SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey, I just wanted to record quickly a uh little pod here. Um two and a half days into trials and just finished watching prelims on day three. Um about to take a little trip, so um wanted to get some stuff for you here on a Tuesday and uh just sort of catch up on the meat so far. Been watching. Um shout out to uh Trevor Gray for uh helping me get connected to uh NBC uh NBC uh sports app and um just gonna run through these events and then I've got some overall like big picture thoughts. Um start with the 400 IM from from night one, men's 400 medley final. Um it was uh it was heartbreaking uh to to watch uh Carson Foster just quite not not quite be able to hold on there at the end, of course. Um Jay Litherland um awesome finish, you know. So it's as as much as Foster faded, it was a really nice finish. Um it's good to see Chase Kalish inform. That said, I mean, you just like I just saw that there's a 409 at French trials. Um, you know, it's interesting the use traditionally this is one of America's strongest events, but we just don't seem to have um uh high-level competitive people in it anymore. Um, and that's definitely concerning here when you look at, you know, trials is usually the moment for that to observe. I know I'm the the father of the oh, it'll be fine, our 400 freestylers overachieve at the Olympics theory. Um, but I think, you know, if you're looking on a world stage, there there's some room for concern there in the 400-free. And that leads right into the next final um that we saw, which was the men's 400 freestyle. Um great swim from Kieran Smith. Uh, I think he's got even more in the tank. I think he's ready to pay off on my uh peeking uh at the Olympics, overachieving at the Olympics theory. He just um he's somebody who looks so smooth and athletic doing it that you can imagine him going a lot faster just just based on um the skill level of his swimming. Um really, really impressive. Um look at the women's 400 medley final. Um it's great to see uh Emma Wyatt in there. And um, you know, it's maybe not like at the top of everybody's who to watch at trials uh list, but like really, really good swim. Um and just all around really, really good um uh from every leg for her, I thought. Um just swam a totally complete race. Uh Flickinger uh getting in there was really tough in this race. Um and uh I think it bodes well for her looking forward. I I I actually honestly when I was watching it, I I thought that Leah Smith, you know, because she was lurking and I knew, you know, that uh she could close really well in a 400 im, so I actually thought, you know, mid-race while I'm watching it that something was gonna happen there. Um but um just wasn't quite in the cards for her um to do this. And uh if we I'm just gonna skip over any semifinals, that's why I'm just doing the the finals. So if we get to the uh second day, we've got the women's hunter butterfly final. And um, you know, if I if I look back through all the races, I I definitely thought it was gonna be Tori Husk and Um Kelsey Dahlia. And um I just, you know, I I think I I was zagging where there was so much hype and so much um stuff around Claire Crisan that uh I almost thought it was gonna be too much for a 16-year-old, no matter how talented they are, and Kelsey Dahlia looked like she was really on. Um, but that's not how the race ended up playing out. Um, you know, actually, in fact, now the race was a foregone conclusion at this point, but Kelsey Dahlia had a very long finish. Um, and to me, she just sort of gave up on the finish of that race, uh, which is disappointing to see, but very exciting to have two really good young swimmers in that race. Um and Tori Husk is just uh just looks incredible um from the second she gets in the water. And um she's got plenty of speed, she's got plenty of um she's got enough to come home on the other end of it, and um, you know, she just uh just swimming unbelievable and I think set herself up for um a lot of really good things to come. Uh the men's hunter breaststroke final. Um this was a nail biter for all the Michael Andrew fans out there, and I consider myself one. Um, you know, I think that uh we were all looking forward to this race because this was meant to be Michael Andrew's coming out party. He'd swam great in the prelims, great in the semis, and he looked to be going even faster. I mean, he took it out a little bit faster in the finals, so you're thinking, like, oh man, is he gonna go 57 here? And then as that race moved towards the end, um, my my heart stopped for a little bit. I I gotta say, in the last 15 meters, I I thought he was gonna get past. And the other thing that that really surprised me was I just didn't think Wilson was gonna touch before Fink. I mean, like it looked to me like Fink's head was ahead. Sorry, head was was in front of Wilson, so I just didn't think that that touch was gonna come through. But um awesome to see Michael Andrew. I'm gonna talk a little bit more about him later. Awesome to see him break through and um make it onto the Olympic team. It's been a long time coming, you know, we've all been following for a really long time. I think it it validates so many of the things that he's doing that