Multi-Olympic gold medalists Nathan Adrian of Bremerton, distance specialist Katie Ledecky and the reigning queen of the pool Missy Franklin are expected to headline the U.S. Winter National Championships, starting Wednesday and running through Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.
Other top Americans include Olympic gold medalists Natalie Coughlin, Matt Grevers and Cullen Jones, as well as Rachel Bootsma, Caitlin Leverenz, Chloe Sutton and Connor Jaeger, are scheduled to swim at the University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Aquatic Center.
A strong field of international Olympians will compete, including Yulduz Kuchkarova of Uzbekistan, Russia’s Arkady Vyatchanin, Great Britain’s Adam Brown and South Africa’s Darian Townsend.
Preliminaries begin at 6 a.m. (local time) with finals at 2 p.m. The 50-yard freestyle is Thursday while the 100 free is Sunday.
A live webcast of prelims and finals will be available at usaswimming.org. National TV coverage will air on NBC on Saturday, Dec. 21 from 2-3 p.m.
