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2022 US Open Water Nationals: 15 Year-Old Olympian Katie Grimes Wins 10k

2022 US Open Water National Championships

Though it’s April Fools, this is no joke! Katie Grimes (SAND) is your women’s 10k National Champion. The Tokyo pool Olympian finished 6 laps around the Fort Myers Beach course ahead of Mariah Denigan and France’s Carolina Jouisse.

The conditions appeared to be extremely rough as cloudy skies, high winds, and massive waves could be seen throughout the swimmer’s course.

2022 US Open Water Nationals Top 8 Finishers – Women’s 10k

  1. Katie Grimes – 2:16.40
  2. Mariah Denigan – 2:17.50
  3. Caroline Jouisse (FRA) – 2:18.34
  4. Aurelie Muller (FRA) – 2:21:01
  5. Summer D Smith – 2:21:07
  6.  Caroline Pou (FRA) 2:21:44
  7.  Anna R Auld – 2:21:50
  8. Kensey McMahon – 2:22:00

It was actually Grimes’ Sandpipers and Olympic teammate Erica Sullivan who took the early lead over the entire field through the first 3 laps.  Grimes was hanging onto the 2nd spot, and made her move heading into the 4th lap. Grimes would maintain her lead through the final 3 laps to win the event.

Sullivan, who won the women’s 10k last year, faded out of the top 3 finishers.

The event will serve as a selection meet for the 2022 US Open Water National Team, as well as the perks and funding that go along with that status. The top 6 finishers in the 10k will automatically earn a spot on the National Team, which means that Grimes and Denigan have both qualified for the National Team. This is Grimes’ 1st Open Water National Team appearance.

This week’s meet also serves as a selection event for the 2022 World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships, set for September 1st-4th in Beau Vallon, Seychelles.

Grimes’ swim earns her a spot on both the 2022 US Open Water National Team and Junior Team, as well as a roster spot on the 2022 FINA World Junior Open Water Championships which will take place in Beau Vallon, Seychelles.

We’ll have to wait until the end of the meet for the selection of the 2022-2023 US Open Water National Team and 2022 World Championship Team, as these both follow a points-based system throughout the National Championships.

The 2022 Open Water National Championships didn’t include the United States’ two female open water Olympians, Haley Anderson and Ashley Twitchell. Anderson announced her retirement yesterday, and Twitchell is expecting her first child in 2022. This would’ve been their 13th-consecutive appearance at the US Open Water Nationals.

Full results are not yet available, but we will update as they are published.

 

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Eney Jones
2 years ago

Typo Fort Myers*

Pacific Whirl
2 years ago

She’s 16 for 2 months.

Yozhik
2 years ago

Who do you think was USA hope in long distance events in spring of 2012? If you think it was Katie Ledecky then your are very wrong. It was 14 years old prodigy Rebecca Mann. She is a half of a year younger than Ledecky and was then already under 8:30 in 800 FR. And then she shifted her focus to the Open water competition. The competition in the pool was soon forgotten.
One cannot sit on two chairs… These two sport exercises are different and require honing different skill set.

Last edited 2 years ago by Yozhik
SCCOACH
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

This is nonsense

Yozhik
Reply to  SCCOACH
2 years ago

Sure, tell it to Katie Ledecky that she is missing a bunch of gold medals not competing in open water.

SCCOACH
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

Katie Ledecky doesn’t train open water. You make no sense. It seems like you have a mental block where you think that if one person has success doing something a certain way then everyone should do the exact same thing. People are different. Training everyone in open water isn’t going to work for everyone, training everyone like Katie Ledecky isn’t going to work for everyone

Yozhik
Reply to  SCCOACH
2 years ago

What do you think chances are of Formula 1 super power car in competition on rough terrain?

DLswim
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

This is one of Yozhik’s worst takes, and that’s saying something.

Yozhik
Reply to  DLswim
2 years ago

Stay tuned, more lovely takes to come 😀

Mike
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

I think Ron trained Erica Sullivan from the time that she was 13 also swimming every open water national championships and any international opportunities available and she ended up doing pretty well in the pool last summer. So I believe Katie Grimes will probably be ok as well.

Yozhik
Reply to  Mike
2 years ago

Mike, the beauty of such discussion is that there is no such a thing in the history of coaching like “What if” game. We will never know what would happen to Erica if her coach didn’t do it and trained her exceptionally in the pool letting her swim in the ocean for enjoyment of bathing in salt water only.
We don’t know what would happen to Michael Phelps should he have different coach. Maybe nothing different, maybe better, maybe worse.
Neither my example with Becca Mann nor your example with Erica prove anything. But it was nice talking to you. And you know why? Because there were no “personal attack” arguments.
I was really impressed other day… Read more »

SCCOACH
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

You won’t get a powerful conversation when you post a terrible take with no actual personal knowledge on what you are talking about.

You watched Becca Mann slow down in the pool and thrive in open water swimming, so Katie Grimes shouldn’t do open water swimming. You realize how ridiculous that sounds.

