Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte duel; Olympic Trials Friday finals preview

By Nick ZaccardiJul 1, 2016, 2:18 PM EDT

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Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte face off for perhaps the final time, while Katie Ledecky takes aim at her toughest event at the Olympic Swimming Trials on Friday (8 p.m. ET, NBC and NBC Sports app).

Phelps and Lochte will go head-to-head in the 200m individual medley final, each looking to make his fourth straight Olympic team in the event. Phelps is the three-time reigning Olympic champion. Lochte is the four-time reigning world champion.

Lochte was faster in the semifinals (1:56.71 to Phelps’ 1:57.61), but Phelps has looked stronger this week.

Lochte, slowed by a groin injury, was third in the 400m individual medley and fourth in the 200m freestyle. So far, his only place on the Olympic team is in the 4x200m free relay.

Phelps won the 200m butterfly to make his record fifth Olympic team for a U.S. male swimmer.

Later Friday, Phelps swims the 100m butterfly semifinals. Lochte also qualified for semis but scratched out of it, according to Swimming World.

One other marquee final Friday is the women’s 100m freestyle. If Katie Ledecky finishes in the top two, she will be in line to become the second U.S. swimmer to contest four freestyle events at one Olympics. Her task will be tall, given Ledecky was seventh fastest in the semifinals.

SWIM TRIALS: Video | Results | Broadcast Schedule

An event-by-event preview of Friday’s semifinals and finals:

Men’s 50m Freestyle Semifinals
Caeleb Dressel, who on Thursday qualified to become the youngest U.S. man to swim the Olympic 100m free since 1976, was the fastest of 16 qualifiers from Friday morning. He was followed by 2000 co-Olympic champion Anthony Ervin, 2012 Olympic silver medalist Cullen Jones and 2015 World silver medalist Nathan Adrian. While Dressel, Ervin and Adrian are already on the Olympic team, this marks Jones’ last chance.

Women’s 200m Breaststroke Final
The fastest qualifiers into the final were Lilly King, who won the 100m breast already, and Micah Lawrence, who took the reins as the top U.S. female breaststroker following the retirement of Rebecca Soni. Lawrence earned silver and bronze medals in this event at the last two world championships after finishing sixth at the London Olympics.

Men’s 200m Backstroke Final
This is Olympic champion Tyler Clary‘s last chance to make the Olympic team after failed attempts in the 400m individual medley, 200m freestyle and 200m butterfly. He’s the No. 3 seed in this final after a 1:55.92 semifinal swim, ranking behind Ryan Murphy (1:55.04) and Jacob Pebley (1:55.18), who are former University of California teammates. Murphy won the 100m backstroke already.

Women’s 200m Backstroke Semifinals
This is Missy Franklin‘s final event of Trials, and it his her signature race. The Olympic champ and world-record holder was fastest in the morning preliminaries (2:09.69), ahead of Maya DiRado (2:09.76) and Elizabeth Beisel (2:10.01). Franklin missed the Olympic team in the 100m backstroke and 100m freestyle, but says she’s stronger in the 200 distances. She proved it by finishing second to Ledecky in the 200m freestyle.

Men’s 200m Individual Medley Final
Lochte and Phelps shouldn’t be challenged here. Lochte had the fastest semifinal time by nine tenths of a second, with Phelps next up while gliding into the wall the final several strokes. The No. 3 man in this final, David Nolan, was another .55 behind Phelps despite the 22-time Olympic medalist shutting it down considerably last night.

Women’s 100m Freestyle Final
If Ledecky finishes top two out of lane one, it will rank high on her list of accomplishments. Not quite world-record level, but darn impressive. Only six tenths of a second separate the eight swimmers here from their semifinal times. The spectrum ranges from 2012 Olympic champions in other events — Dana Vollmer and Allison Schmitt — to rising stars Kelsi Worrell and Simone Manuel to 30-year-old Amanda Weir, whose American record from 2009 still stands.

Men’s 100m Butterfly Semifinals
Phelps qualified sixth into the 16-swimmer semifinals. Make no mistake, Phelps is the favorite after winning the 200m butterfly. Lochte was ninth fastest in prelims. His reported scratch was a little bit of a risky move, given Lochte has not made the Olympic team in an individual event yet. It’s 200m IM or bust.

MORE: Olympic Swimming Trials broadcast schedule

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At the French Open, a Ukrainian mom makes her comeback

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 12:02 PM EDT

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Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, once the world’s third-ranked tennis player, is into the French Open third round in her first major tournament since childbirth.

Svitolina, 28, swept 2022 French Open semifinalist Martina Trevisan of Italy, then beat Australian qualifier Storm Hunter 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the last 32 at Roland Garros. She next plays 56th-ranked Russian Anna Blinkova, who took out the top French player, fifth seed Caroline Garcia, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 on her ninth match point.

