In 30 minutes, signs of changing times for Ledecky, Franklin

OMAHA, Neb. - Missy Franklin finished swimming at the CenturyLink Center at 7:07 Saturday night. At 7:37, Katie Ledecky was in the water, taking over for good the pool that had belonged to Franklin four years ago.

In a sport ruled by times, 30 minutes provided a time passage through four years. The half-hour marked a transition from the era when Franklin was the leading figure in U.S. women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star to the one when Ledecky is the leading figure in world women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star.

Ledecky, 19, would cruise to victories in three freestyle races at these U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming, adding Saturday night’s win in the 800-meter freestyle to those in the 200 and 400.

Franklin, 21, had won two individual events and qualified for four in 2012. This time, she clawed her way on the team going to Rio by rallying for second-place finishes in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle.

She replaced dominance with desire, battling to reclaim part of what had seemed so easy to get the first time.

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After cruising along, Katie Ledecky puts smoke on the water

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OMAHA, Neb. - Katie Ledecky figured this would be a perfect time to multitask at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming.

Ledecky was cruising along so far ahead of the field two-thirds of the way through her 800-meter freestyle heat Friday morning that she spontaneously decided to give herself something else to do.

“Around the 550 mark, I was like, `We’ll practice my 100 free finish for tonight,’” Ledecky said, with a big grin.

And that’s what it looked like, especially in the final 25 meters, when she seriously engaged her legs for the first time in the 800. She blasted the last lap in a brisk 28.71 seconds.

And, by the way, she covered the entire 800 in 8 minutes, 10.91 seconds, merely the third-fastest time ever – behind the 8:06.68 she swam in January and an 8:07.39 from last year’s world championships.

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For Young Swimmer Walsh, Ecstasy Followed By Brief Agony At Trials

Gretchen (l) and Alex Walsh in front of the huge Katie Ledecky mural outside the site of the 2016 Olympic swim trials.  (Photo courtesy Walsh family)

OMAHA, Neb. – The draw for Monday morning’s first round of the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming put Alex Walsh two lanes from Missy Franklin in the 15th of 16 heats.

Walsh could not have been happier.

“She’s one of my biggest idols because she’s always so positive,” Walsh said of Franklin, reigning Olympic champion in the event. “I was ecstatic.”

It got even better when Franklin asked the 14-year-old Walsh for help with her swim cap before heading to the pool deck for the race.

“That was pretty great,” Walsh said. 

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Omaha Punctuates Olympic Swimming Trials With Excitement Again

The pizzazz of the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha (Getty Images)

OMAHA, Neb.  – When USA Swimming representatives came here in 2005 to assess the city’s bid to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials, they noticed that civic organizations had created a logo with a letter and a punctuation mark to encourage the feeling this city was an exciting place.

It was “O!”

When those USA Swimming officials spoke to the country’s elite coaches after awarding the that meet to Omaha, they got a reaction that effectively changed the punctuation.

The way the coaches saw the choice was “O?” as in “Huh? Where? What?”   After all, Omaha had no historic links to swimming, and few athletes from the area ever had reached the sport’s elite.

More than a decade later, as a third straight Omaha Olympic trials begins Sunday, the question mark is gone, and the exclamation points have multiplied exponentially.

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