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Abbey Weitzeil will get her second and final chance to win her first individual medal at the Tokyo Olympics Saturday evening, one day after the swimmer raised in Saugus recorded a lifetime best in the 50-meter freestyle.
Weitzeil’s semifinal time of 24.19 seconds was the fourth-fastest and moved her up to No. 4 on the list of all-time fastest Americans in the event. Her previous best was 23.45 set in 2020.
The race is set to begin at 6:37 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time and will be televised live by NBC.
Weitzeil was eighth in the women’s 100 freestyle Wednesday, a race she finished seventh in during the 2016 Rio Games, where she advanced to the semifinals of the 50 freestyle.
The 24-year-old Weitzeil won a bronze medal last Saturday by swimming the second leg on the U.S. women’s 4X100-meter freestyle relay team. She won a gold medal as part of the 4X100 medley relay team and a silver on the 4X100 freestyle relay team in the 2016 Olympics.
Weitzeil graduated from Saugus High School in 2015 and deferred entering UC Berkeley for a year to train for the Olympics. She swam for the Golden Bears from 2016-20, winning the 2019 NCAA championship in the 50 freestyle and was the recipient of the 2020 Honda Sport Award for swimming, given to the national swimmer of the year.
Saugus Swimmer Abbey Weitzeil To Race in 50-Meter Freestyle Saturday evening was last modified: July 31st, 2021 by
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