Swim trials close with no world records; Rio Games next

Assuming he is on all three men’s relays in Rio, Phelps will get a chance to add six more medals to his already massive collection – 18 golds and 22 medals overall.

“I did what I needed to do here and it set me up to do what I wanted to do in Rio”, said Ledecky, who also won the 200- and 400-meter freestyle at the trials.

She matched Ledecky, a future Cardinal swimmer, and Phelps as three-time individual winners.

Leah Smith, who has tried to stay within reach of Ledecky at trials, finished second for the second time. Lia Neal took fourth in the 100 freestyle to secure a berth while Dana Vollmer earned a spot on the team by taking second in the 100 butterfly. Phelps is now No. 2 in the world and Shields No. 3 in 2016 behind Laszlo Cseh of Hungary.

Swimmers arrived in Omaha declaring the pressure of the USA trials was far greater than anything they face at an Olympics but monstrous expectations will weigh heavily in Rio where the stage is bigger, the spotlight brighter and the competition tougher.

“Its been 2009 since Ive done a best time, ” he said. Her advice to younger swimmers, she said, would be, “Just to enjoy the Olympic experience”.

“Once they’re at a peak level, like they are now, it’s much easier to make small adjustments to help them improve or to try to correct some things that maybe didn’t go well here”, Bowman said.

Minutes before the start of the 800 final, the giant video board above the pool replayed highlights of Ledecky, then 15, winning the same race four years earlier at trials – in 8:19.78.

This is DiRado’s last season of swimming, and she was nearly one full second ahead of the defending Olympic champion and world record-holder, winning in 2:06.90. “I mean, it’s no secret that we’re going to be there towards the end”, warned a defiant Lochte. “With Boomer and with family here and being my last meet on American soil – there was a lot going on this week”, he said.

But other countries have improved since four years ago in London and Phelps knows hes got to be much better by the time the Rio Games begin. “And I’m confident we’re going to do that again”. “I got the job done, punched my ticket”.

“We have our tried-and-true guys and I think with Michael and Ryan we’re going to be able to count on them but it’s going to be very exciting to have a new group of guys step up… and kind of take us into the next era of swimming”.

Shields used a furious final lap to rally from seventh at the turn to touch second to Phelps and qualify for the Rio Games in his second individual event and first relay, a long-held passion for the 24-year-old from Huntington Beach. “The 100 free and 50 free are late in the week and after waiting all that time, once Simone touched second and Lia fourth, we all went nuts in the stands”. This includes the 50-meter freestyle finals for the women and the 1,500-meter freestyle finals for the men.

The only blemish on her week came in the 100-meter freestyle, where she finished seventh.

No swimmers set any world records at trials; only one American record was broken – Josh Prenot did that in the 200 breaststroke. With less than 200m remaining she had slipped off world record pace, but claimed a decisive victory in 8:10.32.