Josh Liendo Breaks Canadian Record in Prelims of the 100 Fly on Sunday, Ranks #3 in the World

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

2024 CANADIAN OLYMPIC & PARALYMPIC TRIALS

• May 13-19, 2024
• Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre – Toronto, Ontario
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• How To Watch
• Swimming Canada Olympic Selection Criteria
• Psych Sheets (Updated 05/10)
• Live Results
• Prelims – Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap | Day 3 Recap | Day 4 Recap | Day 5 Recap | Day 6 Recap | Day 7 Recap
• Finals – Day 1 Recap | Day 2 Recap | Day 3 Recap | Day 4 Recap | Day 5 Recap | Day 6 Recap

After setting a Canadian Record in the 50 free on Saturday evening, Josh Liendo was in full-blown ‘go mode’ on Sunday morning at the Canadian Olympic Trials. He swam 50.33 in prelims, shaving .01 seconds off his previous best time and national record and reaffirming himself as a serious contender for an Olympic medal in Paris this summer.

Liendo swam his previous best at last summer’s World Championships where he took a silver medalist behind Maxime Grousset of France.

Splits Comparison:

He swam this basically the same way that he swam his swim at last year’s World Championships. By comparison, en route to his first NCAA title in the event in March, he really pushed the front end of the race.

He has held this record since 2021, when he broke Santo Condorelli’s record of 51.83 from 2016.

Liendo now ranks #3 in the world this season, though the Olympic field continues to be muddled by the uncertain status of American Caeleb Dressel, the World Record holder and defending champion, and Hungarian Kristof Milak.

Of late, Dressel has looked on form, swimming 50.84 in San Antonio in April, though we don’t know how that will play out in a double-taper scenario of the Olympic Trials and Olympic Games. Milak’s situation, meanwhile, has become more chaotic with local media reporting that he has missed most practices since Hungary’s National Championships.

Liendo has historically been flat from Trials to the big international meet – no huge time drops, but usually within a tenth of his Trials cut in one direction or the other.

Besides the Canadian Record in the 50 free, Liendo also won the 100 free this week in 47.80, with a prelims 47.55 matching his time from Worlds last year; and he also swam a best time of 1:47.83 in prelims of the 200 free before scratching the final.

Liendo, 21, trains in the United States at the University of Florida. He has two World Championship silver medals and two bronze medals.

SwimSwam: Josh Liendo Breaks Canadian Record in Prelims of the 100 Fly on Sunday, Ranks #3 in the World