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>> Regan Smith, Lydia Jacoby, Torri Huske & Abbey Weitzeil
U.S. Women: Lots of Medals, Youth and Potential for Future Brilliance BY DAVID RIEDER
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t’s true — the American women won just three gold medals in swimming at the Tokyo Olympics, their fewest at any major international meet in recent memory. Katie Ledecky brought home the inaugural Olympic gold medal in the women’s 1500 freestyle, and she earned her historic third straight gold in the 800 freestyle. 17-year-old Alaskanative Lydia Jacoby shocked the world by winning the 100 breaststroke. But the Americans were shut out of gold medals in the relays and in the remaining individual events. But was this a poor performance in Tokyo? No way. Not even close. Look across the board, and you see an incredibly strong performance by one of the most well-rounded swim teams ever assembled. Back at the 2016 Olympics, the Americans won eight gold medals and 15 overall medals. This time, the total was 18 medals, although the comparisons are slightly skewed because of an additional event (the 1500 free) on the Olympic program. That total included eight silver and seven bronze, and American swimmers also finished fourth in additional four events. Two American swimmers finished among the top four in eight out of 14 individual events, which is incredible, and of the 28 American individual swims, all qualified for the semifinals and 25 of them advanced to finals. To only focus on the gold-medal count and lack of relay wins
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would be an absolute disservice to this American women’s team and the enormous strides taken in just the past two years. Let’s go stroke-by-stroke and see what happened. Freestyle In an unexpected twist, sprint freestyle turned out to be the weakest of the disciplines for the American women in 2021. It was a strength in 2019 when Simone Manuel captured world titles in the 100 free and 50 free, but she was diagnosed with Overtraining Syndrome and was not the oft-dominant sprinter of years past. With Manuel struggling, Abbey Weitzeil stepped up and qualified for very fast finals in the 50 free and 100 free and supplied the go-to leg on the 400 free and 400 medley relays. Cate Campbell edged Weitzeil for gold in the medley, but Weitzeil’s 52.49 split was elite. While the Americans had depth in the 100 free, plenty to earn an Olympic medal in the 400 free relay, no one came to Tokyo with a faster best time than 53.5, compared to four Australians under 53. It was the same story in the 200 free where American depth did not measure up to Australia on paper, but Americans like Paige Madden and Katie McLaughlin raised their game significantly and Katie Ledecky was amazing on the anchor leg while Australia underperformed in that event. Given the setup in the freestyle events, the Americans did great to walk away with bronze in the 400 free relay and silver in the 800.
