Cesar Cielo Blasts a 21.38 50m Free - Can he be stopped in London?

(video courtesy of videosei and swimmers daily)

Cesar Cielo hooked up a huge 50m Free swim at the Maria Lenk Trophy in Brazil. His time of 21.38 was just 0.02 seconds shy of Fred Bousquet's textile best time of 21.36 set at the 2010 European Championships.

After lowering his own textile personal best of 21.52 set at Worlds last year, it leads us to the question... In the 50m Free, can anyone stop Cielo in London?

As it stands currently Cielo is head and shoulders clear of his competitors in London. Bousquet's failure to qualify for the French Olympic team removes the only man faster than Cielo in the last 4 years.

Cielo has a number of strengths that his competitors can't currently match. His starts are sensational and he seems to have become even stronger since his move back to Brazil. To add to that, he has incredible mental strength which manifests itself during major competition finals. Since 2008 he has not lost a 50m Free in a major final (... and no, I am not including Pan Pacs as a major competition).

Here's a rundown of the main (sans-Bousquet) competition:

Bruno Fratus - Cielo's compatriot keeps his run of sub-22 second swims going. As long as he doesn't suffer a repeat of the final in Shanghai (5th - 21.96), he looks the safest choice for a medal outside of Cielo.
Nathan Adrian - The American has no shortage of talent having been 21.55 in textile, but has underperformed in recent major finals (with the exception of 2010 Pan Pacs where he beat Cielo).
James Magnussen - Last year he didn't appear to have enough speed to compete in the 50m Free, but his 21.74 swim at Australian trials dispelled that myth. Still needs to find a chunk of time to beat Cielo, but can't be written off.
Luca Dotto - The Italian was a little fortunate to make the Italian team given that he is the 3rd fastest Italian man in the event this year, but he is the silver medalist from Shanghai and at the age of 22 seems to be trending in the right direction in this event.
Florent Manaudou - Olympic medals run in the family and he made a big breakthrough last year into senior swimming at the age of 20. He's the type of swimmer that many won't think of as a potential medalist, but having been 21.86 this year has every chance in the always unpredictable 50m Free final
Andrey Grechin - Training partner of Ian Thorpe and under the tutelage of Alex Popov's old coach Gennadi Touretski. His 21.82 at Russian Trials moved him from darkhorse to serious medal contender.



To compare Cielo and Bousquet, here is the Frenchman's 21.36.

Maria Lenk Trophy

April 24 - 29

This week at the Maria Lenk Trophy Cesar Cielo gets his first chance to respond to rival James Magnussen's startling times set at the Australian Olympic trials.

As we saw last October, Cielo changed his race tactics in the 100m Free as a result of Magnussen's back end speed. At Pan Ams (at altitude) Cielo's stand out swim was his 47.04 relay split with a final 50m split of 24.53, a big shift in strategy from his homecoming split of 25.38 from Shanghai.

Unfortunately for the Brazilian, Magnussen still has the same back end speed he had in Shanghai and has added the front end speed to match (Magnussen's splits: 22.68 / 24.42 (47.10) ).

As it stands now on the eve of the Maria Lenk trophy, Magnussen is still a relay takeover faster than Cielo.

Psych Sheet
Competition Schedule
Results

Live Streaming - Showing finals at 19:00 BRT / 1:00am BST (h/t to swimswam for the video find)

Other Highlights:

Thiago Pereira - One of the most consistent performers over the last few years in the 200m IM & 400m IM,  needs to bounce back after a disappointing World Champs.
Fred Bousquet - Must still be sore after missing out on London, and goes up against his nemesis Cielo.
Bruno Fratus - Has emerged as one of the few men that can swim consistently sub-22 seconds over 50m Free, his semi final time of 21.76 in Shanghai would have been good enough for silver in the final, however he couldn't reproduce that form and ended up 5th.
Marcelo Chierighini - The sprinter with bags of raw talent has had an extended period of time at Auburn under Brett Hawke to hone his craft, it's time to see what time he can put up in the 100m Free.
Felipe Silva - The 50m speedster has shown the ability to make a splash in the 100m. His 1:00.01 from the heats of Shanghai highlighted his ability, but he underwhelmed in the semi final with a 1:00.73.
Jeanette Ottesen / Lotte Friis / Laure Manaudou / Mireia Belmonte - All four European women have qualified for London and it will be interesting to see where they are with their training 100 days out.