At the XXXIII Summer Olympic Games in Paris, swimmers competed for medals in the 100-meter men's crawl and women's backstroke, where Turkmenistan was represented by Musa Jalayev, a student at the International University of Oil and Gas named after Yagshygeldi Kakayev, and Aynura Primova, a graduate of the capital's Secondary School №68. In June-July of this year, they took part in a training camp in Batumi (Georgia) as part of the national team, and made their debut in the main competition of the four-year period in the capital of France.
The 100m freestyle is the king of the sprint, so it's no surprise that 79 swimmers took to the starting line in the preliminary heats. In the women's 100m backstroke, 36 swimmers competed. To advance to the semifinals, each swimmer had to be in the top 16.
The goal of our swimmers at the 2024 Olympics was to surpass their best results. According to the head coach of the Turkmenistan national team, Dmitriy Novikov, M. Jalayev plans included swimming 100 meters in 51.15 seconds.
Already at the start Musa showed far from the best reaction speed - 0.67 seconds, losing precious hundredths of a second. He covered the first half of the distance - 50 meters - in 24.71 seconds, and the second worse - in 27.58 seconds. As a result, in the third qualifying swim M. Jalayev finished fourth with a time of 52.29 seconds, lagging behind the winner of the swim Zayed Faisal Alsarraj from Saudi Arabia by 1.08 seconds. Based on the results of all ten preliminary swims of the Olympic participants in the 100-meter freestyle, the 21-year-old master of sports of international class from Ashgabat took 61st place, losing 4.72 seconds to the winner of the qualification Jack Alexy (USA) and falling 0.66 seconds short of his own record of Turkmenistan - 51.63 seconds, set on September 24, 2023 at the XIX Summer Asian Games in Hangzhou (China).
The 2024 Olympic champion in the 100-meter freestyle with a new world record of 46.40 seconds was 19-year-old Chinese swimmer Pan Zhanle. It is noteworthy that the previous world record belonged to him and was set on the 11th of February, 2024, at the World Championships in Doha (46.80 seconds). Second place went to Australian Kyle Chalmers (47.48 seconds), and the bronze medalist was David Popovici from Romania (47.49 seconds).
17-year-old Master of Sports from Ashgabat Aynura Primova started at the Olympic Games in Paris in the first qualifying swim for 100 meters backstroke together with representatives of Sri Lanka, Mozambique and Libya. Having demonstrated a quick reaction at the start - 0.63 seconds, she was second in the first part of the distance with a time of 32.97 seconds. Our compatriot swam the second 50 meters much worse - in 37.20 seconds. As a result, Aynura finished third with a time of 1 minute 10.17 seconds, allowing Denise Donnelly from Mozambique to overtake her in the second half of the distance (1:08.73) and falling behind the winner of the swim Ganga Senaviragatne from Sri Lanka by 5.91 seconds.
Based on the results of all five preliminary heats of the Olympic participants in the 100-meter backstroke, Dmitry Novikov's ward took 35th place, 12.18 seconds behind the winner of the qualification, Katherine Berkoff (USA), including her results shown in this type of program at the 2023 Uzbekistan Open Championships (1:09.82), the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan (1:08.97), the 2023 Junior World Championships in Israel (1:08.22), the 2024 World Championships in Doha (1:09:56), and the international tournament in April of this year in Malaysia (1:09.11).
The champion of the Paris Games in this discipline with an Olympic record of 57.33 seconds was Australian Kaylie McKeown, ahead of the current world record holder American Regan Smith, who finished the swim with a result of 57.66. The top three winners in this distance with a time of 57.98 seconds were rounded out by another representative of the USA, Katherine Berkoff.
So, Turkmen swimmers have finished their performance at the Olympic Games in Paris, without showing their best results in their signature distances. A new Olympic cycle is ahead, and the coaching staff of our swimming team has time to analyze the results of the 2024 Olympics and work on improving the speed endurance of their charges.
