The women’s 50-meter freestyle is one of two events on the final night of U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, presented by Lilly. Adding to the intensity of the race, the six of the top seven seated athletes are Tokyo Olympians, and the top-three have times faster than what qualified to make the Olympic Team in 2020.

The correlation between swimmers qualifying for semifinals (top-16), finals (top-8), and the Olympic Team (top-2*), has been mostly consistent since 2000, with the exception of the 2004 qualifiers. For 2008, 2012, and 2016, the approximate difference between semifinals to finals was .3 and finals to qualifying for the Team was .5.

Looking to 2020, there was a larger approximate drop between semifinals to finals (.7) and due to that, a smaller difference between finals to making the Team (.4).

This year, seated first is American record holder in the event Kate Douglass, followed closely behind by two-time Olympian and gold medalist Abbey Weitzeil, and Gretchen Walsh, fresh off a dominating NCAA championship season. 

For more on the competition, visit www.usaswimming.org/Trials.