2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024
- Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024
- La Défense Arena — Paris, France
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
- Full Schedule
- SwimSwam Preview Index
BY THE NUMBERS — Women’s FREESTYLE
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- World Record: 23.61 — Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden (2023)
- World Junior Record: 24.17 — Claire Curzan, USA (2021)
- Olympic Record: 23.81 — Emma McKeon, Australia (2021)
- 2020 Olympic Champion: Emma McKeon, Australia – 23.81
The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same.
With three of the top four finishers from the last Olympic Games, and five of the eight finalists, not returning, it would seem like this women’s 50 free could be a wide-open race.
But in the twilight of her career, having ceded the 100 fly that made her famous, 30-year-old Swede Sarah Sjostrom has distanced herself from the field in this women’s 50 free, swimming 23.61 and 23.62, respectively, in the semifinals and finals of the 50 free at last year’s World Championships, followed by a 23.69 at this year’s World Championships.
She now owns the 5 fastest performances in history, and the 27 fastest performances by anybody who will swim the race at this summer’s Olympic Games.
That is because Emma McKeon, the defending champion and Olympic Record holder, didn’t qualify at Australia’s Trials, while Americans Kate Douglass, who was 23.91 for silver at February’s World Championships, has chosen to focus on the overlapping 200 IM instead.
So it seems like Sjostrom heads into the meet as an overwhelming favorite. A gold medal here would do a lot to enhance the legacy of a swimmer who has a strong claim as the best female swimmer of all time, with the exception of only having a single Olympic gold medal. In Tokyo, though, she still managed to take silver in this 50 free in spite of breaking her elbow in a slip-and-fall earlier in the year.
Seemingly as healthy as she’s been in a while, and taking this event to new heights consistently, it would be easy to call her untouchable, but there’s one swimmer that gives me pause from adding that moniker.
Gretchen Walsh‘s Long Meet
![](https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Gretchen-Walsh-By-Jack-Spitser-DSC02193-300x200.jpg)
Gretchen Walsh (photo: Jack Spitser)
American Gretchen Walsh, 21, got a big monkey off her back by showing up and swimming as the star of the US Olympic Trials. She kicked the meet off with a bang in the 100 fly, setting a new World Record, and went on to finish 3rd in the 100 free and 2nd in the 50 free (her semis time of 24.06 was the fastest of the field in any of the three rounds).
We know Walsh has a huge ceiling, and she now has the confidence of knowing that she has done it at a big meet.
This is not to say that she’s in the same realm as Sjostrom; it’s more akin to ‘if there is an active swimmer who I believe has the talent to get to the 23.6/23.7 range in her career,’ it’s Walsh (and probably Douglass, but she’s not racing).
The issue is that Walsh has a big schedule at this meet. At least two, but maybe three, relays; two individual events; big races to start the meet and big races to end the meet. 9 days is a long time to stay ‘up,’ and Sjostrom has relatively-fewer events, maybe two relays and the 50 free individually.
Sjostrom is likely to head into this 50 free with maybe one or two races under her belt, plus the overlapping medley relay (afterward). Walsh is likely to head into this race with five high-intensity races under her belt, with the overlapping medley relay (afterward). The good news is that her coach is Todd DeSorbo, the Olympic Team head coach, and so is likely to protect her from, say, prelims of the women’s 400 free relay.
I just still don’t see her coming through and being able to catch up to Sjostrom after that long meet.
But That Doesn’t Make Her My Pick for Silver
Polish swimmer Kasia Wasick, who trains at SMU in Dallas in the United States, is another veteran who has continued to improve in this 50 free late in her career.
Wasick, who turned 32 in March, continues to inch forward in this 50 free. After getting hung on 24.1 for a few years, she broke through to 23.95 at this year’s World Championships in Doha, taking a bronze medal in the final.
Her ceiling doesn’t feel as high as Sjostrom and Walsh, but she feels like the most-reliable pick for silver, as her consistency has been very good. She swam 24.2 at the Pro Swim in San Antonio in April, for example, and was 24.2 again in mid-May.
Sub-24 For a Medal?
If we project that it’s going to take a 23-something for a medal, there are only a few other swimmers in this field who feel like they have that kind of potential.
Besides the aforementioned, the obvious is Shayna Jack. With a 24-month doping suspension behind her, Jack has returned to the trajectory where she was prior to that incident and is one of four sub-24s so far globally this season.
