Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel made her return to competitive swimming on Saturday as part of Arizona State’s dual meet against the University of Wisconsin.
Manuel swam the 50 yard free and 100 yard free, which were her first off-the-block, in front of a crowd competitive swims since the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Now training in the growing pro group at Arizona State, Manuel’s freestyle stroke looks almost identical to what it was at the 2021 US Olympic Trials and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: a rounded ‘over the barrel” recovery from her left arm and a more direct, attacking right arm.
The rounded left arm is somewhat of an evolution from the last time we saw her in yards, at the 2018 NCAA Championships, where her left elbow was a little lower.
But in spite of the new coaching, the stroke is still mostly recognizable. Her stroke counts, 10-13-12-14 by 25, were about where we’ve seen them in the past too.
Below, the fan account Buttstroke Swimming posted videos of this race and a few others from the meet.
Bonus content! Here's a few of ASU Pro group swims held during the breaks of ASU vs WIS pic.twitter.com/RDcyjZhuEY
— Buttstroke Swimming (@ButtstrokeSwim) October 22, 2022
The account also posted a video of Leon Marchand‘s 3:41.59 in the 400 yard IM.
VIDEO⬇️ https://t.co/aREkQHnGvk pic.twitter.com/QYb8uWle7E
— Buttstroke Swimming (@ButtstrokeSwim) October 23, 2022
Manuel and the other Arizona State pros swam during the diving breaks during the dual meet.
Full Pro Group Results, with splits:
First Diving Break
- 100 Free Xander Skinner :43.98 (:21.16), Simone Manuel :48.40 (:22.98)
- 100 Fly Regan Smith :51.02 (:24.40)
- 100 Back Olivia Smoliga :51.94 (:24.87), Anastasia Klyarovskaya :55.70 (:26.90)
- 200 Fly Chase Kalisz 1:42.44 (:49.18) (:23.09; :26.09; :26.50; :26.76), Jay Litherland 1:48.06 (:52.11) (:24.48; :27.63; :27.87; :28.08)
Second Diving Break
- 50 Free Xander Skinner :20.24, Simone Manuel :22.18,
Olivia Smoliga :22,23 - 200 Back Regan Smith 1:49.43 (54.11)(:26.21; :27,90; :27.89; :27,43), Anastasia Klyarovskaya 2:02.91 (:58.65)
- 200 Free Jay Litherland 1:39.44 (:47.59) (:22.73; :24.86; :25.76; :26.09)
- 200 Breast Chase Kalisz 1:53.83 (54.56)(:25.73; :28.83; :29.33; :29.94
100 Buttstroke for Paris 2024
@Braden Keith, when will the SS Breakdown be uploaded ?
And here I was thinking to myself that Marchand wasn’t in the race since no one was suited…
Big Swim Media doesn’t want you to know Litherland ripped a 1:39 2 breast. Rise up against our Orwellian overlords.
lol butt stroke
ngl it got me to laugh.
it’s the little things, y’know
Marchand is obliterating the competition. This guy is really the Big Man on Campus at ASU.
well he is a second off phelps world record. Are you surprised?
.44 off.