2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
BY THE NUMBERS — WOMEN’S 100 BREASTSTROKE
- World File: 1:04.13 — Lilly King (USA) – 2017 World Championships
- World Junior File: 1:04.35 — Ruta Meilutyte (LTU) – 2013 World Championships
- Olympic File: 1:04.82 – Tatjana Smith (RSA) – 2021 Olympic Video games
- 2021 Olympic Champion: Lydia Jacoby (USA), 1:04.82
Ever since we entered the 2020s, the ladies’s 100 breaststroke has been a wildly unpredictable occasion on the large stage.
First, we noticed 17-year-old Lydia Jacoby upset defending champion Lilly King and newly-minted Olympic File holder Tatjana Smith on the Tokyo Video games in 2021.
In 2022, World Championship gold was received by Italy’s Benedetta Pilato in a time of 1:05.93, the slowest successful time since 2005. Ruta Meilutyte returned to full energy the subsequent 12 months, dominating the sphere at Worlds in 1:04.62 to win by nicely over a second, however then this previous February, she did not earn a second swim as China’s Tang Qianting snagged gold.
Heading into Paris, based mostly on what she did final 12 months, it could be exhausting to not put Meilutyte down as the large favourite, however she underwent foot surgical procedure on the finish of February which places her kind up within the air.
THE 1:04 CLUB
Through the Olympic qualifying interval, three swimmers have been underneath 1:05 within the 100 breast.
The highest seed is the 2024 world champion, Tang, who dropped a time of 1:04.39 on the Chinese language Nationals to rank #4 all-time within the occasion in what was the quickest swim we’ve seen since 2017.
With Meilutyte a wildcard and Tang’s time being so elite—nobody within the area has been inside one second of her in 2024—it’s exhausting to not punch her in as the favourite for gold.
Tang’s solely different sub-1:05 swim (1:04.68) got here within the semis at Chinese language Nationals, and he or she received the 2024 world title in 1:05.27. These are the three quickest swims of her profession, and if she’s in a position to maintain this lifetime-best kind via to Paris, gold is nicely inside her grasp.
The #2 seed coming is Meilutyte, who produced a pair of 1:04.6s on the 2023 World Championships en path to gold. She hasn’t been wherever close to that since, clocking 1:07.4 and 1:06.7 on the World Cup circuit within the fall after which going 1:07.79 on the 2024 World Championships in her lone swim of the calendar 12 months.
Ruta Meilutyte. Photograph: Fabio Cetti
The 27-year-old Lithuanian might win a historic gold, reclaiming the title she received on the age of 15 in 2012, or might simply as simply miss the ultimate if she isn’t again on prime kind. Greater than probably she’ll be someplace within the center, but it surely ought to require a minimum of 1:04-mid to win gold, which may be a tad greater than she’s able to if final 12 months was her peak.
The opposite swimmer seeded at 1:04 is Lilly King, the 2016 Olympic champion and world document holder. Since 2021, King’s quickest swim of the 12 months hasn’t come on the main worldwide meet, however quite in home competitors, together with 1:04.75 on the 2023 U.S. Nationals earlier than going 1:06.02 within the Worlds closing.
King used to have a penchant for developing clutch when the stress was on, and that capability appears to have dimmed a contact during the last three years. The 27-year-old has stated she received’t compete via LA 2028, so this will likely be her final shot at extra Olympic glory. She produced a stable 1:05.43 clocking on the Olympic Trials final month, rating her third amongst swimmers within the area in 2024.
All eyes had been on her in Rio, going head-to-head with rival Yuliya Efimova, after which she was upended as the favourite in Tokyo. Can King reclaim the throne?
Tatjana Smith (Schoenmaker)
Smith (then Schoenmaker) stole King’s standing as the favourite within the Tokyo closing in some folks’s minds after what she did within the prelims, firing off an Olympic File of 1:04.82—a time that ended up being quicker than what Jacoby went to win gold.
Smith received progressively slower via every spherical however nonetheless earned silver in 1:05.22.
Rounding again into kind after sitting out of Worlds in 2022, Smith received silver in Fukuoka (1:05.84) and was her quickest since Tokyo in April, clocking 1:05.41 on the South African Championships.
There are some query marks surrounding Tang (consistency?), Meilutyte (kind?) and King (swimming quick in closing?), however Smith seems to be a dependable choice to be 1:05-low or higher in Paris. The place that lands her on the rostrum, or if it does in any respect, stays to be seen.
