U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS

In the world of swimming, we saw that United States dominated at the Olympics in 2012. We also saw that the U.S.'s only completion, the Europeans were also being challenged by a new dominator in the World of swimming. The Chinese and Japananese, last summer at the Olympic games, they were beginning to make there mark, drawing the attention from other nations such as ourselves. Particuarly on the womens side , for the Chinese. As we fast forward to this year, which is another big year for all nations for swimming and sports.This year is a World Championship year and the World Championships for swimming will be taking place in Barcelona, Spain.
This past week the U.S. Trails for the World Championships for swimming took place. We got to see some returning stars and we also had to say goodbye to some stars, who brought a lot of recognition to the sport. In the world of swimming the biggest face that represented the sport for past 10 years was Michael Phelps. As we knew, he would not be returning to the sport any more after the Olympic Games in 2012. It was hard to say goodbye to him, but we got to see some new break away stars beginning to evolve.
The First race that was a break out race for a dominate swimmer was Missy Franklin. Missy Franklin would continue to dominate, such as she did at the Olympics last year, taking away another U.S. title in the 200 free style and 100 back stroke to name a few. Other returning stars at the U.S. World Championship trials was Katie Ledecky. Ledecky was 15 at the Olympics last year, and won the womens 800 meter and 1500 meter free style at the 2012 Olympics. Ledecky would continue to dominate at the World Championship trials as well. Ledecky would win the womens 1500 meter free style in 15.47.21, making her the fastest person on the womens side in 2013. She would continue her dominance in the meet, by winning the womens 800 free style in a commanding fashion. Ledecky would win the 800 free in a time of 8.22. Ledecky would have the fastest 50 meter split of the day to finish her 800 meter free in a time of 29.1. On the mens side we also had some returning stars. Ryan Lochte, had a tremendous amount of pressure on him last year, because of the 2008 Olympics, but after beating Michael Phelps in one of his IM's he began to grow confidence. This year we would see how he would perform without his biggest motivation, "beating Michael Phelps". In the World Championship trials this time around, we saw how Dominating Ryan Lochte was. Lochte would win the 200 IM, in a time of 1.55, just to name one of the races he dominated in. Also on the men's end we had a interesting finish in the 50 meter free style. There were a lot of dominating swimmers in this race, that had been dominate for at least the past 8 years, such as swimmer Cullen Jones . Cullen Jones has had his struggles through the past few years, but he made the U.S. Olympic team for the free style relay in 2012. Jones wanted to continue to make a comeback , by making this World Championship team. In the World Championship trials Nathan Adrian would come out very powerful ,and would go on to win it with a time of 21.47. In this race the United States would have 4 of the best times this year, with five swimmers swimming under 22 seconds. On the women's end of 50 meter free style, we had little bit of a different story. The United States on the women's end of the 50 meter free style wasn't a dominate at the Olympic Games last summer so it was a race anyone could win at the Trials. Natalie Coughlin, had her struggles this past year, with not making a single team for the Olympics last summer, but she wanted to prove to everyone why she was still a dominate swimmer in the sport. In this race we also meet, a break out star from Houston, Texas Simone Manuel. Manuel had already made the team before this race for the 400 meter free style relay. In the race, Natalie Coughlin would go on to win it with a time of 24.97. Simone Manuel would go on to win second, with a time of 25.01.
This year should be another interesting year for U.S. swimmers. We will be able to see on July 17th how the U.S. swimmers stack up against other nations swimmers.