INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Shaine Casas looked at the scoreboard, took off his cap and slapped the water angrily as if he had just won the men’s 200-meter individual medley at U.S. Olympic qualifying events Friday.
Second place was more than worth it for the 24-year-old Californian.
Yes, three years after finishing third and sixth in his top two events at the trials in Omaha, Nebraska and missing out on the Olympic team, Casas finally achieved his lifelong dream of making the American team.
“I think I’ll remember this race for the rest of my life,” said Casas. “It wasn’t my best race, or even my fastest, but this race represented my whole life and I can’t even put into words what it means to me.”
Casas finished just behind Carson Foster with a time of 1 minute and 55.83 seconds, securing the second qualifying spot for this competition.
It was’nt easy.
Casas admitted that memories of missing the Tokyo Games helped him get through the painful final 50 meters on the road to Paris and enjoy an unforgettable post-race celebration with Foster, who won both IM races in Indianapolis this week.
And while Casas didn’t come to Indianapolis as a favorite – as he did in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a one-year postponement of the Tokyo Games – there were plenty of surprises at this year’s Trials, most notably perhaps the emergence of Chris Guiliano, the first Notre Dame swimmer to qualify for the U.S. men’s Olympic swim team.
He qualified in his third individual competition on Friday and finished the 50 m freestyle in 21.69 seconds. Only seven-time Olympic champion Caleb Dressel was faster at 0.28 seconds.
Guiliano was the first American man to qualify for the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle since Matt Biondi in 1988, and he will also compete on several relay teams. Biondi was a three-time U.S. Olympic team member and won 11 gold medals. When Guiliano’s accomplishment was announced poolside, Dressel poked fun at the 20-year-old rising star.
“I asked my coaches a few times, ‘Why not?'” Giuliano said. “‘Let’s try to win for three months and then suddenly that’s exactly the mindset I went into the tryouts with.'”
But for Casas, qualifying for the swim was the most significant moment in a career that took him from California to Texas and finally to Texas A&M. There, he rose from top talent to short-course star and became an Olympic hopeful with a comeback that will go down in history as unmatched.
“You summed it up perfectly, it was a relief,” Casas said. “I played that race through in my head, I dreamed about it, imagined what that moment would be like. I was pretty emotional because it was so much to process. That kind of represented my entire life’s work and everyone who was important to me and who helped me get to this point.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
