Simone Manuel, the defending NCAA Champion in the 50 and 100 yard freestyles (including the fastest swimmer in history in the latter of those races) has decided to sit out the 2015-2016 NCAA season.
Manuel was ominously absent from the team’s first two meets, resounding in-conference wins over Washington State and Utah, leading to speculation that she might choose to sit out the season in preparation for the 2016 Olympic Trials.
Stanford diver Kassidy Cook, the NCAA runner-up on the 1-meter, will also redshirt next season. (Courtesy: Tim Binning/TheSwimPictures.com)
The news was confirmed today by Stanford head coach Greg Meehan. This makes her the third favorite for an NCAA Champion who won’t race this season for the Cardinal – World Record holder Katie Ledecky already announced that she was deferring her freshman year at Stanford to remain on the east coast and prepare for the Olympics with Bruce Gemmell; and diver Kassidy Cook has decided the same (2nd in the 1-meter at NCAA’s last year).
“After careful thought and discussion with my coaches, I have decided to redshirt and shift my focus to long-course training and competition for the upcoming year,” said Manuel, who was also named a Scholar All-America first team selection last season. “I am still training with Stanford University and will continue my journey academically. I am fortunate and grateful to be a part of the Stanford family, as we share and support each other on our journeys.”
Manuel finished the 2014-2015 NCAA season as the fastest swimmer in history in the 100 yard free (46.09) and very close to the same honor in the 50 yard free (21.32). Including relays, she earned 4 NCAA Championships, 7 All-American Honors, and 57 individual points: second-most only behind Missy Franklin at the NCAA Championships in Greensboro.
The result will be an uphill battle for the Cardinal toward a possible 2016 title – though defending champions Cal lost two of the very small handful of counter-punches to Manuel, after Abbey Weitzeil deferred her freshman year and Missy Franklin turned pro following two years of college swimming.
As valuable as Manuel is for Stanford, she could be equally as important to Team USA’s success in long course at the Olympic Games. She finished the summer tied for 10th in the world in the 100 meter free (53.81), which made her the second-fastest American behind the aforementioned Franklin.
2014-2015 LCM Women 100 Free
CAMPBELL
52.52
View Top 36»2 Femke
HEEMSKERKNED 52.69 04/04 2 Cate
CAMPBELLAUS 52.69 04/08 4 Sarah
SJOSTROMSWE 52.70 08/07 5 Ranomi
KROMOWIDJOJONED 53.17 08/07 6 Emma
McKEONAUS 53.32 05/23 7 Melanie
WRIGHTAUS 53.50 04/08 8 Brittany
ELMSLIEAUS 53.66 04/08 9 Missy
FRANKLINUSA 53.68 08/02 10 Siobhan-Marie
O'CONNORGBR 53.81 04/14 10 Simone
MANUELUSA 53.81 08/06 10 Aliaksandra
HERASIMENIABLR 53.81 07/15 13 Chantal
VAN LANDEGHEMCAN 53.83 07/14 14 Natalie
COUGHLINUSA 53.85 07/14 14 Sandrine
MAINVILLECAN 53.85 08/02
She was also the 8th-best 50 freestyler in the world, and the #1-ranked American. She swam both races at the World Championships in Kazan, Russia.
2014-2015 LCM Women 50 Free
CAMPBELL
24.03
| 2 | Bronte CAMPBELL | AUS | 24.12 | 08/09 |
| 3 | Sarah SJOSTROM | SWE | 24.20 | 07/03 |
| 4 | Ranomi KROMOWIDJOJO | NED | 24.23 | 08/08 |
| 5 | Arianna VANDERPOOL-WALLACE | BAH | 24.31 | 07/17 |
| 6 | Francesca HALSALL | GBR | 24.37 | 04/14 |
| 7 | Chantal VAN LANDEGHEM | CAN | 24.39 | 08/09 |
| 8 | Jeanette OTTESEN | DEN | 24.47 | 06/06 |
| 8 | Simone MANUEL | USA | 24.47 | 08/08 |
| 10 | Etiene MEDEIROS | BRA | 24.55 | 07/17 |
“This is a great decision for Simone,” said Meehan, who guided Stanford to a third-place finish at NCAA Championships in 2015. “Continuing her academics, training and social life here at Stanford allows for consistency over the next eight-plus months leading up to the Olympic Trials. Simone will still benefit from training in the team environment and our program will certainly benefit from her presence. Our lineup looks slightly different without Simone and sophomore All-American diver Kassidy Cook (also redshirting the 2015-16 season), but I’m excited about the opportunities for our team. So far, I’ve been really impressed with how they are taking advantage of these opportunities.”
Stanford began the season ranked 2nd in the initial 2015-2016 SwimSwam Power Rankings before news of Manuel’s redshirt. They should still contend for a spot on the overall podium, though, as each of the top three teams in that ranking (Cal, Georgia, and now Stanford) will be without their top sprinter this season.
Manuel has been named to the 2015 Duel in the Pool team, where the best Americans will take on a team of European All-Stars. In 2013, a high school Manuel was the hero, bringing home a tie-breaking mixed medley relay for a win and a 1-point American margin.