2023-2024 LCM Women 50 Free
SJOSTROM
23.66
2 | Kate DOUGLASS | USA | 23.91 | 02/18 |
3 | Kasia Wasick | POL | 23.95 | 02/18 |
4 | Meg HARRIS | AUS | 23.97 | 08/04 |
5 | Shayna JACK | AUS | 23.99 | 06/15 |
6 | Gretchen Walsh | USA | 24.06 | 06/22 |
7 | Torri HUSKE | USA | 24.09 | 06/22 |
8 | Cate CAMPBELL | AUS | 24.10 | 10/06 |
9 | Simone MANUEL | USA | 24.13 | 06/23 |
10 | Yufei ZHANG | CHN | 24.20 | 08/04 |
Among the top 10 in the world this season, many will be absent, including Cate Campbell of Australia and Torri Huske of the US, who both missed top two finishes at their national Trials meets.
American Simone Manuel, after a battle with Overtraining Syndrome, is back and looks almost as good as ever. If she’s given a window, she’ll get her fingers on the wall – it’s sort of her specialty, winning touches. She did it in 2016 at the Olympics, she did it at Trials this year.
I don’t think Sjostrom will give Manuel the opportunity to touch for gold, but the rest of the field is within reach for her. It would be an incredible next paragraph for her story if she wound up on an Olympic podium in Paris.
Then there’s the 21-year old Chinese swimmer Wu Qingfeng, who was 5th in Tokyo as a teenager. She has had a few lull years since then, not racing at the 2022 World Championships, and racing only relays at the 2023 World Championships and 2023 Asian Games.
At Chinese Nationals in April, though, she swam 24.22 to become the third-best Chinese woman in history. Wu was not one of the 23 swimmers who tested positive for a banned substance in the run-up to the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, though her countrymate Zhang Yufei, who was 2nd at Chinese Trials, was.
I see this as a seven swimmer race for the medals.
Fighting for Finals
In a race that is generally hyper-competitive, because of swimmers probably making other event choices Siobhan Haughey and swimmers who were outside of their countries’ top two (Cate Campbell and Bronte Campbell, Torri Huske, Abbey Weitzeil), the 50 free doesn’t wind up being a super-deep event at the Olympics.
Top 20 Swimmers in the World This Season Who Are Probably not swimming at Worlds:
- #2 – Kate Douglass, USA
- #6 – Torri Huske, USA
- #7 – Cate Campbell, Australia
- #10 – Abbey Weitzeil, USA
- #13 – Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong (expected)
- #14 – Emma McKeon, Australia
- #15 – Arina Surkova, Russia
- #16 – Bronte Campbell, Australia
- #17 – Olivia Wunsch, Australia
- #18 – Mollie O’Callaghan, Australia
- #19 – Taylor Ruck, Canada (expected)
Plus no Marrit Steenbergen, who was in the final at last year’s World Championships.
While there is still plenty of quality at the top of this field, that means there are precious-few swimmers who are more than a surprising drop from getting into the fray.
Meg Harris, 22, is having a good year and has progressed nicely into these Olympics. She swam a best time of 24.26 to finish 2nd at the Australian Olympic Trials in June. In May 2023, she swam 24.29. In July 2022, she swam 24.32. She seems to shave a few hundredths off ever year, but the drops aren’t coming in big chunks yet.
Michelle Coleman, 30, is Sjostrom’s countrymate, and while she hasn’t been a best time since 2019, she continues to find a way into finals at meets like the World Championships and the Olympics. She was 7th at Worlds last year, and her 24.48 from the Mare Nostrum in early June is already close to the 24.43 she swam there.
The French pair are both building nicely into their home Olympics. This is one of the few events where there was a real battle for Olympic spots at French Nationals, and Beryl Gastaldello, 29, came out on top with a personal best of 24.51. Melanie Henique, 31, was 2nd in 24.53.
The adrenaline will be pumping in front of a home crowd, so it wouldn’t be hard to see either of them pop off something big in the semi-finals and find their way into a final, perhaps using their best swim a round too early.
The most intriguing of this group is Britain’s Anna Hopkin. The 28-year-old is hitting that age where we’ve seen some of these sprinters find new life. Her best time of 24.34 was done at the 2019 World Championships, and while she hasn’t been better than 24.5 since, she has been close to her best time several times – including 24.51s in both April 2023 and early 2024. It continues to nag me that we never truly saw her best in long course, though at only 1.65m (about 5’5″), she did go far in long course, where most shorter swimmers peak in the short course pool.
SwimSwam’s Picks
What’s most interesting about picking this race is that almost all of the contenders are doing their best swimming right now. While anything can happen in the 50 free, there isn’t a big presence of a swimmer past their prime trying to hold on for a medal. There are young swimmers, veteran swimmers, swimmers in mid-career – and those contenders, for the most part, are recently racing top times.
