Great news for the likes of Sjöström, Peaty and Kaylee McKeown who are the current WR holders in their events. Peaty is all in and Sjöström said she is hanging around for LA. Would be great to see Sjöström take the 50m fly as well as the free. She will be 34 at LA 28. Her butterfly WR is from 2014. 24.43. I see Gretchen Walsh has the US record with a 25.11… 3 years is a longtime away.
I like 50s, they’re fun, but I’m going to go contrarian on them being in the Olympics. We have world champs, that’s a perfect place to do the 50s stroke, mixed relays, basically all the events imaginable within reason. I don’t know why the Olympic program has to closely match that. With prelims/semis/finals of every 50-100-200m event there’s too much swimming already and is making it difficult for the stars to set their event lineup. Not to mention we heard nothing about increasing roster limits to take on potentially 6 more qualifiers. Medal dilution is something else.
I love it at world champs. That’s the spot for it.