Paris Olympics, Day 4 Prelims: Jack Alexy Tops Field in 100 Freestyle; Kyle Chalmers Chasing History
The list of the athletes who have been crowned Olympic champion in the men’s 100-meter freestyle reads like a who’s-who in the annals of the sport. Alfred Hajos. Duke Kahanamoku. Johnny Weissmuller. Mark Spitz. Alexander Popov. Pieter van den Hoogenband. And those names account for just a selection of the legends who have excelled in this showcase event.
Who will join them?
The path toward determining the next Olympic titlist in the 100 freestyle opened on Tuesday morning at La Defense Arena, with American Jack Alexy pacing the field into the semifinals with a time of 47.57. The silver medalist in the event at the 2023 World Championships, Alexy split 22.69 going out and came home in 24.88.
“Just going in there with pretty low emotion for a prelim swim, with the goal of just making it back. I think I did a good job of building that first 75 and closing really well. Just looking forward to racing tonight and doing some things and getting it done,” Alexy said. “Right now, I’m just focused on what I need to do from now until eight, nine o’clock tonight. Stay in my process, and I’ll be good.”
Alexy was followed into the evening semifinals by Frenchman Maxime Grousset (47.70) and Romania’s David Popovici (47.92), who claimed gold in the 200 freestyle the previous night. Hungary’s Nandor Nemeth was the other man to crack the 48-second barrier, going 47.93 to place ahead of the Cayman Islands’ Jordan Crooks (48.01).
Advancing as the No. 6 seed for the semifinals was Aussie Kyle Chalmers, the Olympic champion in 2016 and the silver medalist three years ago in Tokyo. Chalmers is the veteran of the group and will try to join Kahanamoku and Popov in the club of triple medalists in the event. Kahanamoku was the gold medalist at the 1912 and 1920 Games, before earning the silver medal in 1924. Popov claimed titles in 1992 and 1996, before grabbing silver at the 2000 Games. Clearly, Chalmers is flirting with elite company.
“It was good, did the job. Obviously pretty good being in heat 10, being able to watch the first nine heats and watch everyone else swim and then have the world-record holder in pretty stacked heat. All I had to do was win my heat, but it did the job,” Chalmers said. “It’s a mind game, really. For me, I knew that I was ahead, so I knew I could back off and not really push as hard that second 50, so that’s all that really matters.”
Also moving on were American Chris Guiliano (48.25) in eighth and Canadian Josh Liendo, who tied for 10th with Serbia’s Andrej Barna at 48.34. Great Britain’s Matt Richards and Chinese world-record holder Pan Zhanle shared 13th with Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic in 48.40.
