I picked Ikee to win (glad I didn’t bet money lol). Ledecky hasn’t looked good in the 200 since before Pelligrini beat her in ‘17.

On the men’s side I’m so happy for Chalmers, coming back from heart surgery too. I really wanted him to win especially since Dressel stole all the spotlight. He has an amazing kick the 2nd 50, I need to work on that lol.

Also happy for Campbell.

Does it make me anti-American if I root for individuals instead of countries? Note: I’m glad Kalisz won btw.

Since KL swam the 800 about 1.5 hr or so before the 200 final, it is possible that she might have been just a little tired. She's extremely well conditioned but i would imagine that even KL might have a hard time hitting her fastest 200 pace after a hard 800. Since the Oly meet is 8 days vs only for this meet, presumably her 4 indy events at the Oly will be spread out on diff days.

What about Dressel's 200 free??? I was surprised that he only finished 18th in the heats, in 1:47.9.

And just for the record, I don't think your rooting for individuals makes you anti-American at all. I tend to do it myself. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

And now, the American men's 4 x 100 free relay was DQ'd for swimming out of order, and apparently a Canadian women's relay at the 2016 Short Course WCs was also DQ'd for this same infraction. Acc to swimswam, the American men say that the coaches told them to swim out of order. WTF coaches??? How hard is it to know and follow the frigging rules???

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

Just watched this race, Ruck looked awesome! Happy for the Canuck :)

also happy for Campbell. i feel like an anxious parent watching her swim in the last few years (similar to watching Kenni Harrison hurdle).

Showed some real personality in the interview on NBC.

BTW not that keen on the guy doing the interviews- at nationals he kept asking questions in an odd 3rd person way....."what's (insert name here) going to be doing between now and Pan Pacs?" and now he's at Pan Pacs and i saw him ask Cate Campbell questions about Simone Manuel and Kylie Masse questions about Kathleen Baker. i know he is catering to a US audience but i thought it was a bit odd.

I think many members of the US team tapered for nationals and missed their peak at this meet. The majority of times are slower. Kathleen Baker, Alison Schmitt, Jay Litherland, the butterflyers etc, etc... all are looking overcooked.

Also, WTF is up with the relays?
- Schmitt went a 1:58.6 lead-off in the 4x2 final. That's frankly a catastrophic swim for her, is she sick or something? There were at least three US swimmers in the stands who could beat that time by 1.5+ seconds.
- Dressel leads off with a 48.8 in the 4x1? WTF? He had a (self-proclaimed) terrible swim at Nats and still turned in a 48.5. His free has looked bad all summer.
- they ran the wrong swimmers in the mixed medley. Absolutely stupid selection.
- the fiasco of swimming the wrong order in the men's 4x1. That hasn't happened in a major competition for any team in over a decade. Inexcusable.

As has been beaten to death in a prior thread, I think this all goes back to the weird-ass selection criteria for 2019 worlds.

Lastly, I feel terrible for Ella Eastin. Has a breakthrough season and then comes down with mono at exactly the wrong moment. She just missed qualification for worlds.

Overall, this is far from the (almost) unqualified disaster of 2015 Kazan, but let's hope the US team looks a bit sharper next year.

The whole wrong order thing just kind of defies comprehension; i hope we'll hear some semi-decent explanation of this in the next few days. Agree 100% that the selection criteria are just bizarre, as after every final swimswam has to adjudicate on who Q'd for Worlds and who did not. Way too complicated. :)

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."