Only six races stood between Kaelyn Gridley and a spot on the U.S. Olympic roster — and twice she nearly made it to Paris.
Her first brush with qualifying came Monday night. The crowd inside Lucas Oil Stadium cheered for the eight competitors in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke finals, and nerves ran high. The swimmers who touched the wall in first or second place would punch their ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The event’s competition was fierce. Alongside Gridley raced world-record holder Lilly King, defending Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby and Gabrielle Rose, the oldest qualifier at Trials.
When the starter sounded, Gridley was quick off the blocks. But despite a strong underwater breakout, she soon fell slightly behind the seasoned veterans in the pool. Though a strong push in her last 25 meters looked promising, she touched the wall with a time of 1:07.03 and ultimately secured a fifth-place finish. She would have been only the second Duke swimmer to qualify for the Olympics while in college, the other being Nancy Hogshead-Makar.
Gridley still had one more chance to qualify in the 200-meter breaststroke. But after making it into the finals as a fifth seed, she once again faced steep competition — including American world-record holder Kate Douglass. In the 200-meter showdown, Gridley was off to a slower start than most of her competitors. She turned off the first wall in sixth place but soon fought her way back into fifth, where she held on for the remainder of the race. Her final time of 2:27.14 earned her a comfortable fifth-place finish and capped off an impressive Trials run.
She was one of five Duke swimmers and divers who competed in Indianapolis and Knoxville, Tenn., for the U.S. Olympic Trials and a chance to qualify for the 2024 Paris Games.
Gridley had fought her way into both breaststroke finals with a series of stunning performances earlier in the weekend.
During Sunday’s preliminary races, Gridley upset defending Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby to win the penultimate circle-seeded heat of the 100-meter breaststroke. She dropped more than a second off her personal-best time, touching the wall first with a time of 1:06.80 to earn a third seed in the semis. When she returned to race that event again and stake her claim in the finals, Gridley chipped her time down to a 1:06.67 and secured the fifth seed. Jacoby had inched back ahead of her by 0.01 seconds to clinch fourth, and only 0.25 seconds separated Gridley from the second-place finisher Kaitlyn Dobler. The semis hinted at the intensity of the finals race to come, but the competition of seasoned veterans was simply too strong for Gridley to overcome.
In the 200-meter, Gridley’s preliminary success was more moderate. She came into the meet seeded ninth, dropping a 2:27.14 on Wednesday to win her heat and secure fifth for the semifinals. That night, she clipped an additional two seconds off her prelims time with a new personal best of 2:25.82, which allowed her to maintain her fifth spot as she headed into the finals.
Rising sophomore Ali Pfaff also competed at Trials this weekend, just barely missing the semifinals cutoff in the 100-yard backstroke. Though she dropped time to secure a new personal best of 1:00.77, her time fell 0.06 seconds shy of sixteenth place and left her as first alternate. In the 200-yard backstroke, she finished 36th after recording a 2:13.89 during Thursday’s preliminary heats.
Tatum Wall was the third and final Duke swimmer to race in Indianapolis when she competed in the women’s 50-meter freestyle Saturday morning. She sprinted her way into a three-way tie for 20th place, touching the wall in a lightning-fast 25.28 seconds and recording a new personal best.
Meanwhile, Ali Watson and Margo O’Meara represented the Blue Devils at the Diving Olympic Trials in Knoxville, Tenn.
O’Meara qualified for the semifinals in the women’s 3-meter dive after scoring a fourteenth-place 234.80 in the preliminary round. When she competed again, she added over 43 points to her score and moved into finals with a 10th-seeded 278.10. In the 3-meter finals, O’Meara jumped her way to a 507.00 and ultimately finished eleventh.
Watson advanced through the women’s 10-meter platform dive after finishing 11th in the preliminary round with a 235.50. In the semifinals, she tallied a score of 243.50 to move into finals with a 10th seed, then jumped her way to a 543.50 in the finals to bring home a sixth-place finish.
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Abby DiSalvo is a Trinity sophomore and assistant Blue Zone editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.