After senior breaststroke swimmer Anna Elendt secured her spot on the German Olympic team, it is now time for the American Longhorns to fight for a place on Team USA.
Elendt, who holds German records in the 50 and 100-meter breast alongside the 200-meter breast in long course, will be heading to her second Olympic Games, and she might not be the only two-time Olympian in Paris.
Junior Lydia Jacoby not only made her Olympic debut as a high schooler in the Tokyo Games but conquered a silver and a gold medal. Jacoby won the gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, having recorded the fastest time ever achieved by a female American swimmer (1:04.95).
“It’s very different coming in from three years ago now, nobody knowing who I was,” Jacoby said to Gold Medal Minute. “I’ve just been trying to remember I am my biggest critic and not letting the outside pressure get to me. Just thinking about, if I finish my career with just two Olympic medals, that’s pretty solid.”
The Seward, Alaska native is ready to make the team and defend her title in Paris while rising senior Erica Sullivan is looking for her first gold after winning a silver medal in the 1,500-meter free.
While some Longhorns might not have experience in the pinnacle of sports, several got a taste of the competition in the 2023 Pan American games in Santiago, Chile. In the butterfly, Kelly Pash won a silver medal in the 100-meter and a bronze in the 200, while former teammate Dakota Luther earned the gold in the 200-meter. The duo now hopes to make their first Olympic squad after the trials in Indiana.
Former Longhorn Carson Foster is one of the favorites to become the first American to win an international medal in the 200-meter fly since Michael Phelps retired. Foster announced he would forgo his last years of collegiate eligibility to pursue a professional career in 2023.
“I think missing the team in 2021 exposed some of my weaknesses,” Foster told Olympics.com. “The pressure of needing to be perfect backfired. But I spoke to a lot of people who helped me realize that my life was still the same, and I still get to do the sport I love for a living.”
The trials are set to last from June 15 to June 23, with both heats and finals events at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
