Becca Mann to Attack the Same Gnarly Schedule as 2012 Olympic Trials

2016 U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS

• Sunday, June 26 – Sunday, July 3, 2016
• CenturyLink Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• SwimSwam Preview Links & Schedule
• NBC Broadcast Schedule
• Psych Sheets

Becca Mann is used to swimming long events, and swimming a lot of them. And that’s exactly what she’ll do at Olympic Trials next week.

As a 14-year-old, Mann appeared in three finals at the 2012 Olympic Trials. She was 5th in the 400 and 800 free and 6th in the 400 free, and actually had the exact same schedule as she has for this year’s Trials: 200/400/800 free, 200/400 IM, and 200 fly.

That’s 2200 meters just for prelims. Mann scratched the 200 IM in 2012, so if she scratches that again, it takes down her prelims swimming to a paltry 2000 meters. As if.

Mann is one of the top contenders for an Olympic team spot in the 800 free with Katie Ledecky. Luckily for her, for that event (as well as the 400 IM and 400 free), there are no semifinals, just prelims and finals. She is incredibly capable of making the final for those three events again, and considering that she made the 200 fly semifinals last time around, that looks to be four more swims in addition to her prelims swims.

In total, she’s looking at the 2000 meters from prelims in addition to 1800 from expected semifinals and finals for the 200 fly, 400 IM, 400 free, and 800 free. Let’s do some addition here:

• Add 200 if she makes the 200 fly final.
• Add 200 if she makes the 200 free semis and another if she makes the final in that.
• Add 200 (and add it again and maybe another time) if she goes ahead with the 200 IM and makes it past prelims and possibly semis.

She’s probably looking at 3800 meters of hardcore racing for the week, with potentially 1200 more if she goes to finals in her other events.

Fortunately, Mann was the 2015 10K Open Water National Champion. 3800 meters is nothin’.