Gretchen Walsh follows world record with 1st Olympic berth; Carson Foster wins 400 IM

“I was definitely nervous,” Walsh said. “There were a lot of what-if questions. When I broke the world record, I thought, ‘Do I have to do that again just to make the team? What if I come third? What is that even going to look like?’”

No problem. She goes to Paris.

That includes Carson Foster. He compensated for the disappointment of 2021, when he just missed the Olympic Games, with a victory in the men’s 400 individual medley.

And 30-year-old Nic Fink, whose wife is expecting a child, has made a whole Father’s Day of it – or should that be Father’s Day? – by winning the 100 breaststroke on the second night of the trials.

As he looked into the stands of the enormous Lucas Oil Stadium, he saw Melanie Margolis Fink – herself a gold medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics – and made a rocking motion.

It’s clear that Nic Fink was thinking about more than just his own gold. The couple’s first child, a boy, is expected in mid-September.

“It’s one of those things that doesn’t really make sense to me,” Fink said. “I feel like I haven’t earned it yet. But the next one (Father’s Day) will definitely feel like that after diapers and late nights and stuff like that.

Facing three medalists from the Tokyo Games, Walsh knew she had work to do – even after setting a world record in the semi-finals with a time of 55.18, breaking Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström’s record since the Olympics of 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.

Using the same strategy, Walsh again went out strong in the final and was below her world record pace on the turn.

Then it was a matter of hanging in there for the 21-year-old native of Nashville, Tennessee, who swims for the University of Virginia.

She finished with the second fastest time in history, while Torri Huske took the second Olympic spot with a time of 55.52, making her the third fastest woman in swimming history.

“I couldn’t ask for a better start to the meet,” Walsh said.

Regan Smith became the fourth fastest woman ever with 55.62, but third place was not enough to get her to Paris on the powerful American team. Later in the match she will have more opportunities to claim her spot.

The first final of the evening produced another first-time Olympian as Foster defeated Tokyo gold medalist Chase Kalisz.

But Kalisz should get the chance to defend his gold in Paris and take second place to claim the expected second American spot.

Jay Litherland, the 400 IM silver medalist in Tokyo, missed his third Olympic Games with a third-place finish.

Foster, 22, a Cincinnati native who played collegiately in Texas, led the entire race, finishing in 4 minutes, 7.64 seconds.

He seemed on the verge of tears when Kalisz reached over the track rope to give him a hug, knowing how much this meant to the winner.

At the 2021 trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Foster was the top seed coming out of the preliminaries, but was chased in the finals by both Kalisz and Litherland.

Third place cost Foster a trip to the Tokyo Games. When the Americans won 1-2 at the Olympics, the missed opportunity hurt even more.

“As much as I’ve grown, there was still fear because of what happened three years ago,” Foster admitted.

But when he stepped to the block, with Kalisz on one side and Litherland on the other, a renewed confidence washed over Foster.

“I’ve had trouble staying on my path in the past,” he said metaphorically. “The first thing that would go wrong was that the lights would go out for me. I have fought those inner negative voices. But tonight was different. I stayed in my own lane. I think I’ve been laughing for the last fifty years.”

Kalisz closed to within a tenth of a second on the breaststroke leg, but the 30-year-old simply didn’t have enough in the tank to keep up with the younger Foster. The winner rode away on the freestyle, with Kalisz hitting the ball in 4:09.39.

Litherland faded at the end for a time of 4:12.34.

Fink, who combines swimming with a 40-hour-a-week job and will soon become a parent, is heading to his second Olympics after taking first place in 59.08. He held off Charlie Swanson, who secured the expected second place for Paris in 59.16.

“That’s a win for me,” Fink said, “but it’s actually a win for everyone in my life.”

A life that will soon have a new addition.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/summer-olympics