Simone Manuel and Bobby Finke shine on final night of 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials
Olympic champions Simone Manuel and Bobby Finke were the winners on the final night of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in Indianapolis.
Manuel took the 50m freestyle in 24.13, two-hundredths ahead ahead of Gretchen Walsh and just outside her personal best of 24.07. It was a huge improvement of the 24.51 she swam in the semi-finals on Saturday evening. She shook her head when she saw she had won, seemingly not believing what she had just accomplished.
“I did a lot of work to get to this point," she said afterwards. "I wasn’t feeling too confident after last night. I watched a lot of races where I won, I wanted to channel that. I know I’m a winner."
Having won two golds and two silvers on her Olympic debut at Rio 2016 - including sharing 100m freestyle gold with Canada's Penny Oleksiak - Manuel struggled at Tokyo 2020. She suffered from overtraining syndrome throughout the trials before collecting bronze with the 4x100m freestyle relay team.
For Paris 2024, the 27-year-old has secured a quota* in the 50 free - where she will aim to go one better than in Rio - and will be part of the 4x100 free relay squad alongside Walsh, who broke the world record holder for the 100m butterfly earlier in the week.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Bobby Finke to defend Olympic distance titles
Bobby Finke dominated the 1500m freestyle on Sunday to all but ensure he will defend his Olympic title in Paris.
After winning the 800m on Tuesday, the 24-year-old completed a trials double as he took a substantial early lead in the longer distance. He touched the wall first in 14:40.28, more than 12 seconds ahead of the battle for second where David Johnston just got the better of Luke Whitlock.
Finke was a surprise gold medallist in the 800 and 1500 free in Tokyo, and has now secured Paris quotas for both races.
The last swimming finals were followed by the announcement of the entire Paris Olympic team nominated by USA Swimming. This includes the athletes who were confirmed later in the week because they took second in their race, as well as fifth and sixth place finishers in relay squads who were only added once other quotas were satisfied.
The full U.S. team is:
Women’s team
Phoebe Bacon
Katharine Berkoff
Erika Connolly
Kate Douglass
Erin Gemmell
Katie Grimes
Torri Huske
Lilly King
Katie Ledecky
Paige Madden
Simone Manuel
Anna Peplowski
Alex Shackell
Regan Smith
Alex Walsh
Gretchen Walsh
Emma Weber
Abby WeitzeilClaire Weinstein
Emma Weyant
Men’s team
Jack Alexy
Hunter Armstrong
Shaine Casas
Brooks Curry
Caeleb Dressel
Matt Fallon
Nick Fink
Bobby Finke
Carson Foster
Chris Guiliano
Thomas Heilman
Ryan Held
Luke Hobson
David Johnson
Keaton Jones
Chase Kalisz
Drew Kibler
Matt King
Josh Matheny
Ryan Murphy
Blake Pieroni
Luca Urlando
Aaron Shackell
Kieran Smith
Charlie Swanson
Luke Whitlock