Svitolina’s husband, French player Gael Monfils, finished his first-round five-set win after midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. She watched that match on a computer before going to sleep ahead of her 11 a.m. start Wednesday.

“This morning, he told me, ‘I’m coming to your match, so make it worth it,'” she joked on Tennis Channel. “I was like, OK, no pressure.

“I don’t know what he’s doing here now. He should be resting.”

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Svitolina made at least one major quarterfinal every year from 2017 through 2021, including the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 2019. She married Monfils one week before the Tokyo Olympics, then won a singles bronze medal.

Svitolina played her last match before maternity leave on March 24, 2022, one month after Russia invaded her country. She gave birth to daughter Skai on Oct. 15.

Svitolina returned to competition in April. Last week, she won the tournament preceding the French Open, sweeping Blinkova to improve to 17-3 in her career in finals. She’s playing on a protected ranking of 27th after her year absence and, now, on a seven-match win streak.

“It was always in my head the plan to come back, but I didn’t put any pressure on myself, because obviously with the war going on, with the pregnancy, you never know how complicated it will go,” she said. “I’m as strong as I was before, maybe even stronger, because I feel that I can handle the work that I do off the court, and match by match I’m getting better. Also mentally, because mental can influence your physicality, as well.”

Svitolina said she’s motivated by goals to attain before she retires from the sport and to help Ukraine, such as donating her prize money from last week’s title in Strasbourg.

“These moments bring joy to people of Ukraine, to the kids as well, the kids who loved to play tennis before the war, and now maybe they don’t have the opportunity,” she said. “But these moments that can motivate them to look on the bright side and see these good moments and enjoy themselves as much as they can in this horrible situation.”

Svitolina was born in Odesa and has lived in Kharkiv, two cities that have been attacked by Russia.

“I talk a lot with my friends, with my family back in Ukraine, and it’s a horrible thing, but they are used to it now,” she said. “They are used to the alarms that are on. As soon as they hear something, they go to the bomb shelters. Sleepless nights. You know, it’s a terrible thing, but they tell me that now it’s a part of their life, which is very, very sad.”

Svitolina noted that she plays with a flag next to her name — unlike the Russians and Belarusians, who are allowed to play as neutral athletes.

“When I step on the court, I just try to think about the fighting spirit that all of us Ukrainians have and how Ukrainians are fighting for their values, for their freedom in Ukraine,” she said, “and me, I’m fighting here on my own front line.”

Svitolina said that she’s noticed “a lot of rubbish” concerning how tennis is reacting to the war.

“We have to focus on what the main point of what is going on,” she said. “Ukrainian people need help and need support. We are focusing on so many things like empty words, empty things that are not helping the situation, not helping anything.

“I want to invite everyone to focus on helping Ukrainians. That’s the main point of this, to help kids, to help women who lost their husbands because they are at the war, and they are fighting for Ukraine.

“You can donate. Couple of dollars might help and save lives. Or donate your time to something to help people.”

Also Wednesday, 108th-ranked Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis ousted three-time major champion Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 in four and a half hours. Wawrinka’s exit leaves Novak Djokovic as the lone man in the draw who has won the French Open and Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz as the lone men left who have won any major.

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Marcell Jacobs still sidelined, misses another race with Fred Kerley

By OlympicTalkMay 31, 2023, 7:07 AM EDT

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Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy will miss another scheduled clash with world 100m champion Fred Kerley, withdrawing from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence.

Jacobs, 28, has not recovered from the nerve pain that forced him out of last Sunday’s Diamond League meet in Rabat, Morocco, according to Italy’s track and field federation.

In his absence, Kerley’s top competition will be fellow American Trayvon Bromell, the world bronze medalist, and Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala, the world’s fastest man this year at 9.84 seconds. Kerley beat both of them in Rabat.

The Florence Diamond League airs live on Peacock on Friday from 2-4 p.m. ET.

Jacobs has withdrawn from six scheduled head-to-heads with Kerley dating to May 2022 due to a series of health issues since that surprise gold in Tokyo.

Kerley, primarily a 400m sprinter until the Tokyo Olympic year, became the world’s fastest man in Jacobs’ absence. He ran a personal best 9.76 seconds, the world’s best time of 2022, at last June’s USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships. Then he led a U.S. sweep of the medals at July’s worlds.

Jacobs’ next scheduled race is a 100m at the Paris Diamond League on June 9. Kerley is not in that field, but world 200m champion Noah Lyles is.

The last time the reigning Olympic and world men’s 100m champions met in a 100m was the 2012 London Olympic final between Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. From 2013 to 2017, Bolt held both titles, then retired in 2017 while remaining reigning Olympic champion until Jacobs’ win in Tokyo, where Kerley took silver.

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