CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Hough High School graduate Erika Connolly is one step closer to competing in her second Olympics after winning a swim-off for a possible spot on Team USA in the 2024 Paris Games.
Connolly defeated Catie DeLoof in a 100-meter freestyle swim-off Thursday for a possible spot on the American relay team. Thursday's race was scheduled after Connolly and DeLoof tied for sixth in a race on Tuesday for the second alternate in Paris. Connolly's winning time was 53.76, slightly faster than DeLoof's 53.80.
Thursday's race was the first time two athletes had ever competed in a swim-off for the final spot on an Olympic roster.
Abbey Weitzeil is the first alternate, following automatic qualifiers Kate Douglass, Simone Manuel, Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, who set a new world record in the 100-meter butterfly trials. Connolly won't know if she'll be selected for the American team until the roster is announced following the Olympic Trials.
Connolly won two medals during the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, winning silver in the 4x100 medley and bronze in the 4x100 freestyle. She won five medals, including two gold, in the World Championships the next summer.
Connolly told WBIR in Knoxville that 2024 will be her last attempt at qualifying for the Olympics and wants to give everything she can to Team USA.
"If I get to the point where I make the team, it will mean more because I've had to work through that," Connolly said, referring to a herniated disk after the Tokyo Olympics. "And I can kind of sign off with the best."
Before the Olympics, Connolly was a state champion swimmer in North Carolina, winning titles in the 200 free and 400 free relay. She earned bronze in the 200-meter free at the 2014 and 2015 USA Swimming junior championships.
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