Katie Grimes just became the first American to qualify for the 2024 Olympics by winning bronze in a photo finish at the 10K at the swimming world championships. Top 3 spots only qualified, the woman she out touched was reigning world champion, so a clutch finish. This will be her first time competing in open water, and her second olympics – at 15, she was the youngest American in Tokyo.
Summer McIntosh is our great hope in swimming now that Ledecky is getting older. Unlike the US, gold medals are rare here.
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Just learned that some of the swimming competitions will be held in the refurbished Georges Vallerey pool. As someone who enjoyed watching old Tarzan movies I found that interesting as Johnny Weissmuller apparently won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics in that pool.
Good article on how Paris trying to make it a green Olympics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/16/climate/paris-olympics-climate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.dU0.dBs5.Hwk43IcyQZZz&smid=url-share
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Will they use the Piscine Molitor as the warm up area?
The warm up area has to be next door, so I assume no.
But wikipedia says that swimming is at Paris La Défense Arena, and diving / water polo / artistic swimming is at the new aquatic center in St. Denis, so I don’t understand why the NY Times is talking about the Georges Vallerey renovations. 2024 Summer Olympics - Wikipedia
Georges Vallerey will be used as a training site during the Olympics according to some other articles.
I hope you know I was joking. It was a reference to Life of Pi.
Tangential to Olympics: The long time (46 years) head coach of the Texas swim team is retiring, and will be replaced by Bob Bowman (former coach of Phelps, current coach of Léon Marchand). The announcement that Bowman is leaving Arizona State for Texas came yesterday, 4/1, two days after Marchand won the NCAA title for ASU (technically there were other people on the team, but Marchand won 3 individual events, 2 in record time, and was on 2 winning / record setting relays with crazy splits). The announcement is so stunning that coverage has to specify that it isn’t an April Fool’s joke. https://swimswam.com/bob-bowman-named-director-head-mens-coach-at-texas-two-days-after-ncaa-title-with-asu/
And to make this Olympics related, Marchand is going to be ridiculous this summer. His 500 free time was 4 seconds faster than the non-Marchand record, he already owns the 400 IM WR, after being the only person to ever be close to Phelps’ old record, and with the NCAA record in the 200 breast is competitive there as well.
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This happened before the Tokyo olympics, but I think the more interesting question is whether or not it raises issues for the Paris games. Will there be a backlash against or shunning of the Chinese swimmers after yet more weird drug testing news?
I don’t think being interviewed on TMZ is such a bad thing.
Opinions there may differ. Don’t the Kardashians get interviewed on TMZ? That sounds bad.
Cart before the horse. I guess we can assume these Chinese are bad because TMZ wants to interview them. But sometimes TMZ takes perfectly innocent people and drags them through the mud.
Katy Ledecky weighs in on the Chinese cheaters, assisted by Chinese Cheating enablers:
Yup, I see no reason to watch swimming, weight-lifting, cycling, track and/or field, …
So, soccer it will be that I try to watch (I do not have Peacock), and I’m a bit iffy on them as well.
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There’s also gymnastics. Some 27 year old just obliterated the competition to win the US championship by 5.9 points. Simone something. I think she might be good some day.
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Yeah, I’ll leer at some beautiful, strong, small women.
After having read Tyler Hamilton’s book on doping which described how trivially easy it is to not test positive, and, how so many authority figures like coaches, team directors, and doctors are all in on it, I’m convinced that pretty much any athlete at the top of international competition is doping.
It probably should be allowed imo.
Man it must be really awkward to ask Ledecky what she thinks about doping, you’re basically pressuring her to say something she might regret later.
Or, she’s clean and damned proud of it, and is secure enough and mature enough to understand that winning at all costs, does, in fact, have costs down the road.
She was 15 when she won her first gold which makes things even more messed up because that would mean people who are very close to her may be knowingly putting her life in danger.
Top male swimmers use a gallop freestyle, while the top women almost all use a symmetric freestyle, especially in the mid-distance and longer races. There are 3 notable exceptions: Ledecky, Titmus, and McIntosh. I’m willing to chalk up her dominance to technique.