Worldwide Veterans
The ladies’s 100 breast has a longtime core group of contenders who path the established prime 4, having by no means been underneath 1:05, however have the power to win a medal within the closing when all of the numbers are thrown out the window.
Benedetta Pilato. Photograph: Fabio Cetti.
Italy’s Pilato received the 2022 world title, so she has expertise performing when it counts, and he or she additionally set a private better of 1:05.44 final month in Rome on the Sette Colli Trophy. Nonetheless simply 19, Pilato is so much like Meilutyte in that she takes this race out quick and holds on, however when she’s not at her greatest she tends to fade.
In Tokyo, she was disqualified within the Olympic prelims, so Pilato will likely be out for redemption in Paris.
Eire’s Mona McSharry has been fifth in every of the previous two World Championship finals, and in addition made the third spherical in Tokyo putting eighth. The 23-year-old set a PB of 1:05.55 final 12 months in Fukuoka (prelims) and has been 1:06.11 this 12 months.
Tes Schouten is clearly a 200 breast specialist, however has the back-half capability to contend for a prime spot within the 100. She snagged silver in Doha in 1:05.82, and owns a better of 1:05.55 from 2023. Schouten doesn’t have the pace to take care of the 1:04s, however given how unpredictable this occasion has been lately, 1:05-mid might simply land on the rostrum.
Different fixtures in current World Championship finals embody the Japanese duo of Reona Aoki and Satomi Suzuki, Sweden’s Sophie Hansson, Germany’s Anna Elendt, Estonia’s Eneli Jefimova and Lithuania’s Kotryna Teterevkova.
That group all maintain greatest occasions within the 1:05 vary, barring the 17-year-old Jefimova, who set a better of 1:06.08 this 12 months.
Aoki owns a better of 1:05.19 and has the quickest time from this aforementioned six this 12 months at 1:05.76.
Newcomers
Somebody who might shake issues up this 12 months is Angharad Evans, a 21-year-old who blasted a brand new British File of 1:05.54 in April, her first time underneath the 1:06 barrier.
Evans backed that swim up with a 1:05.91 clocking on the Sette Colli Trophy, and the one factor working in opposition to her in Paris is a scarcity of main worldwide expertise. Which may transform a great factor at a contest as nerve-wracking because the Video games, as typically first-timers are in a position to thrive (ignorance is bliss) whereas the load of expectation hampers others (maybe we noticed this in Tokyo with Lydia Jacoby).
On the U.S. Trials, sniping the second spot behind Lilly King was Emma Weber, a College of Virginia product who caught fireplace in Indianapolis and established a brand new PB of 1:06.10 within the closing.
Weber will probably have to be within the 1:05s to have an opportunity at a medal, however 1:06-low will in all probability be what’s required to make it within the closing, and coming in on lifetime greatest kind can do wonders for a swimmer’s confidence.
Different Contenders
Italy’s Lisa Angiolini is one to look at for after she matched her private greatest from 2022 in March, going 1:06.00.
That ranks her forward of a number of the extra established Europeans this season, however Angiolini has but to show she could be constant via three rounds of racing at a serious meet.
Belarusian Alina Zmushka was granted impartial standing to be able to compete, having set a Nationwide File two weeks in the past in 1:06.20, and we can also’t overlook the versatile Anastasia Gorbenko (1:06.15), China’s Yang Chang (1:06.23) and Singapore’s Letitia Sim (1:06.36).
The Verdict
Historical past tells us the new hand actually issues on this occasion, and proper now that belongs to Tang. Her consecutive 1:04s after successful the 2024 world title make her exhausting to disclaim for gold.
Smith has been slowly simmering again into kind after Tokyo, getting higher and higher from 2022 to 2023, after which to date this 12 months she’s been even higher. Her greatest may very well be ready in Paris.
King is feisty and can struggle for a medal, we’re simply undecided she the firepower to reclaim gold given what Tang has achieved this 12 months.
Meilutyte and Evans are two wildcards for various causes, however we see them within the closing, together with the teen Jefimova, whose quick course performances on the finish of 2023 inform us she’s received a 1:05 in her in lengthy course.
SwimSwam’s Picks
Darkish Horse: Jenna Strauch (AUS) – Strauch has solely been 1:06.9 within the qualifying interval, however has Olympic expertise and is just two years faraway from successful silver on the World Championships within the 200 and setting a better of 1:06.1 within the 100. An harm compelled Strauch out of the 2023 Worlds, however a slender win on the Aussie Olympic Trials landed her a berth in Paris. A semi-final, and possibly even finals look, may very well be within the playing cards if at her greatest.