From Swimming World Magazine:
On July 1, Emma Rajic qualified in the 50 Free and 100 Breastroke for Croatia.

"Emma Rajic joins a growing list of Cal women's swimmers heading to Tokyo. Alums Katie McLaughlin and Abbey Weitzeil recently qualified for the U.S. team, while others slated to compete at the Games are: Alicia Wilson (Great Britain), Farida Osman (Egypt), Marina Garcia (Spain), Camille Cheng (Hong Kong) and Stephanie Au (Hong Kong). Cal head coach Teri McKeever will also serve as a member of the Team USA staff at the Olympics."

Quite the international group -

Swimming World on Women Swimming Calympians

Brill stuff, cheers for the beary exciting news!

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Ema Rajic Earns Olympic Berth For Croatia

Cal Senior-To-Be Set To Swim In Tokyo This Month

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• UPDATES =>

Also Tokyo bound = 2021 Baby Bear Fanni Fabian (Hungary), well done!

Fellow 2021 incoming froski Lea Polonsky (Israel) oh so very narrowly missed the FINA "A" standard of 2:12.56 by a mere 0.09 sec, when she had busted out a lifetime best of 2:12.65 in winning the *200m IM* at the Israeli Olympic Qualifier

So didn't quite qualify for Tokyo in an individual event - unless she's selected as a relay only swimmer by her country...

SwimSwam readers said:

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Braden Keith {Admin} wrote: "Polonsky has a "B" cut in the 400 IM, so she wouldn't necessarily have to be a relay only swimmer (for Israel @ Tokyo)."

Hannah wrote: "Polonsky is also about .1 away from the A cut in the 200 IM and Israel apparently has other qualifying opportunities in June. If she qualifies there she definitely won't be a relay only swimmer anymore. I'm assuming she didn't swim the event here because this is the last chance of qualifying the relay and they wanted to focus on that."

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Cal Quartet Named To U.S. Olympic Swim Team

Murphy, Mefford, Seliskar, Shields Will Open Competition July 24 In Tokyo

• 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Roster (PDF)

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Six Cal swimmers and both Head Coaches named to U.S. Olympic Swim Team

by Ruey Yen

Eight Cal Bears will be representing Team USA in swimming in a month at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The swimming events will take place from July 24 August 1, which will be the first week of action right after the opening ceremony on July 23.

-> Ryan Murphy
Tokyo Events: 100m Back, 200m Back, Men's 4x100m Medley Relay, Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay
Cal Alum ('17)
2016 Rio "Calympian"
Olympic Medals: 100m Back Gold, 200m Back Gold, 4x100m Medley Gold

-> Abbey Weitzeil
Tokyo Events: 100m Free, 50m Free, Women's 4x100m Free Relay, Women's 4x100m Medley Relay, Mixed 4x100m Medley Relay
Cal Alum ('20)
2016 Rio "Calympian"
Olympic Medals: 4x100m Medley Gold, 4x100m Free Silver

-> Tom Shields
Tokyo events: 100m Fly, Men's 4x100m Medley Relay (prelim)
Cal Alum ('13)
2016 Rio "Calympian"
Olympic Medals: 4x100m Medley Gold (swam prelim)

-> Bryce Mefford
Tokyo event: 200m Back
Cal Alum ('21) but could still possibly return and race at Cal for one more year

-> Katie McLaughlin
Tokyo event: Women's 4x200m Free Relay
Cal Alum ('19)

-> Andrew Seliskar
Tokyo event: Men's 4x200m Free Relay
Cal Alum ('19)


-> USA Men's head coach - Dave Durden
Soon after the 2016 Rio Games, Cal men's swimming head coach Dave Durden was anointed the 2020 Tokyo Team USA men's head coach. Durden will be the one deciding the relay lineups, including who will swim the morning prelim (the participant will also earn a medal) and who in the prime time finals.

