2009 National Championships (World Championship Trials)

Does anyone know why there are no trials for 50s strokes?

Thanks for pointing this out, Tom. I searched for Erika Erndl here on usms.org and she swam at '06 Nationals in Coral Springs. Interestingly she only won one event there! She's obviously really recommitted herself to swimming to go a 2:13 long course 200 IM. That's a hell of a swim! At Coral Springs she swam the short course IM in a 2:11. She went from a 2:11 in yards to to 2:13 in LCM 200 IM. Nice drop. Wow, that is definitely one hell of a swim. I only remembered that because Rowdy said it several times during her heat.

Gosh, the 1500 final looks to be a great race. Andrew Gemmel from Delaware got third in the prelims. This is anyone's race to breakthrough. I hope that Andrew Gemmel gets in there. What a hectic schedule. He already qualified for The World Championship for Open Water.

Phelps Scratched 100 Fr Nathan Adrian had a fantastic breakout swim with the 48.0. However, without Phelps or Lezak in the 100 meter freestyle or 4x100 freestyle relay, I fear the U.S. won't medal in either event at World Championships. Of course people can always surprise you, but the French will likely have 3-4 swimmers on their relay going :47. Tough field!

How good was Mary T. Meagher? Her meet and U.S. Open record in the 200 fly still stand from 1981!

Nice explanation! But for real in a lot of cases there are people who are very good at 50 but not good enough for 100 and they do not get to go because of that stupidity. Lost medals for the states, after all gold for 50 *** is as good as 400IM gold. Jazz Hands and alfa: At the World University Games, Kevin Swander smashed Mark Gangloff's AR :27.14 to :27.34 and the 2 guys he swam against in his time trial beat Gangloff also. Kevin beat the current WR holder Felipe Silva who swam a :27.23 and Cuba Siladi at :27.31 but I don't think USA Swimming will be sending him to swim the 50 at Worlds but will have Gangloff and someone else or swim only Gangloff. I got a kick out of the Swim Network interview with Gangloff before the meet tonight. They kept talking about his 2 American Records and never said a thing about Kevin Swander breaking his 2 day old 50 *** AR at the WUG. Both of these guys are a threat in the 50 *** but only one will challenge at the Worlds, while the other stays home. If a guy like Thomas Rupprath from Germany was from the USA, he might never go to World Championships because his best two events would be the 50 back and 50 fly and if he couldn't make the 100 distance of those strokes he would be at home like Kevin Swander. I don't know if this train of thought will ever change in USA Swimming. The only way I see it changing is if the 50s of strokes are approved by the IOC as Olympic events and then you would see 50 events offered, records tracked and listed, top 50 lists published, and events offered at both US Nationals/US Open meets.

There is no probably about it. The new suits are better because they are shiny. Shiny is good. As good as the Jaked is purported to be, it apparently doesn't overcome a cranky knee: "Wearing a Jaked suit, Torres clocked 24.43, well off her American record of 24.07 set at the Beijing Olympics."

Katherine Hersey finally won a major title with the 200 fly. The Arena suits are cool looking. the LZRs are fugly. Elizabeth Beisel is the da bomb. Her 400 IM was amazing.

How good was Mary T. Meagher? Her meet and U.S. Open record in the 200 fly still stand from 1981! Actually at the time this record was set I thought it was the 2nd best record of the 1981 year, with the best one being the :57.93 100 fly record that was set at the same meet by Mary T at the Schroeder YMCA in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. The reason I thought that was the reduction in time was greater going from :59.26 to :57.93 compared to 2:06.37 to 2:05.96 and having a shorter distance to drop the time. Both records lasted almost the same time period with the 200 fly 3 months shy of 20 years and the 100 fly 19 years and one week. However, today the 200 holds up better because its much higher ranked and less swimmers have swam faster than the 100 fly time. According to Swimming World magazine Bill Bell's LCM rankings and performances, the 200 ranks as the 13th fastest performance of all time and the 100 ranks as the 57th fastest performance of all time.

The reason I thought that was the reduction in time was greater going from :59.26 to :57.93 compared to 2:06.37 to 2:05.96 and having a shorter distance to drop the time. Good point. Looking at the record progression, Mary T first set the WR in the 200 fly in July 1979 with a 2:09.77 in San Juan. The following month she lowered the mark to 2:07.01. Since her birthday is in October she was 14 for both these swims.