to turn toward Paris and the showdown with Australia, the rivalry began to move to the fore.
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NBC ran a segment in which 23-time gold medalist Michael Phelps was shown the clip of Campbell’s comments for the first time, and his reaction demonstrated the danger in providing bulletin-board material to a bunch of uber-competitors.
“Wow,” Phelps said. “I would watch that thing every single day to give me that little extra [motivation].”
The U.S. swimmers get about a week and a half to regroup before reporting to Raleigh, N.C., for a domestic training camp July 2. On July 11, the group will relocate to Croatia for a second camp before arriving in Paris. The training camps are essential for performance and team-bonding reasons. There will be team meals and skits and memes and tons of meters of training.
And one other thing can be safely assumed: There will be cowbells.
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