-> Assistant coach - Teri McKeever
Cal Women's head coach Teri McKeever served as the Team USA women's head coach for the 2012 London Olympics. She will be heading to Tokyo as an assistant coach to Stanford's Greg Meehan as the Women's head coach.

Nonetheless, Teri will get the opportunity to get to know some of the younger members of Team USAsuch as 16-year-old Claire Curzan or 15-year-old Katie Grimes. Just like we did not know that Missy Franklin would be a future Cal Bear at her breakout 2012 London Olympics, I am hopeful that one of the younger Team USA members may be a future Cal Golden Bear.

Another look at our 3 Golden Bears heading to Tokyo as part of Team USA. Congratulations and good luck, Katie, Coach McKeever and Abbey! #GoBears pic.twitter.com/GHDOhwap2W

— Cal W Swim & Dive (@CalWSwim) June 21, 2021

Other Swimming "Calympians" (list is possibly incomplete with some countries' Olympic trials this week)

-> Stephanie Au (Hong Kong, 4th Olympic) - W 100 Back, W 4x100 Medley Relay; Cal Alum ('14)

-> Hugo Gonzalez (Spain, 2nd Olympic) - M 100 Back, M 200 IM; Cal Rising Redshirt Senior

-> Farida Osman (Egypt, 2nd Olympic) - W 100 Fly; Cal Alum ('17)

-> Zheng Wen Quah (Singapore, 3rd Olympic) - M 100 Back, M 100 Fly; Cal alum ('20)

-> Alicia Wilson (Great Britain, 1st Olympic) - W 200 IM; Cal Rising Senior


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• UPDATE => several Swimming "Calympians" not mentioned in above list:

-> Marina Garcia (Spain, 1st Olympic) - Cal Alum ('17)

MARINA GARCIA ADDED TO SPAIN'S 2021 OLYMPIC TEAM IN THE 200 BREAST



...the Royal Spanish Swimming Federation named Garcia to the team, giving her a spot on her first-ever Olympic squad, because she had posted an "A" cut of 2:25.04 back in December 2020.


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-> Camille Cheng (Hong Kong, 2nd Olympic) - Cal Alum ('15)

https://instagr.am/p/CQ0ujd_hw-l

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Björn is going to Tokyo! 💪🇸🇪

The Cal sprinter will represent Sweden at the Olympic Games later this month.

📰 » https://t.co/vyeFwwzKdk pic.twitter.com/lDaTFbIGGf

— Cal Men's Swim & Dive (@calmenswim) July 6, 2021

BJORN SEELIGER QUALIFYING FOR TOKYO 8 DAYS AFTER HIS FATHER'S DEATH



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It is an absolute honor to be voted as a @USASwimming captain for the @Olympics this year alongside Caeleb, @arschmitty and @swimone. Let’s bring home some hardware 🇺🇸🇺🇸 https://t.co/YiY57AyorO

— Ryan Murphy (@ryan_f_murphy) July 6, 2021

The 2021 Olympic team visited with the media on Thursday from their training camp in Hawaii to chat about the upcoming Olympic Games in Tokyo. Team captains Simone Manuel, Allison Schmitt, Caeleb Dressel, and Ryan Murphy addressed topics such as leading Team USA, this team being such a young team (11 teenagers) and no fans in the stands in Tokyo.



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LYDIA JACOBY GIVES INSIDE LOOK AT 2021 OLYMPIC TRAINING CAMP IN HAWAII

Jacoby gives a rundown of what training has been like with the Olympic team so far, including sets with Abbey Weitzeil, Katie McLaughlin, and Caeleb Dressel

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Tokyo bound: Four Haasies to compete in summer Olympics


Collin Morikawa, BS 19, joins Justin Thomas, Xander Schauffele and Bryson DeChambeau on the men's U.S. golf team.

Johnny Hooper, BS 19, a 6'2 attacker, qualified for Tokyo as a member of the Men's Senior National Team, USA Water Polo.


Ryan Murphy, BS 17, is competing in his second Olympics, qualifying again in the 100- and 200-meter backstroke.



