In 30 minutes, signs of changing times for Ledecky, Franklin

OMAHA, Neb. - Missy Franklin finished swimming at the CenturyLink Center at 7:07 Saturday night. At 7:37, Katie Ledecky was in the water, taking over for good the pool that had belonged to Franklin four years ago.

In a sport ruled by times, 30 minutes provided a time passage through four years. The half-hour marked a transition from the era when Franklin was the leading figure in U.S. women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star to the one when Ledecky is the leading figure in world women’s swimming and its pre-Olympic designated star.

Ledecky, 19, would cruise to victories in three freestyle races at these U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming, adding Saturday night’s win in the 800-meter freestyle to those in the 200 and 400.

Franklin, 21, had won two individual events and qualified for four in 2012. This time, she clawed her way on the team going to Rio by rallying for second-place finishes in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle.

She replaced dominance with desire, battling to reclaim part of what had seemed so easy to get the first time.

FOR THE WHOLE STORY, CLICK HERE

For Phelps & Lochte, another matchless episode of long-running hit

    Gonna take a sentimental journey
 
    Gonna set my heart at ease
 
    Gonna make a sentimental journey
 
    To renew old memories
 
           -- From the classic 1945 No. 1 hit song, “Sentimental Journey”

OMAHA, Neb. – They should have cleared everyone else out of the pool, leaving Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte in a match race, because that is what Friday night’s final of the 200-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming turned out to be.

Again.

No one expected anything else from the two men who have battled each other for global supremacy in the event over 13 years, creating the greatest rivalry in the history of their sport.

And the two 31-year-olds now have a chance to do it one more time at the 2016 Olympics next month in Rio.

“It isn’t over,” Lochte said. “We’ve still got another month to put everything together and really give the world a show.”

There never has been a longer-running hit in the sport.

FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE

Phelps, Lochte Going At Each Other Again In Their Sport's Greatest Rivalry

Embed from Getty Images

OMAHA, Neb. -- One more time, for old times’ sake.

One more chapter, possibly the last, in a riveting story.

One more chance for Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte to have at each other using all four of swimming’s strokes in what Lochte justifiably called, “One of the greatest rivalries in sports.”

Friday night, these 31-year-olds will meet in the final of the 200-meter IM at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming for the fourth straight time. Phelps has won the first three, with Lochte second each time by a progressively smaller margin, just .09 seconds in 2012.

FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE

After cruising along, Katie Ledecky puts smoke on the water

Embed from Getty Images

OMAHA, Neb. - Katie Ledecky figured this would be a perfect time to multitask at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming.

Ledecky was cruising along so far ahead of the field two-thirds of the way through her 800-meter freestyle heat Friday morning that she spontaneously decided to give herself something else to do.

“Around the 550 mark, I was like, `We’ll practice my 100 free finish for tonight,’” Ledecky said, with a big grin.

And that’s what it looked like, especially in the final 25 meters, when she seriously engaged her legs for the first time in the 800. She blasted the last lap in a brisk 28.71 seconds.

And, by the way, she covered the entire 800 in 8 minutes, 10.91 seconds, merely the third-fastest time ever – behind the 8:06.68 she swam in January and an 8:07.39 from last year’s world championships.

FOR THE WHOLE STORY, CLICK HERE

For Michael Phelps, Five Is Another Magic Number

Embed from Getty Images

OMAHA, Neb. – The simple gesture spoke of a number, and it was appropriate, for matchless numbers have defined so much of Michel Phelps’ swimming career.

This time, the number was a five, which Phelps noted by holding up his left hand and spreading the fingers wide after he won Wednesday night’s 200-meter butterfly final at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming.

It meant Phelps, who turns 31 Thursday, had become the first man to make five U.S. Olympic swim teams.

“God, I’ve been in the sport a long time,” Phelps said.

Michael Phelps' infant son.  Tweet from his sister, Hilary.

He had been just 15 when he made his first team in 2000, also in the 200 butterfly. He was then the youngest U.S. men’s Olympic swimmer since 1932. Should he win an individual event gold medal at the upcoming Rio Olympic Games, he would be the oldest man ever to do that in the Olympics.

Dara Torres, the only other U.S. swimmer to make five Olympic teams, distinguished herself as the oldest swimmer (41) to win an Olympic medal.

Phelps made the team for what he swears will be a final time with a swim he called harder than any in his life. He did it by going out hard and hoping to hang on, the same way he has managed to hang on and push forward despite a tidal wave of personal drama.

FOR THE FULL STORY, CLICK HERE