Aug. 10, 2016
Marcelo Chierighini was sixth at the turn and finished eighth in the finals of the men's 100m freestyle at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday night.
Chierighini touched in 48.41 in what was his fifth 100m free of the Olympics. Swimming in lane 8 on Wednesday night, he got to the turn in 22.98 seconds. Kyle Chalmers of Australia won gold in 47.58, Pieter Timmers of Belgium won silver in 47.80 and Nathan Adrian of the United States won bronze in 47.85.
"I am so proud of the effort from Marcelo," Auburn head coach and Brazil assistant coach Brett Hawke said. "Swimmers and coaches work their whole lives just for an opportunity to swim at the Olympics and Marcelo has swum in a final of the blue ribbon event, the 100-meter freestyle. Amazing effort and achievement, and hats off to Kyle Chalmers for the win!"
Chierighini, who swam at Auburn from 2010-14, qualified for the 100 semifinals with a 48.53 during Tuesday morning's prelims, 13th-best in the field. He then clocked a 48.23 in the semifinals, earning the eighth spot in Wednesday's gold medal race.
Chierighini also raced the 100m free as part of Brazil's 4x100m freestyle relay team, leading off in both the prelims (48.47) and the finals (48.12) as the team finished fifth in the event.
Swimming in Wednesday's women's 100m freestyle preliminaries, Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace was .06 seconds out of a swim-off for the final semifinal spot, touching in 54.56 to place 18th. Vanderpool-Wallace swam at Auburn from 2009-12 and was representing the Bahamas. Julie Meynen, an incoming freshmen from Luxembourg, finished 25th in 55.09, a new record for her home country. Both women will return to the pool on Friday for the 50m freestyle prelims.
Auburn will have five swimmers competing during Thursday's prelims session. Fred Bousquet (heat 9, lane 1), George Bovell (heat 8, lane 7) and Ziv Kalontarov (heat 8, lane 6) will all swim in the men's 50m freestyle; Luis Martinez (heat 3, lane 8) will swim in the men's 100m butterfly; and Kirsty Coventry (heat 3, lane 2) will swim in the women's 200m backstroke.