In 2016, Murphy won gold in both the 200m and 100m backstroke, and swam to victory in the 400m relay medley with Olympic legend Michael Phelps, Cal alum Nathan Adrian, and Cody Miller. "I honestly didn't think I'd win the 200m backstroke, but that's the event I really trained for," he told Berkeley Haas News at the time. "The 100m back comes a little more naturally to me, so the 200 is the one I have to really work for. It's the one that meant a lot because I know what's gone on behind that whole race and what I did in coming up with the best strategy to win it." This year, he's serving as an Olympic team captain for USA swimming.


Alicia Wilson, BS 22, qualified for a spot on Great Britain's swim team to compete in the 200-meter individual medley, a technically challenging race involving equal parts backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and freestyle. Wilson, a rising senior from England, had an incredible 2021 season, capturing the 2021 Pac-12 crown in the 200-yard individual medley.



Wilson said her inspiration started in 2012 when the London Olympic games "were literally on my front doorstep." Read an interview with Wilson here.


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Greg Meehan and Dave Durden Have Their Plan for Leading Team USA Through Pandemic-Era Olympics



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Tokyo Calympians Full List: Cal again well represented at the Summer Olympic Games

46 Past, Current, and Future Cal Bears will represent 17 countries in 10 sports (at the current count)

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Tokyo Calympian: Ema Rajic, Swimming, Croatia

One of eight 2021 Tokyo Calympians who are current Cal student-athletes, rising senior Ema Rajic will compete in her first Olympic Games while representing Croatia.

Rajic holds dual citizenship between USA and Croatia. She only switched officially to swim for Croatia after being at Cal and met former Croatian Calympian Duje Draganja, a 2018 Cal Athletics Hall of Fame inductee.

"I wouldn't have gotten into Croatian swimming without Teri or Duje especially."

"Going to Cal has been the best decision I have ever made. For school, it's one of the world's leading programs in genetics and genomics (my major). For swimming, it's obviously one of the best swimming schools not only in the country but has so much success internationally as well. This really gave me the confidence to come here and not only just make it thru such a rigorous program, but succeed way beyond my imagination. Obviously couldn't have done any of this without my coaches and my team, they've always been so supportive and always there to cheer me on."

Rajic became one of the team leaders and has also talked about how Cal men's swimming's Reece Whitley, who narrowly missed out on being a 2021 Tokyo Calympian for USA, has inspired her both inside and outside of the pool.

In a newspaper interview while still in high school in 2017, Rajic already geekily talked about the then exciting new biological breakthrough that was CRISPR-Cas9. Of course, Cal is one of the leading institutions in the world in developing CRISPR, for which Jennifer Doudna won the most recent Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

After getting on the Croatian national team in 2019, Ema Rajic quickly claimed the Croatian national record for both 50m Free and 100m Breasts, the two events that she will race in Tokyo.



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SoCalie said:

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For some perspective on how well Alicia did this year...at the Olympic Trials for Great Britain, she did a 2:09.61 in the 200 IM to qualify for their Olympic Team. That time is also currently 5th fastest in the world this year. That is HUGE. It also shows that she definitely was not fully tapered (or even close) at the NCAA championship in March, this year.

At our Olympic Trials, the winner (Alex Walsh) of the 200 IM went a 2:09.30. Second place went 2:09.32. Third place went 2:09.34. With her time, Alicia would have gotten 4th place - which is AMAZING!! However, you never know what might have happened if she had been in that heat with the American women and had such a close race on her hands.

Super impressive time by Alicia!

GO BEARS!!!!

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Alicia Wilson's spectacular swimming progression is indeed a veritable testament to the value & effectiveness of Teri's programme and the training environment @ Cal.

