2024 U.S. Olympic Selection
Thanks to Barry Revzin for crunching the numbers.
The reaction from the crowd at Lucas Oil Stadium was huge for the Indiana-trained swimmers, and they responded accordingly: Seven swimmers have qualified for the Olympics so far, with one more set to be named as a relay-only swimmer.
- Chris Juliano (University of Notre Dame) – 100m Freestyle (1st place), 200m Freestyle (2nd place) *The 50m freestyle final can still be swum
- Lily King (Indiana Swim Club) – 100m breaststroke (1st place), 200m breaststroke (2nd place)
- Aaron Shackel (Carmel Swim Club) – 400m Freestyle (1st place) *100 still fly to swim
- Alex Shackell (Carmel Swim Club) – 200 Butterfly (2nd place), 200 Freestyle (6th place) *50 can swim for free
- Josh Matheny (Indiana Swim Club) – 200m breaststroke (2nd place)
- Luke Whitlock (Fishers Area Swimming Tigers) – 800m Freestyle (2nd place) *1500 is free to swim
- Anna Peplowski (Indiana Swim Club) – 200m Freestyle (5th place)
- Blake Pieroni (Indiana Swim Club) – 200m Freestyle (6th place)
A few days ago, SwimSwam reported statistics on the results so far from the US Trials. We have been tracking time improvement in percentage improvement from seed times. Here is the latest table with statistics through session 11.
| group | Total number of athletes | Improved | Improvement rate | Cut | Cut Rate | Maximum reduction rate (%) |
| all | 1428 | 402 | 28.15% | 867 | 60.71% | Liam Bell (1:01.66 –> 59.40), 100m breaststroke |
| male | 828 | 259 | 31.28% | 521 | 62.92% | Liam Bell (1:01.66 –> 59.40), 100 fly |
| woman | 600 | 143 | 23.83% | 346 | 57.67% | Lucy Bell (1:00.14 –> 58.85), 100 fly |
| Indiana | 107 | 31 | 28.97% | 62 | 57.94% | Chris Juliano (1:48.75 –> 1:45.38), 200m freestyle |
Note: The “Indiana” category includes the current On behalf of Indiana LSC.
After a few more sessions, the numbers didn’t fully back up the claim that spectators were pushing Indiana-trained swimmers to swim the best of their lives: The percentage of swimmers who improved from seeding was less than one percentage point above average.
Now, let us unveil a new metric: the sum of the percentage delta from the seed time to the best swim. To calculate this, we count only the fastest swim done in the entire meet. If a swimmer loses time in the preliminaries but falls back in the semifinals, only the preliminaries swim will be considered. A negative percentage means the swimmer improved from their seed time, a positive percentage means they did improve.
For this article, we have narrowed it down to only swimmers who represent Indiana as an LSC.
| name | team | Total Improvement % | Number of swims |
| Chris Juliano | University of Notre Dame | -4.20% | 3 |
| Will Modglin | Zionsville Swim Club | -2.28% | 3 |
| Luke Whitlock | Fishers Area Swimming Tigers | -2.24% | 2 |
| Owen MacDonald | Indiana Swim Club | -2.20% | Four |
| Alex Shackell | Carmel Swim Club | -1.28% | 3 |
| Josh Bay | Highland Hurricanes Swim Club | -1.27% | 2 |
| Blake Pieroni | Indiana Swim Club | -1.22% | 2 |
| Tommy Janton | University of Notre Dame | -1.11% | 2 |
| Coleman Modglin | Purdue University | -0.90% | 1 |
| Tanner Fillion | disconnected | -0.69% | 1 |
| Isaac Fleig | Fishers Area Swimming Tigers | -0.67% | 1 |
| Christina Pagle | Indiana Swim Club | -0.38% | 1 |
| Anna Peplowski | Indiana Swim Club | -0.30% | 3 |
| Greg Enoch | Carmel Swim Club | -0.28% | Four |
| Anna Freed | Indiana Swim Club | -0.09% | 1 |
| Harry Herrera | Indiana Swim Club | -0.08% | 1 |
| Mariah Dennigan | Indiana Swim Club | 0.33% | 1 |
| Josh Matheny | Indiana Swim Club | 0.42% | 2 |
| Marcus Reyes Gentry | disconnected | 0.44% | 2 |
| Michael Eastman | Indiana Swim Club | 0.46% | 1 |
| Maia DeWitt | Indiana Swim Club | 0.47% | 2 |
| Andrew Shackel | Carmel Swim Club | 0.50% | 1 |
| Casey McKenna | Indiana Swim Club | 0.52% | 1 |
| Josh Fleegle | disconnected | 0.55% | 1 |
| Mason Carlton | Indiana Swim Club | 0.65% | 2 |
| Ella Ristic | Indiana Swim Club | 0.70% | 1 |
| Braden Cole | U Indy | 0.78% | 1 |
| Tristan DeWitt | Indiana Swim Club | 0.95% | 1 |
| Brady Samuels | Purdue University | 1.00% | 2 |
| Maddie Mores | Valparaiso Swim Club | 1.25% | 2 |
| Reese Tiltman | Indiana Swim Club | 1.31% | 1 |
| Brendan Burns | Indiana Swim Club | 1.38% | 2 |
| Elise Heizer | Indiana Swim Club | 1.40% | 1 |
| Lily Christianson | Irish Swimming | 1.48% | 2 |
