[ PHOTO BY PETER H. BICK ]
Inside the Five-Day Wait for Brooke Forde, Now Finally an Olympian BY DAN D'ADDONA
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rooke Forde touched the wall sixth in the 200 freestyle at last week’s United States Olympic Trials, but was immediately unsure how to react. Five days later, she finally could react to becoming an Olympian. FIVE DAYS. The fifth- and sixth-place finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyles have typically been added to the Team USA roster as relay alternates, likely to swim in the prelims at the Olympics. But with new events added to the lineup, there were more swimmers who could expand the roster to 26 women, pushing the relay alternates out. Forde touched the wall and knew there was a possibility, but she had to wait to see how many swimmers would double up on events, which wouldn’t add new people to the roster. Her race was Wednesday and she waited … and waited … and waited. As the last person waiting to see if she would make the team, Forde had to wait an entire five days for the last women’s event to have a double up, ensuring she was on the roster. “We were a stressed bunch,” Forde told Swimming World.
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“I had never even paid attention to the selection process that much. It was confusing.The day before my final, someone had told me in the warmup pool that they wouldn’t take the sixth person in relays because of the new events. So between sessions, I was researching on my own about what the process was. So I felt like I needed to be top five to make the team.” Then Forde finished sixth. “So when I touched in sixth, my immediate reaction was disappointment. Katie (Ledecky) came over and hugged me in the pool. Everyone was hugging me telling me I was an Olympian, but I didn’t feel that way. I felt like a third place (in an individual event). I was very guarded and didn’t want to get my hopes up,” Forde said. But there certainly was a chance — it just wasn’t a sure thing as in past years. “My dad, being my dad, did the math and showed me there was a chance. Then I slowly started to wrap my head around the chance of making it,” she said. “That was the excruciating part. Each day I had moments that I thought I was going and times where I thought I wasn’t. We all thought going into Saturday night that it would be confirmed then, and I was really excited.”
