Jack Alexy Advances to Final of 100 Freestyle

Current Cal athlete Jack Alexy did not have a great swim in 100-meter freestyle semifinal on Tuesday, but it was good enough to qualify him for Wednesday’s finals.

His time of 47.68 seconds was the third-best in his semifinal heat and the sixth-fastest overall. His time was 0.47 seconds slower than the top qualifier, Pan Zhanl of China, who is the world-record-holder in the event.

Alexy has already won one gold medal in this Olympics as a member of the United States 4x100 freestyle relay team, which captured America’s first gold medial in these Summer Games three days ago.

In the preliminary round of the 100 freestyle earlier in the day, Alexy won his heat and had the fastest time off all the competitors at 47.57, which was slightly faster than his semifinal time. Pan barely qualified for the semifinal, as his preliminary heat time was tied for the 13th-fastest with only 16 swimmers advancing to the semifinals. His time was only 0.06 seconds faster than the swimmer who was 17th.

Brooks Curry, USA: Curry swam for the United States team that finished first in its heat of 4x200 freestyle, qualifying the Americans for the finals later Tuesday. The U.S. had the second-fastest time overall in the heats with a time of 7:05.57, and Brooks had the fastest leg of the four American swimmers in that heat. Curry attended LSU but is a member of Cal’s training group. This is his second Olympics after winning a gold medal in the in the 2020 Olympics. 

Jeremy Bagshaw, Canada: Bagshaw swam the third leg of the 4x200 freestyle relay for Canada in the morning heats. The Canadians finished seventh in their heat and were 14th overall, so they did not qualify for one of the eight spots in the finals. The 32-year-old Bradshaw is a 2014 graduate of Cal who plans start a year-long medical internship soon after the Olympics. This is his first Olympics.

Bjoern Seeliger, Sweden: Seeliger finished seventh in his heat of the 100-meter freestyle and had the 40th-fastest time overall, so he did not qualify for one of the 16 semifinal spots. Seeliger completed his senior season at Cal recently. This is his second Olympics after competing in the 50-meter freestyle in the 2020 Olympics but failing to reach the semifinals.