One of the youngest competitors in the women’s 50-meter freestyle field Saturday at the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, Atherton’s Izzi Henig was admittedly amped up.
The 15-year-old Henig — who recently finished her sophomore year at Menlo-Atherton High School — voiced realistic expectations upon travelling to Omaha, Nebraska. While qualifying for the Olympic team was an outside possibility, it wasn’t probable; she instead had her sights set on qualifying for the U.S. National Junior Team.
After being disqualified for a false start in Saturday’s preliminaries, Henig is now looking to the future.
“I think I was just super excited, super nervous on my blocks,” Henig said. “I was ready to go and I guess I left early.”
In an event where a fast start is everything, and false starts are commonplace, Henig said she stuttered just before the gun but regained her footing on her block, meaning she propelled herself into the water with the starting gun. The stutter was enough to cost her though. She went on to swim the race in approximately 26-and-a-quarter seconds, though she didn’t record an official time. Her all-time best in the event is 25.77 seconds, which she swam last summer in San Antonio.
“I suspect if I didn’t DQ, I could have matched or gone faster than that at trials,” Henig said.
Henig arrived back home Sunday morning with her flight into San Francisco International Airport touching down hours before Abbey Weitzeil won the finals of the 50 free in 24.28 seconds, qualifying for the event at next month’s Summer Olympics. Joining Weitzeil in Rio will be the runner-up in the event, Simone Manuel, who finished with a 24.33.
“Obviously I’m a little bit disappointed,” Henig said. “But I know that I can come back and I have another shot at trials and success in four years. So I’m looking forward to that”
Henig’s season is not over though, as she is slated to compete in the 2016 Futures Championships August 4-7 at Stanford. It is one of four regional Futures events across the nation. Henig will compete in six events, including her signature 50 free.
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