U.S. Nationals: Erin Gemmell Goes Wire-to-Wire for First National Title in 400 Freestyle
In the Nationals final of the women’s 200 free, Erin Gemmell officially announced her elite abilities as she placed second behind Katie Ledecky, entering the top-10 in the world and swimming a time that would have been good enough for bronze in the event at the recent World Championships. Now, with Ledecky absent from the field in the 400 freestyle, Gemmell took advantage and clinched a national title of her own after a dominant performance.
Gemmell considers the 200 free her best event, and she showed some speed as she jumped out to a lead of almost a second at the 100-meter mark. By the halfway point, her split was 2:01.39, and the margin was 1.38 seconds over Cavan Gormsen. Gemmell went out so fast because she knows no other way to swim the 400 free. “Before I got better at the 400, I got better at the 200, and at the time, the only way for me to swim that was to sprint and die, so I just kind of took that same strategy and extended it to fit the 400, and if the end is painful, so be it,” she said.
From there, the 17-year-old had plenty left in the tank to hold the field at bay. She finished in 4:06.17, crushing her best time of 4:08.69 set in prelims (a mark that was already a second faster than her previous best time). Just like after the 200 free, Gemmell admitted that it felt weird to be recognized as one of the nation’s best.
“It’s so strange to me to be a national champion,” Gemmell said. “I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet. I don’t know. It means that today I swam really well, but that’s not the end of the road. There are a lot of other opportunities to race, and there are a lot of people that aren’t here, and I’m excited to keep going.”
Gormsen was in second place for the entire race, and she held off a charging Kensey McMahon over the last 100 meters. Gormsen touched in 4:08.38, beating her previous best time by a second-and-a-half, while McMahon dropped eight tenths from her best as she took third in 4:08.57.
Gemmell will perhaps always share a connection to Ledecky, who she met a decade ago when her father, Bruce, took over the recently-crowned Olympic gold medalist in the 800 free. Right away, Gemmell admired Ledecky, and as a third-grader, Gemmell dressed up as the distance star for Halloween. Years later, Gemmell took steps toward joining Ledecky as an internationally-ranked swimmer while training with her father, just as Ledecky did during her teenage years. Gemmell came so close at the U.S. International Team Trials, when she missed the World Championships team as a relay swimmer by one spot. Now, her 200 free ranks her 10th in the world this year, and this 400 free ranks 13th. Among Americans, Gemmell is fourth for 2022 behind Ledecky, Leah Smith and Katie Grimes.
From the days of playing dress-up to Gemmell’s own swimming breakthrough, Ledecky has been an inspiration and not necessarily because of her remarkable world records and her many gold medals. Rather, Gemmell has observed how Ledecky trains when she returns home to visit her family and how she carries herself, and those qualities were the ones most worth emulating.
“When she comes home to see her family or during Christmas, she’s always putting in all the work in practice. I can see that this is what it’s like when someone is really putting the work in, and I need to put that sort of work in if I want to be that speed,” Gemmell said. “She’s always so humble and gracious about everything. Even when she comes back and visits my high school and her high school, she’s always so nice to everyone and always seems like she genuinely wants to be there and talking to you if she’s talking to you, and I love that.”