PLACE | NAME | NATION | SEASON BEST |
LIFETIME BEST
|
1 | Sarah Sjostrom | Schweden | 23.69 | 23.61WR |
2 | Kasia Wasick | Polen | 23.95 | 23.95 |
3 | Gretchen Walsh | Vereinigte Staaten | 24.06 | 24.06 |
4 | Shayna Jack | Australien | 23.99 | 23.99 |
5 | Simone Manuel | Vereinigte Staaten | 24.13 | 23.97 |
6 | Wu Qingfeng | China | 24.22 | 24.22 |
7 | Meg Harris | Australien | 24.26 | 24.26 |
8 | Zhang Yufei | China | 24.15 | 24.15 |
Darkhorse: Sarah Curtis, Italy – The 17-year-old has swum the five fastest times of her career in 2024, including a 24.56 at the Italian Championships in March. She’s kind of the one swimmer in this 24.5-or-better range who is having what I like to call “age grouper drops,” where every start is a potential best time, and Curtis is also the only one who is still, actually, a junior-aged swimmer. Italy as a nation performed very well at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. If someone is going to pop something off and earn a come-from-nowhere final, it feels like Curtis is primed for that.
When Manuel went her best time in this event she was 24.27 at trials before dropping .3 at worlds. She’s obviously in a different spot now, but I like her chances to end up on the podium with a 23.9.
I can see her on the podium… but she also never used to have to fully taper for trials while there’s no way she wasn’t 100% in this time.
She went a 24.29 at Tokyo trials before adding .3 and missing the final.
My greatest hope across all the events is a 🥇for Sarah Sjostrom in the 50 free. And a WR would be the icing on the cake! 🙏
This one is beyond nationality; Sarah for the win.
Tend to think the other two spots are a bit of a lottery but can go along with the SS selections; Wasick quite easily but Walsh a little less readily but have not been sold on Jack 2024 vintage.
In the 50s she is better than ever.
Sarah ? Absolutely !!
Jack ? Nice time at Trials but underwhelming in Doha and most everywhere else this year. Certainly has to be rated a strong medal chance (bronze pick was rather a 3 way toss-up with her, Walsh & Manuel) but I’ve never been much of a fan and her “case” is not so overwhelming so as to clinch the deal.
Jack yes, Sarah form has been good in the 50s since she was 15 years old.
AS for Jack, she trained thru Doha, but Doha gave her international experience in individual events as opposed to relays due to MOC, McKeon & Campbell sisters.
She swam her best time in Olympic trials & that is the best form guide to me.
Respect your view but I take a different line on Doha.
She already had individual experience at World level, 50FR silver in Fukuoka. Thought she didn’t handle the step up to “major/main player” on some relays particularly well.
As phenomenal a swimmer as Sjostrom is, I’m still not sure she’s the best female swimmer in history. That distinction goes to Ledecky.
Sjostroms legacy is in touch as she passes the baton to the fastest swimmer ever to swim 50SCY Gretchen Walsh.
1. Walsh
2.Sjostrom
3.Simone
So many downvotes for just an opinion.
He works hard for them.
Manuel will clutch up and get on that podium.
Sjostrom’s legacy as the greatest sprinter ever is set. But a gold at her 5th Olympics puts her unequivocally in the top tier with Fraser, Egerszegi and Ledeckey.
and Dawn Fraser
Literally the first swimmer I mentioned
I don’t think she’s unequivocally the greatest sprinter ever.
In the same sprinting events that Sjostrom held her WRs in, Inge de Brujin competed in 6 events over 2 Olympics and won 4 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze. Sjostrom has competed those events 8 times in 3 Olympics and has 1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze
This is fair – I too often forget de Bruijn. Her 56.6 felt almost as other-worldly as Mary T’s 57.9. And she did it 3 times.
She also backed up her Olympic exploits at the world champs.
And like Sjostrom, she also held all 4 LC records simultaneously.
She doesn’t have the short course CV that Sarah has – but SC didn’t have the profile or history it does now.
So you’re right – Sarah does have company.
It’s very interesting to see swimmers stick around in the sport longer than they used to. Many sprinters are getting to the top of their game only with age, which is another interesting thing.
Dara Torres, Therese Alshammar, Ervin, Fratus, etc. It’s not an especially new thing.
Walsh has a big schedule? She has five days off in the middle of the meet, won’t have to swim relay prelims and nothing longer than a 100.
🥇 Sjostrom (please 🙏)
🥈 Wasick
🥉 Manuel
Yeah. 3 x 100 fly, at most 2 x 100s in relays before the 50 final. Of the big names at the meet she has one of the lightest schedules
Yeah..and plus..she should be in the free relay prelims..last year at worlds she got a free pass..huske would have done better on that final..Walsh is not a proven doubles..most probably witzel will get that 4th spot in the final..anyway Walsh should earn the spot by swimming the prelims
I was confused myself.
Like what??