[Source: Reuters]

Katie Ledecky and a powerhouse American swim team will turn their attention to another Summer Games showdown with arch-rivals Australia after the U.S. Olympic trials concluded in Indianapolis on Sunday.

After nine days of intense competition at Lucas Oil Stadium, normally the home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, the final tickets to Paris were handed out with Simone Manuel winning the 50m freestyle and Bobby Finke the men’s 1,500m.

Manuel, the first Black woman to win an individual Olympic swimming gold medal at the 2016 Rio Games, won the ‘splash and dash’ in 24.13 seconds, just .02 head of Gretchen Walsh, who also earned a spot in the event in Paris.

“I put in a lot of work to get to this point,” said Manuel. “I wasn’t feeling too confident after last night (in the heats), I spent a lot of time watching races where I won and I really wanted to channel that Simone because I know I am a winner and that’s what I did tonight.”

Finke, gold medallist in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics, will defend both titles in Paris after touching first in the final event of the meeting in 14:40.28.

David Johnston finished 12 seconds back of the winner but the result was good enough to earn him a spot on his first Olympic team.
With the U.S. and Australian Olympic trials wrapped up the stage is now set for what is set to be an explosive competition in the Paris pool.
Team USA will once again be targeting top spot in the pool after winning 11 gold medals and 30 overall.

But Australian swimmers are heading to France on a mission to end the American reign after coming close in Japan with nine golds among their 21 total.

“This has been a legendary rivalry in our sport and it is shaping up again to be a really exciting one, both sides of the pool, men and women,” U.S. swimming great Michael Phelps told NBC Sports.