Paris Olympics, Day 3 Prelims: Emma Weyant, Katie Grimes 1-2 in 400 IM Prelims With Summer McIntosh Cruising

Emma Weyant -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Paris Olympics, Day 3 Prelims: Emma Weyant, Katie Grimes 1-2 in 400 IM Prelims With Summer McIntosh Cruising

Entering the Olympic Games, Summer McIntosh owned a personal-best time seven seconds ahead of anyone else entered in the women’s 400 IM. She is one of just two swimmers to break 4:30 in recent years, and the other, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown, skipped the event at her country’s Olympic Trials. McIntosh, meanwhile, broke her world record in May with a time of 4:24.38. In this event, she is considered one of the few gold-medal locks all week in Paris.

Two days after capturing her first Olympic medal (a silver) in the women’s 400 free, McIntosh entered the pool in heat two, lane four for the 400 IM and took control of her heat right away, only to significantly back off down the stretch. No need to exert herself amid a busy schedule that will also include the 200 butterfly, 200 IM and multiple relays, and McIntosh’s freestyle leg looked plenty relaxed as she did just enough to win her heat.

McIntosh clocked 4:37.35, a whopping 13 seconds away from her own world record. That time will actually not be the quickest qualifying time as prior to McIntosh’s entry into the pool, the two American representatives starred in heat one of the event.

World Record: Summer McIntosh, CAN – 4:24.38
Olympic Record: Katinka Hosszu, HUN – 4:26.36
Tokyo Olympic Champion: Yui Ohashi, Japan – 4:32.08

Katie Grimes, the 18-year-old who earned silver behind McIntosh at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, blasted out to a lead of two bodylengths in the butterfly and backstroke races, but in a result all too familiar for many would-be individual medley standouts, Grimes struggled on breaststroke as the field caught up.

As Grimes clocked 1:24.66 on breaststroke, Great Britain’s Freya Colbert went 1:21.01 to take over the lead while Grimes’ American teammate Emma Weyant recorded a split of 1:20.02. On freestyle, Weyant used that momentum to pull ahead and win the heat in 4:36.27. That held up for the top qualifying time of the morning, and Weyant will be aiming for a return to the Olympic podium after taking silver behind Japan’s Yui Ohashi three years ago in Tokyo.

Grimes, who has captured World Championship medals in both the 1500 free and 10-kilometer open water swim, pulled back into second place at 4:37.24, and no one beat that time in the last heat, so she has lane five for the final. Colbert, who won gold at a lightly-attended World Championships in February, claimed third in the heat at 4:37.62, good for the fourth-best time overall.

Japan’s Mio Narita, 17, closed down on the relaxed McIntosh in the last heat, and she finished fifth overall in 4:37.84. Australia’s Ella Ramsay took sixth in 4:39.04, with Ireland’s Ellen Walshe (4:39.97) and Great Britain’s Katie Shanahan (4:40.40) rounding out the final. That meant the denial of spots in the final to 2023 Worlds bronze medalist Jenna Forrester (ninth, 4:40.55) and the swimmers ranked fourth and fifth in the world, respectively: Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko (10th, 4:41.64) and Hungary’s Vivien Jackl (14th, 4:44.47)

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