The United States Olympic team has officially qualified its first athlete for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, with 17-year-old swimmer Katie Grimes nabbing a coveted spot on Saturday.
Grimes, the U.S.’s youngest athlete at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, earned the unique distinction after placing third in the open-water 10km at the world swimming championships in Fukuoka, Japan, on Saturday morning.
The thrilling competition saw Grimes narrowly capture a bronze medal, and the last Olympic qualifying berth, with a time of 2:02:42.30 following an intense photo finish. The teenage standout slapped the board one tenth of a second before the Netherlands’s Sharon van Rouwendaal and Brazil’s Ana Marcela Cunha–the 2016 and 2020 women’s 10km Olympic gold medalists, respectively.
A THRILLING finish as Katie Grimes became the first athlete to qualify by name for the 2024 U.S. Olympic team!@USASwimming | @TeamUSA pic.twitter.com/2Y0n0Ml1sx
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 15, 2023
“I knew it was a photo finish, so I was a little anxious waiting for those results,” Grimes said, according to USA Swimming (per NBC Sports). “I was in a little bit of shock because (making the 2024 Olympic team) was such a big goal of mine. I just didn’t think it was going to come this soon.”
After making history in Japan, Grimes can now set her sights on representing her country on the world’s biggest athletic stage for the second time in her young career.
Three years ago, a then 15-year-old Grimes impressed after qualifying at the 2020 U.S. Olympic Trials and placing fourth in the 800m freestyle at the postponed ’20 Games in Tokyo. After not competing in open water that year, Grimes will now have a chance to do so in ’24 as she looks to also compete once again in the pool.
Should Grimes qualify in the pool at the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis next June, she would be in line to become the second American (Jordan Wilimovsky, ’16) to compete in pool and open water events in the same Games since open-water swimming was added to the Olympics in 2008.