Wilson naturally had exciting potential when first recruited, with impressive credentials in her signature *200 IM* event - 2017 Commonwealth Youth Games Champion (2:15.49) & Euro Juniors 2017 Bronze medallist (2:14.60), culminating in a personal record from British Summer Meet 2018 (2:14.42), just prior to becoming a Golden Bear:

UrsusArctosCalifornicus said:

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Well done, bearz012 - cheers for the brill news

• "The team at Berkeley made me feel incredibly welcomed. The prospect of working with Teri, Sarah and the amazing swim team makes me feel extremely excited and I feel that this university is the place that I can grow the most as a person both in and out of the pool."
• https://www.collegeswimming.com/swimmer/610466/

Here is Alicia with her bronze medal from the 200m IM final @ Euro Junior Champs this summer - that 2:14.60 incidentally dropped one and a half seconds off her lifetime best!



btw thank you very much Alicia for coming to Cal, instead of Oxford...

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It is however after Alicia's embrace of the blue & gold that her development kicked into yet another gear, starting with a casual 3 second drop to take the 200m IM title at the 2019 World University Games, with a winning time of 2:11.35 over Furdette Ella Eastin's runner-up 2:12.24!

Now, Alice is very much a "taper swimmer", as witnessed her considerably slower times when not fully rested @ British Swimming Glasgow Meet 2021 (2:12.38), at Euros 2021 (2:13.63), and at 2021 NCAAs.

If Wilson hits her taper right for Tokyo, and comes close to her lifetime best of 2:09.61 from British Swimming Selection Trials 2021, our English Bear will be a favourable bet to make finals at this Olympics...hey, perhaps to contend for a podium spot, should she rise to the occasion and find a way to break that challenging 2:09 barrier!


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Tokyo Calympian: Alicia Wilson, Swimming, Great Britain

by Ruey Yen

Alicia Wilson is another one of the current Cal student-athletes who will be a first-time Olympian in Tokyo. Let's learn more about the Surrey, England native.

Cal connection: Cal Rising Senior (Business Administration in the Haas School of Business)

Cal accomplishments: Alicia Wilson helped Cal to the 2021 Pac-12 title by winning the 200y IM. At the NCAA Championships, she placed 3rd in the 200y IM final.

Wilson earned Cal Women's Swimming's Most Improved Award for the COVID shortened 2019-20 season. She followed that up with another strong year in 2020-21 when she set three personal best to earn spots in the Cal All-Time Top-10 for 200y IM, 400y IM, and 200y Backstroke.

Shortly after the NCAA, Alicia returned to England where she placed 2nd at the Great Britain Olympic Trials in the 200m IM to earn her ticket to Tokyo.

Alicia Wilson, at her best, might be able to make the 200m IM Final in Tokyo. I expect this experience to push her to be even better next year for her senior season at Cal.

She had previously won Gold at the 2019 World University Games at Naples, Italy in 200m IM for Great Britain.


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Finding The Importance Of Team

Alicia Wilson Understands How The Right Support System Can Help Her Soar


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Tokyo Calympian: Bjorn Seeliger, Swimming, Sweden

by Ruey Yen

Bjorn Seeliger will be a first-time Olympian in Tokyo representing Sweeden.

Tragically, Bjorn's father passed away from a year-long battle with cancer just a mere 8 days before Bjorn earned his Olympic berth.

Prior to coming to Cal, Seeliger already owned the Swedish junior national record. He is also the latest of a long line of Swimming Swedish "Calympian" in Cal Men's Swimming history. For this Olympic Games, he will be joined by incoming freshman Robin Hanson.

According to his Cal bio, Bjorn has an uncle Marcus who was a postdoc in the Cal Chemistry department, in the lab of John Kuriyan. I do not believe Bjorn has declared a major yet at Cal.

With an imposing height of 6'8", Bjorn Seeliger and teammate Reece Whitley can probably take on anyone in either two-on-two basketball or beach volleyball.

https://instagr.am/p/CIqxerBBEeC
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Abbey easily had the best split time for Team USA in the 4 x 100. That bodes well for her individual event. Tedbear favorite Penny was scintillating in her anchor of Team Canada.

Hugo needs to swim the back stroke events next season as well as the IMs. GO BEARS!