(Paris) Mary-Sophie Harvey had a mixed entrance at the Olympic Games on Saturday at noon at the Paris La Défense Arena, the first day of the swimming competitions where Summer McIntosh qualified for the final of the 400m freestyle.
The Canadian 4 X 100 m relay team secured its place in the final by clocking the sixth time in both heats of the heats (3 min 35.29). However, the Quebecer was the slowest of the four swimmers, which calls into question her participation in the final which will be presented in the evening (3:54 p.m. EST).
Second to start after Penny Oleksiak (53.78, 2e), Harvey made the round trip in 54.15, which placed Canada fifth in this second heat. New Brunswick’s Brooklyn Douthwright (53.81) and the experienced Taylor Ruck (53.55) combined to maintain this ranking.
Harvey made no secret that her own performance fell short of her recent standards, having finished second to Oleskiak at the Olympic Trials in the individual event.
“The weather in general is not great, but it’s a first race,” the 24-year-old athlete defended herself at The Press. I didn’t have any caffeine this morning. I was a little sleepy, I think! Should be better for the next races.”
True to form, the young woman smiled, but she was aware that she had jeopardized her status for the final, having skipped the 100m butterfly in order to save herself for this relay.
“The goal was to get into the final, we’ll see what happens if I swim tonight. Anyway, I have other events left, right? I can’t say [pour la finale]. We will see. “
Before entering the pool deck in an electric atmosphere – “Allez les Bleues!” chanted the French crowd – the flag-wearing relay runners had time to observe the Americans achieve the best time of the first wave (3 min 33.29, 2e in total).
We knew that the second wave was the toughest series, that it would be more decided there. We were happy with it and we made our race plan.
Mary-Sophie Harvey
Australia (3 min 31.57) finished first, followed by China, Sweden, France and Canada.
“It’s the first race, we have to break the ice,” added the Trois-Rivières native. “The goal was to get into the final. Now, I think we all have room for improvement. It should be exciting for tonight.”
The Canadian lineup is likely to be very different in the final.
Maggie Mac Neil, who holds the Canadian season’s best time, expects to be in the mix after her participation in the semifinals of the 100m butterfly. The Olympic champion posted the seventh-fastest time in the preliminaries of her favourite event earlier in the session (57.00).
PHOTO PETR DAVID JOSEK, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Maggie Mac Neil
By all accounts, Oleksiak and Ruck, who have a combined 11 Olympic medals, should also be members of the quartet. “I feel stronger and more confident,” said Oleskiak, who has spent the last six weeks training with Harvey in Europe.
Summer McIntosh, 4e of the 400m freestyle heats, is the other candidate, even if she will have less than forty minutes to recover from a highly anticipated final, where she will measure herself against the American Katie Ledecky, the Australian Ariarne Titmus and the New Zealander Erika Fairweather, who beat her in that order in the morning.
PHOTO MATTHIAS SCHRADER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Summer McIntosh
“It’s part of her plans,” Swimming Canada high performance director John Atkinson confirmed earlier this week. The 17-year-old Canadian finished ahead of Mac Neil and Harvey at the Toronto Omium in June.
The decision will be up to Montreal head coach Ryan Mallette and assistant Greg Arkhurst, who is responsible for the freestyle relays at the Games and Mary-Sophie Harvey’s personal coach with the CAMO club.