BATON ROUGE — With the Olympic Games just over a month away, a pair of Lady Tiger swimmers and one former LSU backstroker will pursue their Olympic dreams when the three compete at the United States Team Trials beginning Sunday for a chance to represent the U.S. squad in Beijing, China.
The Quest Center in Omaha, Neb., will host the eight-day event from June 29-July 6 as elite swimmers from across the country vie for spots on the Olympic team.
Current athletes Katie Gilmore and Stephanie Cota and former LSU standout Kevin Braud have each qualified for the U.S. Trials and hope to join former Tiger swimmers Miko Malberg and Heather Brand at the Olympic Games in August.
Malberg, who owns the second-fastest 50-yard freestyle time in school history, earned a spot for his native country of Estonia and will take part in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle events in Beijing. Brand, a former Lady Tiger All-American, qualified for her native country of Zimbabwe and will compete in the 100- and 200-meter butterfly races at the Olympics.
Cota, who sat out this past collegiate season after transferring from Florida, is scheduled to swim in five events at the U.S. Trials. The junior will compete in the 200- and 400-meter freestyle events, the 100- and 200-meter butterfly races and the 400-meter individual medley. The Granite Bay, Calif., native is seeded 16th out of 95 competitors in the 400m free and 20th out of 95 entrants in the 200m fly.
Cota’s quest begins Sunday with the 100m fly and 400m IM.
Gilmore will take part in the 100m free in Omaha on July 3. The senior, who earned honorable mention All-America honors in the 200 freestyle relay at the 2006 NCAA Championships, finished her junior season tied with former Lady Tiger great Lucy Findlay for the most school records in program history. The native of Loxley, Ala., owns the 50-yard freestyle mark and four relay records at LSU.
Additionally, Gilmore emerged victorious in nine individual events and played a role on 15 winning relay squads last season.
Braud, who concluded a fine collegiate career this past season, will swim in the 100-meter backstroke on June 30. His career-best times in the 100- and 200-yard backstrokes are the third-fastest marks in LSU history.
The maximum allowable Olympic team size is 26 men and 26 women.
Competitors swimming in the 100- or 200-meter freestyle races will need to place in the top six of the finals to put themselves in position to be nominated. All other swimmers will likely have to win the event or finish second in order to receive a nomination. In addition, all swimmers must have met FINA’s Olympic swimming time standards to be eligible for selection.
The preliminary rounds of each day’s events will begin at 11 a.m.
CT with the semifinal and final rounds beginning at approximately
6:45 p.m. CT.
The competition will be televised by the NBC and USA networks. NBC will air the trials on June 29 and July 4-6 at 7 p.m. CT. USA will broadcast the competition from June 30-July 3 at 7 p.m. CT. Be sure to log on to www.LSUsports.net for daily updates from Omaha as three of LSU’s athletes look to qualify for the Beijing Games.
U.S. Olympic Team Trials ? Schedule of Events for Sunday, June 29
Preliminaries ? 11 a.m. CT
400 IM ? men
100 Fly ? women
400 Free ? men
400 IM ? women
100 Breast ? men
Finals ? 6:45 p.m. CT
400 IM ? men ? FINAL
100 Fly ? women ? semifinal
400 Free ? men ? FINAL
400 IM ? women ? FINAL
100 Breast ? men ? semifinal