The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

RIO de Janeiro, Brazil: Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace is one race closer to accomplishing her Olympic dream in the women's 50 metres freestyle.

In the preliminaries of the event on Friday, Vanderpool-Wallace booked her ticket to the semi-final by finishing fourth in the last of 12 heats at the Olympic Swim Complex in a time of 24.77 seconds. Permille Blume from Benmark won the race in 24.23, the fastest qualifying time. Bronte Campbell from Australia was second in 24.45 and Sarah Sjostrom from Sweden came in third with 24.66.

Her performance enabled her to finish in a three-way tie for 13th overall with Theresa Alshammar from Sweden and Inge Bekker from the Netherlands.

"I'm just trying to make semi-final and have some fun," said Vanderpool-Wallace after her preliminaries. "This is probably the best Olympics I've had in terms of having fun and being relaxed.

"So that's really fun for me. For the third Olympics for that to happen, that's great. I'm just excited to get into swimming again."

As for Friday's semi-final, she said she will sit down with her personal coach Lionel Moreau and Team Bahamas head coach Andy Loveitt to determine what course of action she will pursue.

"I still feel I have a little more to give," said Vanderpool-Wallace, who got off to a great start, but struggled through the final 25m in the heats. "It's kind of getting the nerves out.”

"The 50m free is kind of a scary event because you can't do anything wrong. But I'm glad that I got it out of my system. So, hopefully tonight, I can come back and get into the top eight."

Should she advance out of one of the two heats that start at 9:59 pm EST, the 26-year-old graduate from Auburn University, who is hoping to add her first and the Bahamas' first Olympic medal in swimming when the final is contested on Saturday night.