2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials Night 9: Manuel, Finke star in Indy curtain call

A pair of American greats closed out the show on the final night of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Team Trials presented by Lilly.

Simone Manuel and Bobby Finke, both two-time Olympic gold medalists, produced vintage swims on a night that featured only two races: the shortest distance and the longest.

Even the men's 1500m freestyle, which takes place over nearly 15 minutes, came down to a split-second finish for the final spot on Team USA, providing one last thrill for the Lucas Oil Stadium crowd.

See below for event-by-event recaps, highlights and results from Indy.

Women's 50m freestyle final

Simone Manuel is headed back to the Olympics, not just as a relay swimmer, but as an individual.

Manuel won the women's 50m freestyle with a vintage sprint performance, finishing in 24.15 seconds to close out her Trials with triumph.

"I put in a lot of work to get to this point," Manuel reflected after the race. "I wasn't feeling too confident after [the semifinals] last night. I spent a lot of time watching races where I won. I really wanted to channel that Simone because I know I'm a winner, and that's what I did tonight."

With five Olympic medals and 11 world championship titles to her name, Manuel had a large catalogue of race film to choose from. However, she only managed a relay bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, where she struggled both in and out of the pool.

"The last experience was tough for me, but I still had amazing teammates that got me through it," Manuel said. "So I'm just looking for a really fun experience with Team USA this summer."

Gretchen Walsh, who already qualified for two other events and set a world record at Trials, added the 50m free to her Paris slate by finishing second, just two hundredths behind Manuel.

Men's 1500m freestyle final

Bobby Finke will defend his Tokyo gold medal in the 1500m freestyle after decisively winning the last race of the week in Indy.

After 30 lengths of the pool, Finke touched home in 14:40.28. He'll swim the mile and the 800m free -- the other event he won in Tokyo -- at this summer's Olympics.

"I'm just looking forward to getting back in and racing those boys," Finke said. "They've pushed me to be my best, and getting able to race them again, I'm always looking forward to it."

In a hyper-close finish for second place, David Johnston got his hand on the wall just a quarter of a second ahead of Luke Whitlock to book his spot on his first Olympic team and conclude Trials on a high note.

"[These Trials] didn't go the way that I planned," Johnston said. "I've been training for this for a year. I just had a devastating third- and fourth-place finish [in the 400m and 800m freestyle finals] and just my family and my friends were able to get me going back mentally. I feel like I learned a lot this week that I'm going to be able to take forward."