he was able to swim that fast, and um, he's got a really good shot at at meddling. Um set aside the the breaststroke, but um on a medley relay with the U.S. and um especially if he can step up to the plate there and and put a put together a really good uh relay swim. For Wilson, for the for the Division III swimmers like myself out there, it is just awesome to see a guy who uh swam for Emory University, who um you know had to keep things going for a long time after graduating college, um, which is not easy, uh, especially when um you you don't necessarily come from that D1 pedigree. Um and uh you know I think he's got arguably a better 200 breaststroke, so I'm really excited to see what he can put up in the 200 breaststroke later in this meet. And um just a just a great swim and history making. Uh, I mentioned on the the preview pod that the best, uh the closest call I could find in uh recent history for a D3 guy um making the Olympic team was Jim Bourne of Kenyon, uh who was like way uh better than his era in the uh 100 free, and he finished 13th. So um for Andrew Wilson to get his hand on the wall there, I think it's just a tremendous result. And um uh also a result that like a lot of different people contributed to, right? You know, he's got his college team, um, obviously his his club foundation uh growing up, but he's also you know done some stuff at Texas, um uh done some stuff with Georgia. So he's gotten a lot of support from a lot of different areas, and I think uh it's great to see all that come together and uh for him to produce that kind of uh result. Um okay, that's enough about the um breaststroke. Um look at the women's uh 400 free final. Um this is you know, had uh mostly an expected result with Ledecki at the top. Uh uh, I think a lot of more people, probably myself included, were expecting Leah Smith to come in there in second. Paige Madden uh was just better on the day. Um Emma Nordan tried to give it a little bit of a run there through the race. Um I I I'm not gonna read too much into Ladecki's time. Uh you know, there's probably gonna be if you're inclined to panic, you can look at Titmus's uh 356 down in Australia and Ladecki's 401 and go, oh my god, oh my god, you know, is it over? Is it over? Ah, you know, I think we'll see. We'll see. Um, you know, if if anybody did not need to put all their cards on the table for Olympic trials, it was Ladecki. Um so, you know, and it's hard, it's hard to tell. Like, why would why would she swim faster? She she she didn't need to to make the team. She's not like 15 years old anymore. So she's not just in there wailing around, like swimming, you know, as fast as she can in every single race. She's um she's being smart, she's being she's being a mature veteran athlete. Um, so we really don't know what else she has. I'm really excited, that said, to uh see this race at um at Tokyo because I think you know it was inevitable that over the course of this run Ledecki was going to get a challenge from somebody younger, uh, was going to come up and and um try to try to punch her in the mouth, uh, figuratively, of course. And um, you know, I think that will make for really compelling watching um because the time that she's put up is almost as fast as uh Ladecki's world record. So um as long as uh Titmus can you know do a little bit better than Australians usually do at the Olympics, um she will probably push Katie Ledecki to the absolute max, and that'll be great to see. Um I still, as much as I am inclined to panic over various things, the one thing I will not allow myself to panic over is whether Katie Ledecki is still pretty good. Because I've made that mistake even here within the last few years and just hasn't proved to be a very smart position to uh take. Now I want to get into some some bigger picture things um here that uh that I've been noticing. I mean, yeah, one thing, of course, is um, and I'm watching these with with my wife here at home, and one of the first questions she asked me was uh is there anybody like that I recognize anymore? You know, because I haven't been going to these meets. Um, I haven't been going to U.S. nationals, um, I haven't been to a national-level U.S. competition for like eight years. So, you know, there's just been less natural conversation about what's going on at these places. So I told her Ledecki was there. Of course I said Ryan Lochti was there. It's looking like um this is the end of the road for Ryan Lochti. Obviously, he hasn't had his best chance of an event, which is I think the 200 IM. Um, and that there he may get some help there based on what I'm gonna talk about next, but um he hasn't looked that strong uh so far, um, just sort of missing. Uh just just seems to be off uh in general. And um, you know, as much as I think people like to to pile on him as a 37-year-old myself, I, you know, find myself cheering more for the the older guys who are in there still competing. Go MacGrievers, go dads, you know, show him that dad strength. Um and um on the flip side of things, I I have to just point out one thing that's driving me absolutely crazy. And that is the the fact that Michael Andrew is swimming such a big program and specifically this hunter backstroke. Um I I think it is totally idiotic