| Logan Kelly | Jaguar Aquatics | 1.56% | 2 |
| Kabria Chapman | Indiana Swim Club | 1.64% | 1 |
| Max Reich | Indiana Swim Club | 1.64% | 2 |
| Lucas Piunti | Indiana Swim Club | 1.69% | 1 |
| Julie Mishler | Fishers Area Swimming Tigers | 1.80% | 2 |
| Maci Forsick | Purdue University | 1.93% | 1 |
| Lily King | Indiana Swim Club | 2.11% | 2 |
| Matthew Klinge | Boilermaker Aquatics | 2.12% | 1 |
| Jasen Yep | Indiana Swim Club | 2.13% | 3 |
| Drew Reiter | Indiana Swim Club | 2.24% | 3 |
| Maggie Graves | disconnected | 2.24% | 1 |
| Luke Barr | disconnected | 2.69% | 2 |
| Emily Wolf | Fishers Area Swimming Tigers | 3.17% | 2 |
| Toby Barnett | Indiana Swim Club | 3.23% | 2 |
| Gavin Wight | Indiana Swim Club | 3.61% | 3 |
| Kate Mouser | Purdue University | 3.87% | 1 |
| Lindsay Bowen | Carmel Swim Club | 3.96% | 3 |
| Aaron Shackel | Carmel Swim Club | 4.24% | 3 |
| Kayla Hann | Carmel Swim Club | 4.28% | 3 |
| Mary Elizabeth Cespedes | Valparaiso Swim Club | 4.73% | 2 |
| Ellie Clark | Carmel Swim Club | 4.87% | 2 |
| Molly Sweeney | Carmel Swim Club | 8.43% | 2 |
| Shawn Fykish | University of Notre Dame | 10.32% | 3 |
As a matter of course, Chris Juliano Topping the list is his. The ND-trained swimmer has been on a meteoric rise since bursting onto the international stage at the 2023 U.S. Championships, with his best performance (so far) coming on the fifth night of the trials when he won the 100m freestyle.
Giuliano has improved his time almost every time he has been in the water, something that very few swimmers can achieve. This statistic does not include the 50m freestyle semi-final, but rest assured he also ran his best time there.
Chris JulianoTime to Session 11 Improvements:
| 200 Free | 100 Free | 50 Free | |
| Admission time | 1:48.75 | 47.49 | 21.96 |
| Qualifiers | 1:47.05 | 47.65 | 21.83 |
| Semi-finals | 1:46.83 | 47.25 | 21.59 |
| Final game | 1:45.38 | 47.38 | I can’t swim yet |
It’s easy to focus on the swimmers who have qualified for the Olympics, but some of the most improved swimmers at the meet are: Owen MacDonaldwas the fourth-best performer in this metric across the four events.
McDonald spent his first two years of college at Arizona State University, but announced his transfer to Indiana University after Bob Bowman was named director of swimming and diving and head men’s coach at the University of Texas.
He has already represented Indiana Swim Club at this meet and has shown great improvement so far: In his first race, the 200 freestyle, he beat the seeded swimmers by almost two seconds (1:49.91 to 1:48.05) to finish 23rd overall.
McDonald’s next race was the 100 freestyle, where he again finished in 23rd place, setting another PR (49.15) in the process.
He fell just short of his personal best in the 200 backstroke, but bounced back in the 200 individual medley to reach his first final at the meet, shaving more than half a second off his entry time in the heats (1:59.13) and nearly a second more in the semifinals (1:58.21) to place fifth in the final.
It would have been a surprise to see McDonald on the team, but he performed strongly in front of his new home crowd.
Aaron Shackel and Luke WhitlockBoth swimmers, from Carmel and Noblesville, Indiana, swam well to qualify for Paris: Shackell shaved more than a second and a half off his personal best in the 400 freestyle, while Whitlock took second in the 800, shaving more than five seconds off his personal best.
It may be surprising to see Schakel ranked so low on this table, but that percentage is inflated primarily by his performance in the 200 butterfly, where he failed to advance to the semifinals despite shaving off over five seconds in the heats and ranking in the top seven. In his other event, the 200 freestyle, he struggled to beat his entry time of 1:46.35.
Meanwhile, Whitlock only competed in two events, which is a minus. In his first appearance at the Olympics, he finished fifth in the 400m freestyle despite being the top seed. However, unfazed by the early setback, he came back with a bang in the 800m freestyle. After earning the top seed again, he actually ran a faster time than the defending Olympic champion. Bobby Finkemoving up to second place and joining the Paris team.
Comparing these two swimmers shows just how difficult it is to perform at this meet. Both will represent the Stars and Stripes in Paris, but their performances at the meet are very different.
