Here are the highlights of Day 2 of the USA Swimming Olympic Trials at Lucas Oil Stadium:
Top story
How hard was it to make the team in the women’s 100-meter butterfly?
One swimmer, Regan Smith, is now No. 5 of all time. Ordinarily, she would be a gold-medal contender. Except Regan Smith did not make the team — not in this event — for the Paris Olympics.
Olympic Trials: Aaron Shackell wins swim-off, Lilly King fastest, heartbreak for 1 Hoosier
University of Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh, backing up her dominant college season, won Sunday night in 55.31, just off the world record of 55.18 she set Saturday in semifinals. Through 50 meters, she was faster than in her record race. Torri Huske took the second spot in 55.52, followed by Smith in 55.62. Those three were nearly two seconds ahead of everyone else.
Magical moment
Gabrielle Rose, at age 46, qualified for semifinals of the 100 breaststroke, lowering her best time to 1:08.43. She was nearly 30 years older than the youngest swimmer in her heat. She lowered her time again, to 1:08.32, in semifinals and was 10th — not enough to make the cut to eight.
“This is just the cherry on top, to be able to compete tonight,” said Rose, whose 9-year-old daughter, Annie, was in the stands. “I’m enjoying the crowd, having my family here to watch me swim again.”
Her time would have won a bronze medal at her first Olympics, Atlanta 1996, when she represented Brazil. She made the U.S. team at Indianapolis in 2000 and finished seventh in the 200 individual medley at Sydney.
She became teary when asked, on Father’s Day, about her own father, the late Mike Rose of Memphis, Tenn., a former CEO of Holiday Inn and Harrah’s Entertainment.
“He would have really loved all of this,” the swimmer said.
Buzzworthy
Carson Foster, a Cincinnati native who has been breaking records since age 10, made his first Olympic team as a 22-year-old. He won the 400-meter individual medley in 4:07.64, beating 30-year-old Chase Kalisz, the 2021 Olympic champion.
Foster, a University of Texas swimmer, was third at the trials in 2021 and did not make the Tokyo team. Since then, he said, he has worked with a mental performance coach. Including short course, Foster has 16 World Championship medals.
Stat of the day
Charlie Swanson, who edged Indiana University’s Josh Matheny in the 100 breaststroke, would be the oldest American male swimmer to make his Olympic debut with no World Championships final experience since 1920, according to OlyMADMen.
Swanson, 26, was ranked 10th among Americans this year. The only race in which he had broken one minute was 59.89 last year. He lowered that in each round here: 59.44, 59.34, 59.16.
Quote of the day
“You treat swimming like a sport, and you get performances like this.” — Lilly King, on times turned in by Americans in an Olympic Trials inside a football stadium.
What’s up next
Monday night’s finals feature Lilly King in the 100 breaststroke, going for a third — and last — Olympics. She said Friday she would not continue until Los Angeles 2028. Other finals include men’s and women’s 200 freestyles, including siblings Aaron and Alex Shackell of Carmel. Also in the men’s 200 free are two more Carmel swimmers, Olympians Drew Kibler and Jake Mitchell, plus IU’s Blake Pieroni and Notre Dame’s Chris Giuliano. Monday prelims include the men’s 800 freestyle, in which two Hoosiers could advance to Tuesday night’s final: 18-year-old Luke Whitlock and Olympian Michael Brinegar.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: USA Swimming Olympic Trials Day 2 recap: Gabrielle Rose’s moment
