Las Vegas swimmer qualifies for 3rd event at Paris Olympics

By Jim Barnes Las Vegas Review-Journal

5 months ago

Katie Grimes swims during a women's 1,500-meter freestyle preliminary heat Tuesday, June 18, 20 ... — Katie Grimes swims during a women’s 1,500-meter freestyle preliminary heat Tuesday, June 18, 2024, at the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Katie Ledecky and Katie Grimes celerate after the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle finals Wednesday, June 19, 2024, at the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Katie Ledecky and Katie Grimes celerate after the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle finals Wednesday, June 19, 2024, at the U.S. Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Katie Ledecky, Claire Weinstein, Paige Madden and Erin Gemmell celebrate after the Women’s 200 freestyle finals Monday, June 17, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings)

Ananias Pouch swims during a Men’s 200 Breaststroke semifinals heat Tuesday, June 18, 2024, at the US Swimming Olympic Trials in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Las Vegas teenager Katie Grimes qualified for a third event in the 2024 Paris Olympics by finishing second in the 1,500-meter freestyle Wednesday at the U.S. Olympic trials in Indianapolis.

Grimes, 18, who swims for the Sandpipers of Nevada, posted a time of 15 minutes, 57.77 seconds, trailing world record-holder and seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky (15:37.35).

Grimes previously qualified for the Paris Games in the 400-meter individual medley and the 10-kilometer open-water race.

At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — contested in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic — Grimes was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team at 15. She finished fourth in the 800-meter freestyle.

On Wednesday, fellow Sandpiper Erica Sullivan, who attended Palo Verde High School, finished seventh in the 1,500 freestyle in 16:29.88.

A.J. Pouch of Boulder City just missed qualifying for the Olympics, finishing third in the 200 breaststroke (2:09.05). He finished ninth in the 100 breaststroke (59.86) on Saturday.

Former Sandpiper Bella Sims finished 21st in the 200 butterfly (2:12.41).

Lucy Warnick of the Sandpipers and Palo Verde finished 25th in the 200 breaststroke (2:32.31).

UNLV’s McKay Mickelson, from Legacy High, finished 48th in the men’s 200 backstroke (2:02.22).

Previously at the trials:

— Claire Weinstein of the Sandpipers advanced to the Olympics by finishing second in the 200-meter freestyle (1:56.18) to Ledecky (1:55.22) on Monday. Grimes finished eighth (1:57.33) in that race. Weinstein also finished 30th in the 400 freestyle (4:14.20) on Saturday.

— Luke Ellis of the Sandpipers qualified fifth (7:54.26) for the 800-meter freestyle Monday but scratched out of Tuesday’s final. He also finished 14th in the 400-meter freestyle (3:50.79) on Saturday and 14th in the 400-meter individual medley (4:19.94) on Sunday.

— Cody Miller of the Sandpipers and Palo Verde — a 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the 4×100 medley relay and bronze medalist in the 100 breaststroke — finished 15th in the 100 breaststroke (1:00.63) on Saturday and 17th in the 200 breaststroke (2:12.23) on Tuesday.

— Josh Brown of the Sandpipers finished 13th in the 800 freestyle (8:00.76) on Monday and 35th in the 400 freestyle (3:55.05) on Saturday.

— Max Carlsen of Las Vegas Swim Club and Palo Verde finished 20th in the 800-meter freestyle (8:02.98) on Monday and 22nd in the 400-meter freestyle (3:52.93) on Saturday. He recently won the Class 5A state title in the 200-yard (1:37.56) and 500-yard (4:21.37) freestyle, setting a state record in the latter in the process.

— Gabriel Manteufel of the Sandipipers finished 21st in the 800 freestyle (8:04.59) on Monday and 41st in the 400 freestyle (3:55.93) on Saturday.

— Sims also finished 17th in the 200 freestyle (1:59.68) on Sunday, 18th in the 100 backstroke (1:00.88) on Monday, 20th in the 400 freestyle (4:12.49) on Saturday and 31st in the 100 freestyle (55.54) on Tuesday.

Contact Jim Barnes at jbarnes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277. Follow @JimBarnesLV on Twitter.