U.S. Olympic Trials: Dream Swim in 100 Breast Lands Emma Weber Olympic Berth

Lilly King, left, and Emma Weber; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

U.S. Olympic Trials: Dream Swim in 100 Breast Lands Emma Weber Olympic Berth

Leave it to Lilly King, elder stateswoman of American breaststroke and in many ways the moral compass of the American program at large, to sum it up perfectly Monday night.

King had just qualified for her third Olympics by winning the 100 breaststroke at U.S. Olympic Trials. Yes, she was devastated that Lydia Jacoby, the gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in the 100 breast, didn’t qualify to defend her crown in Paris. But in the same breath, King was ecstatic to see Emma Weber vault into the echelon of Olympians.

“That’s how this meet rolls,” King said. “It will make your career or break your career in a minute. It’s the hardest meet in the world. It’s a lot harder than the Olympics, in my opinion.”

Monday night, it made Weber’s career. Or rather, in 1 minute, 6.10 seconds, she fashioned a new headline for her career.

“I’m actually at a loss for words right now,” Weber said. “I looked up, and I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s right.’ It’s an amazing feeling. It’s a tribute to my whole team because I couldn’t have done it without the UVA girls. It’s amazing.”

Weber is the latest among many tributes to what UVA swimming has achieved under Todd DeSorbo. She didn’t exactly come out of nowhere, but compared to Jacoby or Alex Walsh, she was perhaps not the betting favorite for a ticket to Paris.

The Colorado native attended Regis Jesuit High School, Missy Franklin’s alma mater, where she was a state champion and a U.S. junior national teamer. She went 1:08.18 for 12th place at Olympic Trials in 2021, then placed eighth in the 100 breast at NCAAs as a freshman for the Cavaliers’ national titlists. She was 11th in that event this year after two A finals at ACCs.

So if Weber was struck Monday night by the unlikely nature of what she accomplished, she wasn’t alone.

“No, actually I had no idea,” she said when asked if she thought it possible. “I thought I could have been capable because of the people I’m surrounded with every day in practice. Going into it, I was like, ‘I have one of the best training groups in the country for breaststroke. Maybe it’s a possibility.’”

Weber has showed glimpses of that speed this year. She went 1:07.39 at nationals in 2023, but sped up to 1:06.50 at the TYR Pro Swim Series in San Antonio in April. That was the swim that indicated to DeSorbo that something was brewing.

“She had nothing to lose,” DeSorbo said Tuesday. “A year ago, nobody knew who Emma Weber was. … We had a feeling she was going to have a shot coming into the meet, but to be able to keep your composure, to do that in that type of situation, it’s unreal.”

Weber is the third member of the Charlottesville delegation to book places in Paris, with Paige Madden and Gretchen Walsh. Kate Douglass has yet to swim, and Alex Walsh has strong events to come, each with a good chance to get on the plane. Weber said she heard DeSorbo’s voice echoing in her brain in her final preparations at Lucas Oil Stadium: “Go out there and do the best you can. Rely on what you’ve been doing in practice.”

“When you become a part of the team, you learn the belief in your teammates, and that just helps you believe in yourself,” Weber said. “We do a really good job of believing in each other, and having the ability to believe in someone else and my teammates has allowed me to have more belief in myself because I have a family that believes in me.”

The team aspect included a chance to walk off the deck surrounded by Alex Walsh, who finished sixth, and Ella Nelson, who was eighth, the UVA delegation sharing in a moment that Weber knew in part owed to their influence.

“It’s always so awesome to see someone who’s an underdog making it,” Alex Walsh said. “In Emma’s case, I think she felt the pressure being the third seed coming into this meet, and obviously to have another Virginia girl qualify is a dream come true for us as friends and for us as a program. I think her making it is just a testament to the fact that we produce really good international swimmers and also short-course swimmers. I couldn’t be prouder of her. It was just such a nice moment to have us three in that pool together.”

“They’ve been huge role models to me,” she said. “I wouldn’t have made it this far without them. Having them there made it extra special.”

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