When: Sunday through June 20
Where: CHI Health Center, Omaha
TV/Streaming: Semifinals and finals will be televised live each night. NBC has coverage Sunday through Wednesday (7 p.m.), as well as Friday (8 p.m.), June 19 (8 p.m.) and June 20 (7 p.m.). NBCSN and the Peacock streaming service will show Thursday's finals live beginning at 7 p.m., with tape-delayed coverage on NBC starting at 9 p.m.
All races, including morning preliminaries, will be streamed live on nbcolympics.com, and preliminary heats will be shown on tape delay on NBCSN and Peacock, beginning at 5:30 p.m. every day except Sunday (4:30 p.m.) and Friday (5 p.m.).
What's at stake: The U.S. team for next month's Tokyo Olympics will be chosen at the trials. A maximum of 26 men and 26 women will make the roster, with winners of each event —and the top four finishers in the 100- and 200-meter freestyles — earning automatic berths. After those places are claimed, second-place finishers will be added to the team in a priority order based on integrated world rankings from 2019 and 2020.
The schedule: Preliminaries begin at 10 a.m. each day. Final/semifinal sessions begin at 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and June 19, and 7:15 p.m. on June 20.
The format: In most events, the 16 fastest swimmers will advance from the morning preliminaries to the evening semifinals. The top eight in the semifinals will race in the finals the following evening. There are no semifinals in the 400- 800- or 1,500-meter freestyles or the 400-meter individual medley.
MINNESOTA CONNECTIONS
The biggest name among the local contingent is Lakeville's Regan Smith, the world record holder in the women's 100 and 200 backstroke. Smith will race in both of those events, as well as the 100 and 200 butterfly. She is the No. 1 seed in the 100 and 200 back, No. 2 in the 200 fly and No. 5 in the 100 fly.
Isabelle Stadden of Blaine, who just completed her freshman year at Cal, is entered in both women's backstroke events. A top-five finisher in those races at the NCAA championships, she is the No. 5 seed in the 200 back and No. 8 in the 100 back.
Gophers junior Max McHugh, the 2021 NCAA champion in the men's 100 and 200 breaststroke, is seeded No. 17 in the 100 and 23rd in the 200. Two former Gophers also are top-20 seeds in their events. Bowe Becker, a three-time Big Ten champion who completed his college career in 2019, is seeded eighth in the 50 freestyle and 12th in the 100 free. Tevyn Waddell, who won two Big Ten titles during a Gophers career that ended in 2020, is seeded 15th in the women's 200 back. Other current Gophers competing: Abbey Kilgallon, women's 400 and 1500 freestyle; Sawyer Grimes, men's 400, 800, 1,500 free. Another former Gophers swimmer, Lindsey Kozelsky of Albert Lea, is entered in the 100/200 breaststroke.
THE STARS
At age 24, Katie Ledecky remains the ruler of the women's distance freestyle events. The five-time Olympic gold medalist is looking for a third trip to the Summer Games. The top seed in the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles, Ledecky is the world record holder in the latter three events.
In the freestyle sprints, Simone Manuel, the gold medalist in the 100 free at the 2016 Rio Games, enters the trials as the American record holder and top seed in the 50 and 100 free. She's also entered in the 200 free as the No. 3 seed.
Since winning a pair of relay golds at the 2016 Olympics, Caeleb Dressel has amassed 13 gold medals at the past two world championships. He owns the world record in the 100 butterfly and U.S. records in the 50 and 100 freestyle and is entered in six events at the trials.
The versatile Michael Andrew — who was born in Edina but grew up in Kansas — also is entered in six events and is among the top five seeds in the 200 breaststroke, 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke.
While Andrew hopes to make his first Olympic team, Ryan Lochte, 36, is pursuing a fifth appearance in the Summer Games. The best chance for the six-time gold medalist is in the 200 IM, where the world record holder is seeded fifth.