Olympic Trials’ 5th Place Finisher Jacob Whittle Given 100 Free Nod For Paris

By Retta Race on SwimSwam

2024 PARIS SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

Pool Swimming: July 27 – August 4, 2024

Open Water Swimming: August 8 – 9, 2024

La Défense Arena — Paris, France
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Psych Sheets

Psych sheets for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games have been published and we’re combing through for surprises and changes from what was originally thought to be the game plan for the world’s top medal contenders.

The nation of Great Britain changed things up a tad, especially on the men’s side where the 50m and 100m freestyle sprints now have new players added to the mix.

Matt Richards and Duncan Scott went 1-2 in the 100m free at the Aquatics GB Olympic Trials, with both athletes getting under the selection standard.

Richards remains among the 1free entries in the event for Paris; however, as he did with the 2023 World Championships, Scott has dropped the race. 27-year-old Scott still has the individual 200m free and 200m IM as well as multiple relays among his lineup.

The next in line after Scott at Trials was reigning 200m free Olympic gold medalist Tom Dean followed by Alexander Cohoon. Placing 5th was 19-year-old Jacob Whittle, whose time of 48.39 was outside the Aquatics GB-mandated qualification standard of 48.06, although the teen owns a lifetime best of 48.03 from last November.

With Whittle’s 48.03 beating Cohoon’s 4th place 48.20 from Trials, Whittle has now been given the nod to take on the 100m free as his sole individual event while Cohoon’s name now appears among the men’s 50m free field.

Cohoon, who placed 3rd in the race at Trials (21.90) has replaced runner-up Richards to join Trials winner Ben Proud in the 50m free for Paris.

This means that GBR’s entire 4x100m free relay swimmers have at least one individual event. With relay-only swimmers truly relegated by World Aquatics to strictly relays, the Aquatics GB coaching brain trust has some flexibility in determining the medal-contending lineup and will not be forced to include now non-existent relay-only swimmers.

Additional Notes

At Trials, reigning 400m IM world champion Freya Colbert won the women’s 200m free in a near-lifetime best of 1:56.22 but made it known it was unlikely she would seek to add the event to her Olympic lineup. Indeed Colbert’s name is absent from the 2free field for Paris, but so is Trials runner-up Abbie Wood‘s name. As a result, GBR will be without representation in the individual women’s 200m free.
Freestyle ace Freya Anderson battled illness at the Olympic Trials but was still selected to the Olympic squad. It’s notable that the 23-year-old remains a relay-only athlete and was not given any individual events, such as the 200m free.

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