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Shaine Casas missed out on swimming for gold Friday.
The McAllen native, and McHi graduate, finished ninth overall in his semifinal Thursday afternoon with a time of 1:57.82. He will be a reserve swimmer in case one of the top eight who qualified cannot compete.
The medal round is slated for 1:43 p.m., Central Time, Friday (8:43 p.m. Paris time).
Casas swam in the second semifinal, in lane three. The eight fastest swim times from the semifinals advanced to tomorrow’s medal race. Casas’ time was just 0.06 seconds behind Knox Finlay of Canada for the eighth and final spot.
Casas swims for the Longhorn Aquatics Club at the University of Texas under coach Eddie Reese. He swam collegiately for Texas A&M University. He is a 14-time World Championships medalist who made his international debut at the 2021 World Short Course Championships. This was his Olympic Games debut.
Casas Team USA and Longhorn teammate Carson Foster won the first semifinal heat in 1:56.37 and advanced.
Earlier today, Casas clocked a 1:58.04 to finish second in the fourth heat, and fifth overall, to advance to the semifinals.
The 16 fastest swim times through the four heats, featuring 25 swimmers from around the world, advanced to the semifinals.
Casas’ entry time to clinch an Olympic berth was 1 minute, 55.83 seconds, which places him third out of the 25 swimmers in the event. Only teammate Carson Foster (1:55.65), China’s Shun Wang (1:54.62) and France’s Leon Marchand (1:54.82) have faster entry times. (Note: The Olympic record is held by the USA’s Michael Phelps at 1:54.23 and the world record is owned by the USA’s Ryan Lochte at 1:54.00).
Only two swimmers clocked in a sub-1:58.00 times Thursday morning – Great Britain’s Scott Duncan (1:57.77) and France’s Marchand (1:57.86). Casas’ USA teammate Carson Foster won his heat in 1:58.63.
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