For Missy Franklin, A Struggle In Trying To Face The Big Picture

OMAHA, Neb. – For Missy Franklin, the difference in coming back to Omaha for another U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming is highly visible.

“I’m on the doors now, which is a pretty big deal,” she said before the meet began.

There are full-length, larger-than-life photos of her on doors leading into CenturyLink Center. They celebrate the 6-foot, 2-inch Franklin’s stature in the sport, the Olympian heights she reached through the portal of the 2012 trials.

Four years later, after having lost time to back problems yet bearing a bigger load of expectations, Franklin has the same effervescence but is a diminished swimmer. The door to another Olympics could shut in her face.

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With A Welcome Push From A Rival, Ledecky Speeds To Another Olympic Berth

Expect this to be a familiar sight:  Katie Ledecky in a victory ceremony at 2016 Olympic Trials in Omaha.  This one was for the 400 freestyle.  

OMAHA, Neb. - The race was 400 meters, but it seemed effectively over after the first 25. It wasn’t much longer before the public address announcer at CenturyLink Center intoned, “It’s Katie Ledecky against the clock.”

That would be the case, as it is in most of Ledecky’s races of 400 meters and longer, where she usually is competing only against herself.

But it turned out that this U.S. Olympic Team Trials race Monday night wasn’t over, even if Ledecky never was in real danger of losing. As she fell off her stunning pace for the first half of the race, it allowed Leah Smith to create some suspense with the best swim of her career.

“The last 150 meters, I kept telling myself, ‘Rio, Rio, Rio,’” Ledecky said, knowing she needed to touch the wall first to guarantee getting there, even if the top two in every event are virtually certain to go.

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For Young Swimmer Walsh, Ecstasy Followed By Brief Agony At Trials

Gretchen (l) and Alex Walsh in front of the huge Katie Ledecky mural outside the site of the 2016 Olympic swim trials.  (Photo courtesy Walsh family)

OMAHA, Neb. – The draw for Monday morning’s first round of the 100-meter backstroke at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming put Alex Walsh two lanes from Missy Franklin in the 15th of 16 heats.

Walsh could not have been happier.

“She’s one of my biggest idols because she’s always so positive,” Walsh said of Franklin, reigning Olympic champion in the event. “I was ecstatic.”

It got even better when Franklin asked the 14-year-old Walsh for help with her swim cap before heading to the pool deck for the race.

“That was pretty great,” Walsh said. 

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Litherland Triplets Embrace Brother Jay’s Moment At Swim Trials

Jay Litherland (left) and Chase Kalisz celebrate after taking the top two spots, with Kalisz first, in the 400-meter individual medley at the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials.  (Getty Images)

OMAHA, Neb. – Jay Litherland pulled himself out of the water and into a quick hug from one of his brothers. And then another hug, from his other brother.

Mick and Kevin Litherland had scampered onto the pool deck at CenturyLink Center with the same speed Jay showed over the final two laps of the 400-meter individual medley, the speed that allowed him to finish second Monday night in the first final of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Swimming.

These are three brothers separated by a minute each at birth, three brothers whose lives in three countries have been 20 years of fraternal embrace, three brothers who chose to stay in the same bedroom for a couple months after their parents moved into a house with a bedroom for each.

“It was kind of hard to move out,” Jay said, “and it felt really weird when we did. We’ve never really split up.”

No wonder the moment when Jay put himself into a position to be on the U.S. Olympic team was something the Litherland triplets could not wait to share.

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Omaha Punctuates Olympic Swimming Trials With Excitement Again

The pizzazz of the 2012 Olympic Swimming Trials in Omaha (Getty Images)

OMAHA, Neb.  – When USA Swimming representatives came here in 2005 to assess the city’s bid to host the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials, they noticed that civic organizations had created a logo with a letter and a punctuation mark to encourage the feeling this city was an exciting place.

It was “O!”

When those USA Swimming officials spoke to the country’s elite coaches after awarding the that meet to Omaha, they got a reaction that effectively changed the punctuation.

The way the coaches saw the choice was “O?” as in “Huh? Where? What?”   After all, Omaha had no historic links to swimming, and few athletes from the area ever had reached the sport’s elite.

More than a decade later, as a third straight Omaha Olympic trials begins Sunday, the question mark is gone, and the exclamation points have multiplied exponentially.

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