For a few years throughout Olympic swimming venues, the sound of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was ubiquitous.
From the 1992 Games in Barcelona by way of the pandemic-delayed 2021 Games in Tokyo, the United States swim staff gained extra gold medals than any of its friends. Its anthem performed, over and over, because the Americans acquired their gold medals atop the rostrum. The final time Team USA didn’t win probably the most golds at a single Olympics was in 1988, when it completed second to East Germany. None of the swimmers on the present roster had been alive then.
U.S. swimmers have gained the general medal depend and the gold medal depend so typically through the years that it nearly has been taken without any consideration. Of course, it helps that Michael Phelps gained 23 alone over 4 Olympics, but it surely wasn’t simply him. The Americans had been typically the most effective on the earth of their greatest occasions, and so they typically cleaned up in relays as properly.
Now, that dominance is much from sure. Heading into the Paris Games, the Australians can be favored to win probably the most gold medals within the pool. The Aussies topped the Americans a 12 months in the past on the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, successful 13 gold medals to the Americans’ seven. Though Team USA gained the general medal depend (38 to 25), its haul’s hue was much less golden than ordinary.
Paris may very well be the identical. It’s a chance the Americans are usually not shying away from and one they’re decided to keep away from.
“Historically, the U.S. has performed the most effective job of any nation on the earth of being higher and acting at the next stage,” U.S. head girls’s coach Todd DeSorbo stated. “Certainly, there are some occasions for each genders the place we’ve acquired a big quantity of floor to make up, however I’m assured within the motivation and pleasure and dedication of all people — women and men — on the staff which can be ready to do this and do some fairly particular issues.”
Count Australian star Cate Campbell amongst these hoping for the alternative. She loved what she heard at worlds — or moderately, what she didn’t.
“Australia popping out on prime is one factor, however it’s simply a lot sweeter beating America,” Campbell told Australia’s Channel 9 final August. “There had been a few nights, significantly the primary evening of competitors, the place we didn’t have to listen to ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ ring out by way of the stadium, and I can’t inform you how completely satisfied that made me.
“If I (ever) hear that track once more, will probably be too quickly.”
It was the primary time since 2001 that the U.S. didn’t take house probably the most gold medals at a world championship meet. Of the 9 swimmers who gained a number of particular person gold medals, Katie Ledecky was the one American swimmer to take action. “The world is getting higher,” Bob Bowman, the U.S. males’s head coach at worlds, advised reporters in Japan. The Aussies set 5 world data at that meet alone. Neither seven-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel nor two-time gold medalist Simone Manuel competed in Japan, and each will swim in Paris.
Katie Ledecky is the gold medal favourite within the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle in Paris, however past that, most races are too aggressive to foretell. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Campbell didn’t qualify for Paris, however her feedback have reverberated loudly — together with one which referred to as the Americans “sore losers” for celebrating probably the most general medals when the Aussies almost doubled their tally of gold. It struck a nerve with Phelps, who served as a commentator for NBC in the course of the U.S. trials final month. He stated if a competitor spoke like that about him, he’d “make them eat each phrase they only stated about me” and hoped the Americans would use the clip as motivation.
“Well, the excellent news is the Olympics can be right here shortly, and we’ll be capable of see what the outcomes are,” Phelps stated.
For the primary time in a very long time, it’s laborious to know what to anticipate. Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, can be favored to win gold within the 800-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle occasions. Beyond that, the races are too aggressive to confidently predict. And Ledecky’s rival, Australian Ariarne Titmus, can be favored to win the 400-meter freestyle, with fellow Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan the headliner for the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle occasions.
Dressel, the Americans’ star sprinter, could have an opportunity to defend his gold medals from Tokyo within the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly. He regarded robust at trials, however he’s nonetheless amid a comeback to the game after an eight-month break from swimming from mid-2022 to early 2023. (At trials, he didn’t qualify for the 100-meter freestyle in Paris as a person occasion, so he won’t get to defend his gold.) Bobby Finke can be favored to win the 1,500-meter freestyle, and Ryan Murphy can be anticipated to contend in each backstroke occasions. But general, the three aren’t apparent locks to repeat their Tokyo success.
Caeleb Dressel returns because the face of the U.S. males’s staff, with an opportunity to defend his gold medals within the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Gretchen Walsh, Regan Smith and Kate Douglass will headline the ladies’s staff alongside Ledecky, however the trio brings far much less Olympics expertise than she does. Walsh (100 fly) and Smith (100 again) set world data at trials and can be in competition in Paris of their respective occasions, however this can be Walsh’s first Games, and Smith took house two silvers (200 fly, medley relay) and one bronze (100 again) in Tokyo. Those occasions are loaded, too. Australian Kaylee McKeown can be robust to beat in each backstroke occasions, and Canadians Maggie Mac Neil and Summer McIntosh can be prime contenders within the 100 fly, as will China’s Zhang Yufei.
Douglass took bronze within the 200-meter particular person medley in Tokyo, although she can be swimming a extra complete program after qualifying to swim individually within the 200 fly and 200 IM at trials. (She additionally certified within the 100-meter freestyle however later dropped it.) Though she set a number of championship data at trials, she faces a tricky street forward with McIntosh, the Canadian phenom, and McKeown within the 200 IM (and her teammate Alex Walsh, too).
Of the largest names on Team USA, many are more likely to medal on the Games, although it won’t be gold. Two-time gold medalist breaststroker Lilly King, versatile distance swimmer Katie Grimes and male breaststrokers Nic Fink and Matt Fallon may all medal. So may Carson Foster, although he probably gained’t take gold in both IM race due to the closely favored Frenchman, Léon Marchand.
Relays may also be extraordinarily aggressive. Team USA can be favored within the males’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay and the ladies’s medley relay, however the American girls lag behind the Aussies in each freestyle relays, and the lads will face stiff competitors from China within the males’s medley and Great Britain within the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. The Brits took house gold in that relay in Tokyo for the primary time. It was the primary time the U.S. (males or girls) didn’t medal in an Olympic relay occasion.
But what is maybe most obtrusive is that the complexion of the staff is pretty totally different from what it was even simply two Games in the past, with Phelps and Ryan Lochte headlining the roster in Rio de Janeiro alongside Ledecky in peak kind and a schedule that stretched from the 200 free by way of the 800 free. Even with Ledecky and Dressel headed to Paris, this roster doesn’t have the identical star energy American swimming usually does, significantly on the lads’s aspect. Dressel will swim a number of occasions, however he’s lengthy been an enigma and never somebody who desires the world to know each little factor about himself. Phelps and Lochte had been endlessly charming figures, and so they had been on TV almost each day of the Games of their heyday due to the breadth of their occasions.
Still, USA Swimming president and CEO Tim Hinchey III has stated the group’s objective is to win the full medal depend and the gold medal depend. But is that attainable? The Americans will discover out quickly sufficient.
“I assumed we had been in a great place relative to the remainder of the world previous to trials, and popping out of trials, I believe we had been in even a greater place,” DeSorbo stated. “We’re simply able to get to camp (in Croatia), get to Paris and let the Games start.”
GO DEEPER
U.S. Olympic swim trials takeaways: Caeleb Dressel is again, Katie Ledecky remains to be right here
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; images of Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel: Tom Pennington and Al Bello / Getty Images)
