Brooks Curry Captures Swimming Silver Medal Without Getting Wet

Cal-affiliated athlete Curry swam for the U.S. in the qualifying heat of the Olympic 4x200 freestyle relay, but not in the final, when the USA squad finished second. Jack Alexy advances to the final of 100 freestyle

Brooks Curry / Robert Goddin-USA TODAY Sports

Brooks Curry won an Olympic silver medal in swimming on Tuesday without getting in the water in the final.

Curry swam a leg for the United States' 4x200 freestyle relay team that won its heat and had the second-fastest time overall earlier on Tuesday to qualify for the finals.

However, Curry was not one of the four swimmers who swam for the U.S. in the finals of the 4x200 freestyle relay final later Tuesday. But when the Americans finished second in the final, Curry earned a silver medal for his part in the preliminary heat.

The gold medal went to Great Britain, which also won the gold medal in the 2020 Olympics. The British foursome finished in a time 6:59.43, which was 1.35 seconds ahead of the Americans. Australia was third, 1.20 seconds behind the United States.

Brooks had the fastest leg of the four American swimmers in the earlier heat, but Drew Kibler was the only American that swam in the early heat who was chosen to swim in the finals as well. Luke Hobson, Carson Foster and Kieran Smith were the other U.S. swimmers in the final.

In the early heats, the U.S. team, which included Curry, finished in a time of 7:05.57. The restructured U.S. team in the final was clocked in 7:00.78.

The United States had dominated this event over the years, winning 17 Olympic gold medals in the 4x200 freestyle relay entering these Olympics.  But for the first time ever, the Americans failed to win any medal in this event in the 2020 Olympics, so this was a bounce-back performance.

Curry attended LSU, but he is wearing a Cal swimming cap during the Olympics because he is a member of Cal’s training program under the direction of Cal swimming coach Dave Durden.

This is Curry’s second Olympics after winning a gold medal as a member of the 4x100 freestyle relay team in the 2020  Games. He finished fifth in the 200 freestyle at this year’s U.S. Olympic trials, earning him one of the seven spots on the American 4x200 freestyle relay team.

Jack Alexy, USA: Current Cal swimmer Alexy did not have a great swim in 100-meter freestyle semifinal on Tuesday, but it was good enough to qualify him for Wednesday’s finals.

His time of 47.68 seconds was the third-best in his semifinal heat and the sixth-fastest overall. His time was 0.47 seconds slower than the top qualifier, Pan Zhanl of China, who is the world-record-holder in the event.

Alexy has already won one gold medal in this Olympics as a member of the United States 4x100 freestyle relay team, which captured America’s first gold medial in these Summer Games three days ago.

In the preliminary round of the 100 freestyle earlier in the day, Alexy won his heat and had the fastest time off all the competitors at 47.57, which was slightly faster than his semifinal time. Pan barely qualified for the semifinal, as his preliminary heat time was tied for the 13th-fastest with only 16 swimmers advancing to the semifinals. His time was only 0.06 seconds faster than the swimmer who was 17th.

Jeremy Bagshaw, Canada: Bagshaw swam the third leg of the 4x200 freestyle relay for Canada in the morning heats. The Canadians finished seventh in their heat and were 14th overall, so they did not qualify for one of the eight spots in the finals. The 32-year-old Bradshaw is a 2014 graduate of Cal who plans start a year-long medical internship soon after the Olympics. This is his first Olympics.

Bjoern Seeliger, Sweden: Seeliger finished seventh in his heat of the 100-meter freestyle and had the 40th-fastest time overall, so he did not qualify for one of the 16 semifinal spots. Seeliger completed his senior season at Cal recently. This is his second Olympics after competing in the 50-meter freestyle in the 2020 Olympics but failing to reach the semifinals. 

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