Would not be one bit shocked if UVA wins NCAAs. The volume of redshirted for this Olympic cycle has a number of ringers in the top 5 programs out of the meet. UVA will win a couple relays and may win all of them. Except for diving they look like they have no liabilities to score evenly and big across strokes and distances.
Just a small correction: Katie is deferring her freshman year, not senior!
Does the fact that she’s still swimming with Stanford mean she will mostly be training SCY? If so, that would remove a major benefit of the red shirt year.
Not that this is a unique or new situation…just one I haven’t thought about before.
If there is a post-grad group at Stanford (I know there are some men, not sure about women), she may be able to train with them a bit as well. I assume they would train long course. Also, I’m willing to bet the college team will do quite a bit of long course training especially in the fall and over winter break. I think Simone can piece together a great program while remaining at Stanford.
Post-grads currently training with Meehan at Stanford: Felicia Lee and Maya DiRado.
Heard Flee is now back with Bowman at ASU…
She isn’t back with Bob. She is still at Stanford.
She might be visiting ASU, but I am pretty sure she is with Maya and Greg.
Thanks The Grand Inquisitor! I don’t know how I forgot Maya!
She specializes in the 50 and 100 freestyle, I can’t see SCY really being THAT detrimental to her goals in Omaha. I am sure she will get LCM time in, as Stanford has more than one tank to train in at any given time.
I think that training / racing SCY is very detrimental when preparing for LCM racing.
I think racing SCY doesn’t accurately reflect where you are, speed-wise, as compared to where you’d be if you were racing LCM. Manuel’s SCY times are very fast, world class fast, but they don’t translate to LCM because yards times “overstate”(?) the importance of underwaters.
I also think that yards swimming shortens your stroke, especially sprinters. I’ve not done stroke counts or anything like that but it sure looks like Manuel’s stroke is not as long and fluid as Campbell’s, et.al. (Especially Cate Campbell’s. Her stroke is gorgeous. So long, strong & fluid. I think it’s one nicest looking sprint freestyle’s, men or… Read more »
No one is doubting the need for lcm racing, I was only referring to training. Pretty sure the rest of the sprinting world trains scm in addition to lcm, not sure where in my post it said lcm racing is unnecessary.
With that news I presume we can already give the NCAA trophy to Cal. No?
Louisville looking like a dark horse, but Cal’s the perennial favorite, was and is.
Texas is coming up big…
I read that news with much delight. Simone Manuel can focus on long course and as CoachTim said above, she will not have to taper for NCAAs in March. GREAT NEWS!
As comparison, her main rivals, the Campbell sisters and Sarah Sjöström, train almost all year in long course forever and are now well ahead.
Hopefully Simone can catch up the backlog in the next months. At least half of the backlog to swim 52 and be a medal contender. Even if, on paper, a medal looks very unlikely right now. I add that the US relays badly need a 52-sprinter! It could change a lot of things, at least in the medley relay.
She deserves to… Read more »
Simone Manuel and Cierra Runge both wanted to take the short course year off in order to train long course. Both wanted to focus on achieving their olympic dream. It is striking how differently they were treated by their coaches and schools. Stanford and Meehan are to be commended for supporting Ms. Manuel in allowing her to continue with little change and disruption this year. She even gets to continue her studies. On the other hand, the coach across the bay withdrew support for Ms. Runge, reportedly. Anyway, I hope to see these two talented young women on the podium in Rio.
Cierra Runge also announced she wasn’t returning to Cal after her redshirt year so that may explain the lack of enthusiasm from Terry.
*Terri
*Teri (third time is the charm haha it’s clearly a Friday)
She is still training with Stanford and is continuing her journey acsdemically. Does that mean she’s still enrolled at Stanford in classes? If so, what’s the point of red shirting then? Taking fewer classes maybe?
She’s still enrolled at Stanford. She just won’t compete with the team, and this year won’t count against her eligibility. The main benefit for her is that by not competing she won’t have to taper for NCAAs so she can save her taper for trials and the Olympics.
Going from a high energy conference meet (even if you aren’t rested) to NCAAs seems to wipe out a lot of athletes and understandably so. You end up resting/tapering for a good 4-6 weeks that can be used for training if you redshirt. That 4-6 weeks also falls in prime training time for trials which is in late June/early July.
She might be taking a lesser course load, but even if she’s not — there’s still a significant benefit from not having to travel/compete in numerous dual meets . . . and then go through a very taxing Pac-12 and NCAA championship cycle.
This is a very logical decision and great for Team USA. It’s just a little odd that she waited until October to make this announcement.
No restriction on hours for training, travel to LCM meets (internationally, pro series) as a NT member when wanted/needed. I don’t believe in the taper comments, since she is a 50/100 specialist, I would think that would be the least of her concerns. Her course load maybe front loaded this semester and lighter next semester (below 12 credit threshold) to help with staying on track for graduation and eligible.
YESSSS!!!!!!!!! I’m calling it now, sub 53 and new American Record for Simone next year! 🙂