that he's swimming this hunter backstroke. And I say that as somebody who, you know, I I led this podcast off by being like, I'm a huge fan, and my heart stopped, you know, when I was uh feeling like maybe he wasn't gonna make it in the in the hunter breaststroke as he faded there at the end. And um so I just I I feel like this is an age group meet strategy being executed at the highest pressure meet he's ever been at. And I I don't I don't I can't think of one good reason for him to swim this hunter backstroke. I don't I don't think he should have swum it in prelims. I don't think that he should uh have swam it in the semifinals, and and definitely not in this final tomorrow. Like I I I screamed internally when I saw that he had made the final because I knew that he would try to compete in it. Anyway. I do not think he has a chance to make it. I think it's um therefore a monumental waste of energy. And, you know, just having watched him over his career, it does not go well for him over the course of a long meet when he swims too many races. And I think he had an opportunity here to get a nice break after the hunter breaststroke, and he squandered that. And I am worried about how it will impact the races later on. And um that the best explanation that I can come up with for why he's doing this is I just think that, you know, probably him and his dad and his camp that have been involved in this preparation, that they have to be so used to all sorts of people coming to them and telling them that what they're doing is wrong and trying to tell them what to do. I mean, I I had a podcast earlier this year with Cena Bro, somebody that I coached when she was 14 and 15 years old in Denmark, and you know, she said the hardest thing for her to get over in the country was, you know, it's a small country, and everybody felt entitled to come up and give her their two cents. So I'm aware that at this moment I am like calling out Michael Andrew or whatever, I'm giving him my two cents, and um, you know, I don't have the full context, I don't know exactly wh why this decision is being made. I'm just saying from where I'm sitting, I think it's it's really, really dumb. I I it it just it's it's not a uh it's not a sound plan, and I um I think that uh there's a blind spot here that you know him and his dad don't see this, don't see um the the big picture of this. I mean I I referenced Ledecki earlier, like right down to the fact that Ledecki's gonna swim the events that she needs to swim, that you know, that she wants to qualify for and everything, but like she's you know, she's a little bit older than Michael Andrew, and she's already swimming like a veteran, like she's you know, she's putting in effort when she needs to, right? Um, and I just see him sort of kind of going full bore on everything and swimming too much. And um I think as you know, probably our best hope in the in the 200 IM. Um having that race much later in the program, this this could really affect him. Um, you know, I want to see him make the hunter fly because that's a chance, that's an event he really actually has a chance to make it in, unlike the 100 pack stroke. Um, and by the way, I'd be happy to eat it on this prediction. Like I'd be very happy if he, you know, went 52-3 in the hunter back, and then, you know, then I was proved to be a total moron. Like that that would be great. That actually would be the best case scenario. Maybe I'm running an elaborate reverse jinx here on Michael Andrew. Um, but uh, you know, I I I just think that um that this is gonna he he he he he only has so many uh bullets in his gun here to fire at the meet, and I think he's just firing a bunch of them on something that's totally fruitless and is not gonna have a payoff, and there's plenty of other opportunities to swim a hundred backstroke and see how fast he can go and prove what an amazing swimmer he is at all sorts of different hundreds. I mean, we really have never seen anybody who is this good at hunter fly, 100 back, and 100 breast, right? We've seen some people that are, you know, like like Michael Phelps was a better butterfly than Michael Andrew and about the same level of backstroker. But he was not a 58 low 100 breaststroke swimmer. So that's like in comparison to the best all-round swimmer in the world, at hundreds of stroke, he's actually basically on the on the on the level. Okay, so he's a very, very, very impressive swimmer. Um and uh I I think he's almost a victim of how good he is because he is good enough to make this uh Olympic trials final, but you know, it's a long way from where he is in the hunter back to what it's gonna take to make the team. Um, which as I said, I I think is gonna probably gonna be about uh 52 3. Um so anyway, I hope you've all been enjoying watching the meet. I hope uh this uh 20 minutes of podcast uh gives you something to listen to here as we continue to follow. And um thanks to everybody for listening. Uh we'll be off on Thursday. Um dude, we just can't, you know, I'm I'm I'm on a little trip and um the guys are all in their own places. So we'll be back for some some trials, uh rehash on the other side of it. And uh so listen for that. Um and uh I look forward to hearing from all of you and uh thank you.