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Post by Admin on Jun 20, 2021 6:39:18 GMT
When 15-year-old Katie Grimes finished third in the 1,500-meter freestyle at U.S. Olympic swimming trials on Wednesday, less than a second away from a teenage trip to Tokyo, a slightly more famous Katie approached her. "You're the future," Katie Ledecky, the greatest female swimmer ever, told Grimes, an up-and-comer without a Wikipedia page. Two days later, Ledecky looked up at a scoreboard in Omaha, Nebraska. She'd just won the 800 at trials going away. She squinted into the lights for the name of the teammate who'd be joining her at the Olympics. And when she saw it, she beamed. She looked over toward Lane 8, and beamed even brighter. Grimes, who'd finished eighth in prelims after beating her own personal best time by almost six seconds, slashed another 11 seconds off it in the final to qualify in second place, 0.15 seconds ahead of Olympic veteran Haley Anderson in third. Ledecky swam over lane lines toward her. Grimes was overcome with an emotional concoction of exhaustion, disbelief and joy. Ledecky grasped her hand and pulled it skyward. And this time, Ledecky said, she offered a new proclamation: "You're the now." Grimes became the youngest American swimmer to qualify for the Olympics since — you guessed it — Ledecky in 2012. As Ledecky strode toward an NBC microphone for a post-race interview, Grimes beelined for her family. Ledecky told NBC's Michele Tafoya to let Grimes savor the moment. Grimes' parents pulled her in from the front row and hugged her tight.
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Post by Admin on Jun 20, 2021 14:42:48 GMT
LIVE | Marathon Swim Olympic Qualifier 2021 - Men 10 Km
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Post by Admin on Jun 20, 2021 18:54:26 GMT
Live: Recurve women | Final qualification event | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games
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Post by Admin on Jun 21, 2021 5:15:33 GMT
Simone Manuel, the 2016 Olympic swimming star who has battled complicated health issues in 2021, completed a remarkable comeback on Sunday night, qualifying for her second Olympics mere months after those health issues forced her out of the pool. Manuel won the 50-meter freestyle at U.S. Olympic trials in Omaha by 0.01 seconds. Abbey Weitzeil, who qualified in second, leapt across the lane line to hug and congratulate her. Manuel threw her head back into the water in relief, looked up toward the heavens, and brought appreciative hands to her emotional face. She shook her head, half smiling, half on the verge of tears. She pulled herself out of the pool, and fell into the loving arms of teammates. "This year has been difficult, especially the last couple months," Manuel said moments later. "But before I dove in, I felt like it was my moment. And I'm so thankful for the blessings that God has given me." Earlier in the week, Manuel failed to advance to the final of the 100-meter freestyle, the event in which she won gold five years ago in Rio de Janeiro. At an emotional news conference after her semifinal, she detailed a months-long struggle with "overtraining syndrome." She called it her "biggest fight."
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Post by Admin on Jun 22, 2021 19:31:16 GMT
Chinese swimming star Sun Yang was banned for more than four years Tuesday for breaking anti-doping rules after a retrial at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The court's verdict ends Sun's hopes of defending his Olympic title in the 200-meter freestyle in Tokyo next month. The ban is backdated to February 2020, meaning Sun could return for the 2024 Paris Olympics, when he would be 32.
The judges found Sun "to have acted recklessly" when he refused to let anti-doping officials leave his home with a sample of his blood.
Sun's original eight-year ban imposed last year for this offense was overturned on appeal to Switzerland's supreme court, which ordered a fresh prosecution.
Federal judges ruled the first guilty verdict unsafe because the chairman of the three-judge panel at CAS showed anti-Chinese bias in social media comments.
The retrial was heard by three new judges by video link over three days last month and fast-tracked ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, which open on July 23.
The case was about a failed attempt to take blood and urine from Sun by a sample collection team that made an unannounced visit to his home in China in September 2018.
It turned confrontational and led to Sun's entourage ordering a security guard to smash the casing of a blood vial with a hammer.
The World Anti-Doping Agency appealed to CAS when a tribunal appointed by swimming's governing body, FINA, merely warned the three-time Olympic champion about his conduct.
WADA requested a ban of two to eight years for a second doping conviction. In 2014, Sun served a three-month ban imposed by Chinese authorities after testing positive for a stimulant that was banned at the time. That ban was not announced until after it ended.
Sun's second ban was imposed after a rare CAS hearing held in open court and streamed live online. It lasted more than 10 hours in November 2019 at a special court session in Montreux, Switzerland.
Sun denied wrongdoing.
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