Olympic Trials Results

Keeping a perspective on Olympic Trails and Sandpiper Team Goals

Our goal is to provide the best possible path through our program that leads to Olympic success.  We have come closer each time. Not many programs in the nation will ever have an Olympian, no matter how hard they try to provide this path. So far, we have done a great job in getting closer to this goal. Four years ago, our only qualifier was Cody Miller.   He made the time to swim at trails four weeks prior in a time trail at a meet that he missed the time by on the night before with a 2:07 in his 200 IM. After going 2:06 low to make the trails cut, he then added 2 seconds to his time and went 2:08 at the Olympic trials in 2008.

Now four years later,his best performance has gotten him into the biggest final he could every ask for -  a final in which two the world’s best swimmers will probably set a World Record.   The crowd will be electrifying, and his adrenaline will be at such a high that he will not be able to ever explain what happened. We know, however,that the only outcome of making the Olympic team today would be if Lochte or Phelps were DQ’d  - Cody was 3^rdto both of them tonight.

This is all very interesting it can be looked at in many different directions. As a club, we have laid out a successful path for our swimmers. Cody has had a chance to swim against the world record holders and he is only20 years old. Lochte and Phelps are peaking and probably won’t be swimming in 4 years as they are 26 and 27 years old. Cody could legitimately swim for another two more Olympic trials in 2016 and 2020.

Here are the results from our swimmers’ experiences at the 2012 Trials:

Cody Miller:        Event                    Swimmers           Seeded                 Prelim                   Semi                     Final

                              100 Breast           144                       31^st                       44^th                       -                             -

                              200 Breast           134                       13^th                       14^th                       12^th                       -

                              200 IM                 133                       95^th                       10^th                       9^th                         ?

Olivia Barker       100 Fly                 167                       35^th                       51^st                       -                             -

                              400 IM                 136                       130^th                     82^nd                       -                             -

                              200 Fly                 144                       21^st                       12^th                       12^th                       -

Hannon Daigler  400 IM                 120                       46^th                       45^th                       -                             -

Erin Emery           800 Free              71                          67^th                       52^nd                       -                             -              

Catie Miller         400 IM                 136                       100^th                     113^th                     -                             -              

Number of Swimmers Qualified in each event not listed above:

                              Women                Men

50 Free                 164                       179

100 Free              136                       176

200 Free              115                       136

400 Free              117                       123

800 Free              above                   NA

1500 Free            NA                         96

100 Back              167                       133       

200 Back              196                       113

100 Breast           152                       above

200 Breast           132                       above

100 Fly                 above                   130

200 Fly                 above                   145

200 IM                 129                       above

Pulling all of this information together really helps us see the big picture. We didn’t have one best time except for Cody Miller’s 200 IM. But, keeping things in perspective, his first Olympic Trails event was four years ago and he has almost dropped four total seconds since then. That’s one second per year, and he went from 95^thto 8^thand will be swimming in the big final tonight.

Looking at the entire meet results, the swimmers in this meet have achieved 20% best times.  Often times, this leads us to believe that if we’re not doing best times we are having a bad meet. Wrong.  Everyone gets to this meet from different meets around the nation over a three-year period. The playing field is leveled when we all race together at one site in the same pool with the same water temp, same waves and conditions. So, although it would be nice to have a best time because 80% of the swimmers in the meet are not doing it, the reality is the pool just might be slow and conditions are not the optimumfor best times.  But, the reality is,the best racers and best-prepared will advance.

The perpetration for the meet is the same as all meets, but the success of your swims relates tohow much better you do against your competition. That is the balance providing a better experience in this environment. Our swimmers did awesome with having not many or any best times. We have been successful.  Just by examining the numbers of how many made it to the meet, seeing what we were seeded, making it to the semi finals three times with two of our swimmers, witnessing the first Sandpiper swimmer in history, Cody Miller, to reach the Final, and looking back at everything we have done as a team to provide success in our Olympic Quest for Sandpipers…I’m looking forward to 2016 and 2020!  The plan is already being designed to figure out how our current swimmers and next generation swimmers will best benefit to make it to this level.

Thank you everyone for your support! Our Olympic Trials Athletes are true Sandpiper Heroes!  And, as a family we will continue