Pvdh
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

Did someone piledrive your head onto concrete or something?

McKeown-Hodges-McKeon-Campbell
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

yozhik is clearly running out of material when his target is someone from 10 years ago

Yozhik
Reply to  McKeown-Hodges-McKeon-Campbell
2 years ago

Long time no see 😀
I observed very interesting group behaviour. When our subdivision is visited by coyotes and one of the pet dogs notice her then all dogs begin barking even they don’t see or smell her. Same does my dog. But when I walked him once unleashed and he suddenly met young coyote face to face there was complete silence with the indecisive pause on both sides. I rushed to intervene taking my dog on leash making two of us against her. And she departed peacefully. Oh, and then my dog began barking inviting all other neighbouring dogs to join him.

Last edited 2 years ago by Yozhik
SCCOACH
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

So we are the dogs and you are the coyote that posts bizarre, verging on creepy things always about female swimmers

swimfast
Reply to  Yozhik
2 years ago

First part was somewhat factual, but no, most open water swimmers don’t train open water whatsoever. I’m sure something else happened in Becca’s life that led to what you mentioned, but it certainly was not putting an emphasis on open water. The open water national championships are literally nothing more than a turn-less pool race with some jockeying and a very long distance. The Sandpipers probably train for their 400s the same way they would for a 10K. They’re an age group club team; and in America, that usually means lots of distance sets. Contrary to popular belief- there are probably many more swimmers in the US that are perfectly prepared to swim a 10K, just most aren’t willing to… Read more »

Last edited 2 years ago by swimfast
Sandra
2 years ago

Yay Caroline!

Inside Smoke
2 years ago

Name ✍️ future ✍️ daughter ✍️ Katie ✍️ So ✍️ she’s ✍️ good ✍️ at ✍️ distance ✍️ swimming ✍️

Sherry Smit
2 years ago

Who were the top 6 USA ?

Swimmer
Reply to  Sherry Smit
2 years ago

Want to know too. It looked like Sullivan left during lap 4 and DF but the stream was awful so I can’t really tell

OldSwimmer
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Word is Sullivan injured her shoulder on a big wave. Still no full results hours later? What is USA Swimming doing?

Melanie
2 years ago

16 Y/O

Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

Congrats but I fear she will not reach her full potential in the pool by also focusing on open water.

ACC
Reply to  Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

I feel like with an Olympic silver medal at age 15, she and her coaches probably know what they’re doing.

Swimmer
Reply to  ACC
2 years ago

Grimes didn’t win any medal in Tokyo, I think you’re confusing her with Bella Sims

ACC
Reply to  Swimmer
2 years ago

Whoops, I was looking at the prelims results. Still, fourth at the Olympics at 15 isn’t something to sneeze at.

Jensen
Reply to  Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

The Sandpipers’ coaches are doing just fine with their program. Thank you very much.

oxyswim
Reply to  Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

An Olympic gold medal is an Olympic gold medal if it’s won in the pool or open water and she’s got the capability to win this in Paris. Romanchuk and Ous Mellouli have shown that it’s possible to excel at both simultaneously. I’m sure there’s very little they do differently in training to prepare for these events.

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

Lol I like that the only comments we get from Bobo now are the horrible takes.

Last edited 2 years ago by Steve Nolan
Becky D
Reply to  Steve Nolan
2 years ago

Conspiracy theory: He’s an imposter

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Becky D
2 years ago

Oh no, as oxyswim said the most common takes were the bad takes. (But now there’s not 10,000 other words about an age group meet to distract ya.)

Last edited 2 years ago by Steve Nolan
oxyswim
Reply to  Steve Nolan
2 years ago

The most common Bobo takes were always that swimming in the 25 yard “bathtub” is a waste of time, and that prodigious talents need to only focus on one event to reach their capabilities.

Last edited 2 years ago by oxyswim
HulkSwim
Reply to  oxyswim
2 years ago

His buddy Destin Lasco has certainly gone the other way, and seems to be doing OK

swimfast
Reply to  HulkSwim
2 years ago

and the whole UVA women’s team

DLswim
Reply to  oxyswim
2 years ago

And don’t forget that you need to economize in the prelims.

Pvdh
Reply to  oxyswim
2 years ago

Bobo’s philosophy was shook the second Dressel went 50.0 in the prelims of 100 fly at 2017 Budapest worlds. He hasn’t quite recovered since.

Last edited 2 years ago by Pvdh
Aquajosh
Reply to  oxyswim
2 years ago

My favorite was when he was losing his mind over Dressel swimming like eight events at a Sectionals meet during the summer after his freshman year. The 50 was the only event he finaled in that year, so it was clear that it was less about the events and more about Troy training him to swim fast on quick turnarounds. Bobo was just incredulous that a sprint freestyler was swimming the 200 IM and 100 breast.

…..And then he built his endurance and learned how to swim fast on quick turnarounds and went on to win everything in sight.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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