Women’s Edition

The 2022 USA Swimming International Team Trials are on a unique timeline by American swimming standards. Though April trials meets coming out of the NCAA Championships are common internationally, in the U.S., athletes usually have at least a few months to regroup before setting out again for another taper meet.

This is also an opportunity for some athletes as well. Those collegiate swimmers who have exhausted their eligibility don’t have as difficult of a decision to make about hanging on for another month, just to see what happens.

We’ve compiled a list of swimmers who would have been high seeds and probable A-Finalists in at least one event who are absent entirely from the psych sheets. Not just absent in an event, but not participating at all.

Who is included in this list:

• Swimmers who have not competed since the 2021 US Olympic Trials. We recognize that many of these athletes are probably retired, and that they may have told their friends and teammates that they are retired, but they have not announced it publicly, so we won’t jump to any conclusions.
• Swimmers who may be skipping the meet because they just completed their collegiate seasons.
• Swimmers who are injured, but who we have not reported their injuries yet.

Who is not included in this list:

• Swimmers who have announced their retirements.
• Swimmers about whom we’ve published reports on their injuries (i.e. Paige McKenna).

Swimmers Coming Out of the NCAA Season

• Kelly Pash, Texas – #8 seed in the 100 fly, #6 seed in the 200 fly (Still with one season of eligibility remaining at Texas, this one was a surprise. Pash has been swimming very well, and there’s an opportunity to grab a spot on the team in her best event, the 200 fly. After a good college season, she finished 2nd at the PSS-San Antonio meet in the 200 fly in 2:09.21).
• Erica Sullivan, Texas – #4 seed in the 400 free, #4 seed in the 800 free, #2 seed in the 1500 free (the Olympic silver medalist’s absence is the biggest news from an international perspective. There was some conversation coming out of Open Water Nationals a few weeks back that Sullivan injured her elbow, but Sullivan has not responded to SwimSwam’s questions on the subject).
• Gillian Davey, Kentucky – #5 seed in the 200 breast (Davey has crept into the national scene with two straight seasons with big collegiate performances, including finishing 5th in the 200 breaststroke at NCAAs last year. She could have been one of the surprises of this meet).
• Evie Pfeifer, Texas – #4 seed in the 400 IM, #9 seed in the 200 IM (With no Melanie Margalis entry, the 400 IM has opened up. Pfeifer couldn’t match her best times in her best events during her 5th year of eligibility at Texas
• Lillie Nordmann – #11 seed in the 100 fly, (the 4th-place finisher at NCAAs in the 200 free and 2019-2021 U.S. National Team member was a viable contender for an 800 free relay spot after improving her 200 free by almost exactly a second in her first season of collegiate swimming. Her sister Lucie is also absent from the meet).

Post-Grads

• Catie DeLoof – #7 seed in the 100 free, #8 seed in the 50 free (One of the most surprising names on this list, she raced as recently as January and signed an endorsement with Mizuno less than a month ago. She won a bronze medal at the Olympics last summer).
• Ali DeLoof – #8 seed in the 100 back (Had a very good ISL season for the DC Trident, and with $36,325 earned, was the 47th-best earner in the league even without her team qualifying for the final. She swam one long course meet since then, in January).
• Kathleen Baker – #8 seed in the 100 back, #6 seed in the 200 back, #3 seed in the 200 IM (she swam during the ISL season and at the SMOC, on a relay, in March, after an injury-plagued Olympic Trials run last year. She’s getting married in June.)
• Aly Tetzloff – #8 seed in the 100 fly (the 100 fly is a tough race, but Tetzloff would’ve had an outside shot at winning the 50 fly. She swam most recently at the Speedo Sectionals meet in Cary in mid-March after completing the ISL season. Earlier this year, Tetzloff said that delays in payments from the ISL were making it hard to stay in the sport financially).

Swimmers Who Have Started ‘Other Things’

Like jobs, graduate degrees, etc.

• Katie Drabot, Stanford – #8 seed in the 200 fly (Started a job as an advanced clinical associate in January, end-dated her time as a professional athlete on LinkedIn for December).
• Taylor Pike, Texas A&M – #10 seed in the 200 fly (Started a master’s degree in English, hasn’t raced since 2021 Trials)

Post-Grads Who Haven’t Raced Since the 2021 US Olympic Trials/Olympic Games

• Simone Manuel (Manuel still hasn’t raced since the 2020 Olympic Games, where she tied for 11th in the 50 after facing overtraining syndrome. Simone, her agent, and the Tennessee coaching staff, where she was spotted in a weight room recently, have been silent about her plans for the future in the water).
• Allison Schmitt
• Ally McHugh
• Katie McLaughlin
• Emma Barksdale

Juniors

• Zoe Dixon, NOVA of Virginia – #10 seed in the 200 IM (she swam most recently in March at NCSA Juniors. While it would’ve taken a big drop to catch Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh in the 200 IM, she would have been a front-runner for the Jr. Pan Pacs team).
• Mariah Denigan, Lakeside Swim Team – #4 seed in the 1500 free (Denigan is a member of the US National Team and raced at Open Water Nationals last month. She earned a spot there on the team for the World Junior Open Water Championships in the 10km race, and it appears that will be her focus for the summer).
• Claire Tuggle, Santa Maria Swim Club – #9 seed in the 400 free, #14 seed in the 200 free (The age group wunderkind had a good shot at the Junior Pan Pacs team, at least, and would have been within striking range of the 800 free relay at Worlds too. Her best 200 free is a 1:58.21 from 2019 at just 15.