2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Live results
Canada’s Penny Oleksiak, 19, has pulled out of the women’s 100m freestyle at 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju. Oleksiak is the reigning Olympic co-champion in the distance, having tied with Simone Manuel in the final at Rio in 2016. Oleksiak’s 52.70 established World Junior, Olympic, and Americas, the latter two shared with Manuel. She also won medals in the 100 fly (silver), 4×100 free (bronze), and 4×200 free (bronze) in Rio.
Swimming Canada confirmed in an email the Oleksiak has withdrawn from the 100 free with a prepared statement from High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson:
“The three goals for Penny coming into the meet were to help Canada win medals in the relays, to get back to being in world individual finals, and get back to performing best times. In the first four days of this meet, she’s achieved all three of those goals, including helping us win our first medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay since 1978. With four more events in the last four days of the meet, particularly with the 4×200 freestyle relay being today, Penny and the performance staff have decided together that she will not swim the 100 freestyle at this competition.”
Oleksiak was entered in the 100 free, 200 free and 50 fly. She finaled in the 200 free on Wednesday, placing sixth with a time of 1:56.59. She went a personal-best 1:56.41 in the semi-final.
Sooooo… Penny drops a 154.3 to bring the Canadians into bronze… Taylor was off what she did last year, if Taylor was near her 154.2 from a year ago the Canadians are right there making it a 3 way trace down the stretch… Awesome to see Emily O back to that level. Watch out for this 4 some in a year!
And this excuses her scratching the event she was Olympic champion in because…
Semifinals are causing issues with extra unnecessary swims
*ducks*
I would have thrown a brick in your general direction in the past, but I think it’s a legitimate question whether semi’s, and the schedule/workload conflicts they contribute to, are necessary, especially at WC’s where you have both mixed relays and stroke 50s.
We don’t know the whole story obviously but at face value the Canadian coaches are making themselves look pretty incompetent with entering swimmers in programs they can’t handle, late scratches, not putting the fastest team together in the mixed medley. Maybe swimmers are sick and can’t do things, there is no shame in saying you are sick, but if it is just the reasons they put in the press release, these are things that you would think could be handled in a way that reflects the importance of the competition.
Mixed medley I agree. Masse is awesome but should have been:
Thormayer- at 53.5 5 sec clear of Masse plus ‘in the race’
Funk – weakest link but did his job well breaking 100, still in the race
MacNeil – in the race near the leaders, mostly women on fly, cleaner water to work with
Ruck or Oleksiak- Ruck 4 sec behind Kisil, nothing against him, did his job going 47 high. But math adds up.
This relay as Olympic event should get way more priority over mixed free even if Can might do better in that.
The 2 scratches while optically disappointing were likely necessary for the success of the 4*2, Penny’s 1:54 split certainly illustrated that.
FINA could look at the scheduling too for future events. Not every team has 8 swimmers they can use in relays – especially when they add 2 new mixed events (plus extra distance events at the Olympics. It’s sensible for smaller teams with medal chances – like CAN & AUS – to manage their squads in a challenging schedule especially when sudden withdrawals, sickness or injury can further reduce available numbers In many countries, medals at World Champs (at least in Olympic events) can determine funding of the sport in the future.
Yes yes and yes.
I realise it’s a bit apples and oranges but the 100/200 track athlete is also in the 4*1, and if a generational talent maybe the 4*4, but not also the 4*2, the mixed 4*1, and the 400/200/100/100 mixed distance race 😆, plus the 60 hurdles…
Well in track & field, competitors are limited to three individual events at a World or Olympic Champs.
Then how did Carl Lewis and Marion Jones and Flo Jo win 4 medals? “Extra” help aside🤔😁
Harsh comments…criticize the situation, not the swimmer. Likely not her sole decision. She had 3 hard 200s the previous 36 hrs, never done that internationally, and a 4th today for the relay which CAN can possibly give a push to the US and AUS if all the girls fire. Tough schedule with the 100 free right after the 200, so deep that she would’ve had to go all in to get to the semis and into finals. Challenge for relay Gold? Or challenge to make finals? I agree would’ve been nice to plan a bit earlier to get Sanchez or Smith another swim, however I think they would also take a fresh Penny to help climb the relay podium any… Read more »
I’m not sure if Penny had much say in the decision today to skip the 100. So most of the criticism is being directed at the coaching team, not Penny.
U really think the athletes doesn’t give a thumbs up or down in the end? Sad if that’s true. I want the athletes controlling more of their sport. Coaches and other staff should be there to give athletes advice just like they do in training.
I do agree, but I really would like to see these athletes assert more control over their swimming careers. They put in the time and work and should know if they are ready to race. Coaches aren’t God. At the end of all the swimmers wear these decisions.
I think a lot of people want to believe they will swim fast once the time comes but this is not a game of chance. The reality is if you don’t put in the work and follow the process you will not get the results. It really shouldn’t be a surprise when you aren’t ready to race on the big day or you don’t get the time or placing you had… Read more »
Well none of us on this board really know. Maybe it was Penny’s call, maybe she expressed fatigue residue and decided to be a team player to be as sharp as possible for the relay.
And yes of course Kayla or Magee likely would have enjoyed another event, I do support the idea of allowing changes last min if swimmers are qualified suggested earlier. But to suggest either was a shoe in for finals with that stacked field as a bit much, if either dropped to 53 low with swim of their life then maybe. I’m sure the plan was to swim thru initially but regretfully plans change. In 7hrs if they are on the 3rd, maybe 2nd step… Read more »
If they swim her in the mixed free relay, I’m gonna be like (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
She will almost certainly be in the mixed free relay
I appreciate your creativity
So strange. While her schedule is busy, it’s not that excessive. She only had two individual events — the 100 and 200 free, with the 200 already over. And two of the relays are over. And she probably will only swim the preliminaries for the women’s medley, as MacNeill will swim the finals.
If they were so concerned about load management, then she should have dropped finals of 200.
This just seems overly cautious.
Or even better prepared for the load management by training and swimming heavy schedules at other meets during the year. This is not a surprise that she can’t manage the heavy program. The writing was on the wall for months.
I am sure we would like all swimmers to swim their stronger swims. Primarily, they likely want to be strongest in the events they do swim. No point in swimming events if your are tired. Which likely means not doing all of them. It also means dropping some events as the meet progressed depending on how things are going. The rules allow for that and working within those rules is just good management.
What about letting someone else like Kayla or Rebecca get an opportunity to swim? Taking away someone’s else chance to swim is not cool. Don’t swim the event at trails if you aren’t going to swim at the meet. They are healthy – just not prepared properly! Swim Canada should take action then