Katharine Berkoff claimed victory in her heat of the women’s backstroke event on Monday morning at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, clocking in at 58.09 seconds.
Hailing from Missoula, Berkoff entered the meet as the second seed, a position she maintained after all the heats.
She was leading by a slim margin of .05 seconds at the halfway mark, narrowly ahead of Kennedy Noble, but she powered ahead of the competition on the home stretch, with three swimmers finishing in under a minute.
In the next heat, former world record holder Regan Smith secured the top qualifying time of 57.93.
The top 16 swimmers progressed to the semifinals scheduled for Monday night during the primetime coverage starting at 6 p.m. MT. The top eight from the semifinals will proceed to the finals on Tuesday.
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With 10 of the 16 semifinalists achieving sub-minute times, the announcer predicted that it will be the fastest 100 backstroke event in Olympic Trials history.
This marks the first of Berkoff’s three scheduled events for the week, which also include the 100 and 50 freestyle races.
In the 2021 Olympic Trials, Berkoff finished fourth overall in the 100 backstroke. Since then, she has become a three-time NCAA champion in the event, earned 30 All-America honors, and secured 10 world championship medals.
Berkoff was not the only Montanan competing this week. Billings’ Liam Kerns participated in the men’s 100 breaststroke event on Saturday.
