INDIANAPOLIS — Swimming superstar Katie Ledecky punched her ticket to Paris on Saturday, marking her fourth time on the U.S. Olympic team.
In Indianapolis, Ledecky, a seven-time gold medalist, won the 2024 U.S. Olympic swim trials final in the women’s 400m freestyle, clinching a spot on Team USA. Paige Madden finished second but did not qualify for Paris in that race.
“I walked out of this tunnel tonight and just took a look around and just enjoyed the moment,” said Ledecky, who finished in 3:58.35. “We’ve come a long way and it’s really great that you all came out to support us. It’s been an amazing first night.”
In the men’s 400m freestyle final, 19-year-old Aaron Shackell was victorious is also Paris-bound.
It will be the first Olympics for Shackell, the son of swimmer Nick Shackell, who represented Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“Ever since I learned my dad was an Olympian, I’ve always wanted to be an Olympian myself,” Aaron Shackell said, adding that for a while he wasn’t especially good at the sport and didn’t like it. “It’s unbelievable to be honest.”
And Gretchen Walsh, a University of Virginia senior, broke a record in her semifinal heat Saturday when she swam the 100m butterfly in 55.18 — setting the first world record at trials since Michael Phelps did so in 2008.
Walsh’s record was met with applause and screams from the thousands in the crowd.
For the first time, USA Swimming staged the event inside an NFL stadium. An Indianapolis Colts red zone inside Lucas Oil Stadium was transformed into the trials’ competition pool. The massive venue allows for 30,000 fans to watch at once, according to organizers, as some of the world’s best athletes compete at an event arguably more nerve-racking than the Olympics themselves.
“This is way more intense than the Olympic games because it’s so hard to make the Olympics, and you throw in this monstrosity and it’s going to put the pressure on them in a big way,” said three-time gold medalist and NBC Sports analyst Rowdy Gaines.
Opening night, with primetime coverage on NBC, drew an in-person attendance of about 20,000, the largest crowd to see a night of swimming, according to commentators.
Putting the nine-day event together took weeks, according to USA Swimming Chief Commercial Officer Shana Ferguson, who said 1.8 million gallons of water were pumped into the stadium and are constantly recirculating to keep the temporary competition and warmup pools filled.
With more than a week to go, hundreds of elite athletes will continue fighting for the chance to represent the U.S. Some are eying their first Olympics.
“There’s no such thing as a past Olympian or a former Olympian. Once you make a team, that last for a lifetime,” Gaines said. “And that will never be able to be taken away from you.”