Simone Manuel not entered in U.S. Swimming Championships

Olympic champion Simone Manuel is not on the entry list for next week’s U.S. Swimming Championships after returning from a 17-month top-level competition break earlier this year.

A message was sent to Manuel’s agency asking if she has any comment after the entries were published Thursday night.

Manuel, the 2016 co-Olympic 100m free champion and five-time Olympic medalist, competed at all four stops of the domestic Pro Swim Series this year, the most recent in mid-May. She also competed at a local meet at her Arizona State training base the first week of June.

She ranks eighth in the U.S. this year by best times in her primary events of the 50m and 100m freestyles, according to USA Swimming’s database.

At next week’s nationals, the top two in the 50m free and the top six in the 100m free are likely to make the team for July’s world championships in Fukuoka, Japan. The top six usually go in the 100m free for relay purposes.

Manuel, 26, returned to top-level competition this year for the first time since the Tokyo Olympics, where she placed 12th in the 50m free and earned bronze on the 4x100m free relay. In 2022, Manuel moved from Stanford to Arizona State to train with Bob Bowman‘s group.

In 2021, Manuel announced at the Olympic Trials that she had been diagnosed with overtraining syndrome and dealt with depression, anxiety and insomnia that spring.

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Regan Smith has been the best U.S. swimmer in the first half of 2023 if going strictly by times.

Smith, a world champion in both backstrokes, is ranked No. 1 in the country this year in five different events — 100m and 200m backstrokes and butterflies and 200m individual medley. She could swim all five at next week’s U.S. Championships