Five things to watch from the swimming competition at this year’s Olympic Games
By Kyle Feldscher, CNN
Paris (CNN) — The first week of the Olympics and with it comes one of the Games’ signature events: Swimming.
The pool has been the scene of some of the Games’ most legendary moments over the years and 2024 appears set to be no different. Several key swimmers are looking to end up on the podium one last time in what could be their final Olympics, while others are looking to play spoiler.
Here are five things to watch from this year’s swimming competition in Paris.
Katie Ledecky aims to cement her legacy
The 10-time medalist is aiming to cement her legacy as one of the greatest American swimmers of all time in Paris.
Ledecky started off her Olympics with bronze medal finish in Saturday’s 400-meter freestyle.
She’ll also compete in the 800-meter and the 1,500-meter races over the next several days. She’s won gold in the 800 three times and gold in the 1,500 twice – and hasn’t been defeated in those races in any of the Olympics that she’s entered.
Results in Tokyo suggested the rest of the world might be catching up to the American star, at least in the 800-meter, and Saturday’s swim confirmed those results.
While the 400-meter is not Ledecky’s best race, she finished ahead of Ariarne Titmus in a semifinal heat. American hopes were raised as anticipation built in La Défense Arena.
But the matchup wasn’t really much of a contest at all. Titmus ended Ledecky’s hopes of revenge, dominating the race and finishing almost a full second ahead of Canada’s Summer McIntosh, who took silver. Ledecky finished a distant third, about three seconds off the pace.
Fallout from Chinese doping scandal
Chinese swimmers are under an intense microscope in Paris, fairly or unfairly.
Ever since the New York Times reported in April that 23 Chinese swimmers had all tested positive for the same banned substance ahead of the Tokyo Olympics and were still allowed to compete at the games in 2021, resentment and frustration has been simmering in the water. Eleven of those Chinese swimmers are due to compete again in Paris, and many of their rivals are preparing to go against them with a sense of bitter resignation.
Rob Koehler, director of international sports advocacy group Global Athlete, told CNN that they are already anticipating the worst.
“If any of those 11 Chinese swimmers hit a podium,” he told CNN last week, “they will absolutely lose it.”
The Chinese swimmers tested positive for the banned performance enhancing drug Trimetazidine at a national meet several months before the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but China’s Anti-Doping Agency (CHINADA) said that the concentration was “extremely low.” CHINADA decided that the swimmers were not responsible for the results because the drug had been accidentally ingested via some contaminated food.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was notified of the test results a month before the games in 2021 and accepted CHINADA’s conclusion, because, according to WADA’s President Witold Bańka, they found “no credible way to disprove the contamination theory that was accepted by CHINADA.”
The US government is investigating the case and it’s likely that any Chinese swimmer who wins in Paris will be under scrutiny from the media, fans and their fellow swimmers as questions over whether the races are truly clean will swirl.
American swimmer Caeleb Dressel told reporters last week that he didn’t feel like he’d competing on a level playing field.
“No, not really. I don’t think they’ve given us enough evidence to support them (World Aquatics) with how this case was handled,” Dressel said.
Australian-American rivalry reignited
The heat is turned up on the rivalry between two of the greatest swimming nations.
Controversial comments in 2023 by Australian swimmer Cate Campbell – who won’t be in Paris after failing to qualify – were given new life by USA legend Michael Phelps in a viral video filmed by NBC last month. Phelps was reacting to a video from Campbell saying it was always sweeter to win when beating the USA.
“It’s just so much sweeter beating America,” Campbell told an Australian news station.
“When we’re like right next to each other in the warmup areas, the US have this like infernal cowbell that they ring. And as someone leaves to go out to the competition pool, they all go ‘U-S-A! U-S-A!’ and I’ve never wanted to punch someone more,” she added.
Phelps in the video said he would make a rival regret ever saying something like that to him if he was on the US team, naming dropping former rivals Ian Thorpe of Australia and Chad le Clos of South Africa as examples of people who tried to get in his head.
“You guys have all talked s— about me and I had the last laugh. For the Americans, if you saw what I just saw … I would watch that thing every single day to give me that little extra bit of just oomph,” Phelps said.
The back-and-forth will take on new life as Aussie and American swimmers take to the pool and compete to take home the most medals. Australia’s women topped the American women with eight gold medals in Tokyo and will be looking to repeat the feat this time around.
The tone was set early on when Ledecky and Titmus faced off in the 400-meter freestyle and Titmus easily beat her American rival. In fact, the Australians medaled in all four medal races on Saturday night – two golds and two silvers – to the Americans’ three. But in the last race of the night, the American men’s 4X100 freestyle team took back the momentum by winning Team USA’s first gold of the Olympics.
Still, despite Phelps’ urging, the competition is mostly friendly.
Bronte Campbell, swimming on the Australian’s 4×100-meter freestyle relay team, told reporters: “I really respect our American competitors. I’ve known a lot of them for many years. I’ve enjoyed racing them, and I’m looking forward to doing it again.”
Leon Marchand carries French hopes in the pool
Billed as a potential successor to Phelps, Marchand is likely to be one of the key figures for the host nation.
Marchand, who broke Phelps’ last remaining world record in the 400-meter individual medley, will be swimming in four events in Paris. It’s likely the French team’s best hope for gold in the pool and will be cheered loudly by his supporters who long to hear “La Marseillaise” playing with him on the podium.
It’s been 12 years since the French have won a medal in swimming.
The 22-year-old is the favorite in the 400-meter medley again this year and is also expected to compete closely in the 200-meter individual medley, 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter breaststroke.
Caeleb Dressel hopes to use fatherhood to spring him to glory
Dressel – the top American male swimmer again at this Olympics – is using his experience as a new father to drive him forward in his slightly scaled-back Olympics.
Having already won seven gold medals in his Olympic career, Dressel will compete in fewer races in these Games. He’ll focus on the 100-meter butterfly, the 50-meter freestyle and has already won gold as a part of the 4×100-meter relay team.
Dressel has won gold in every Olympic event he’s entered so far in his career. It’s a sterling record that he’ll look to keep as he aims for double-digit gold medals over the course of his three Olympic Games.
He told reporters last week that his son, August, is now his inspiration.
“I can’t imagine my life before August was here, so yes, it’s very, very different. Pretty much all I have time for is him and swimming, but I don’t want to be doing anything else,” Dressel said.
“It’s extremely different with a whole new routine, a lot more challenges that come with it, earlier bedtimes for myself, more naps, so camp has been great to sleep in a little bit.”
After his win on Saturday, Dressel said doing it in front of his family made it all the sweeter.
“It’s really special, making the team in front of them and then winning the gold in front of them, just checking little boxes that I never would have thought to create throughout my career,” he told reporters. “So that was a really, really special event tonight.”
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