Noelani Day misses out of women’s 50m freestyle semifinals

Tongan swimmer Noelani Day (18) failed to qualify for the semi-finals of the women’s 50m freestyle at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Day finished third in the fourth heat at the U-Sports Arena La Défense in Paris with a time of 28.60 seconds, but failed to qualify for the next round. She ranked 51st out of 79 swimmers competing in the event.

This is Day’s second Olympics; she previously finished seventh in the same event in Tokyo with a time of 29.06. The top 16 swimmers from the preliminaries will advance to the semifinals. The Olympic record for the event is 23.81, set by Australia’s Emma McKeon in Tokyo.

World record holder Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden led all competitors with a time of 23.85 seconds, just shy of her world record of 23.61 set in Fukuoka last year. Among other Pacific swimmers, Papua New Guinea’s Georgia-Leigh Weller swam 27.61 seconds and Samoa’s Kaia Brown swam 28.31 seconds, both faster than Day but not enough to secure a place in the semifinals.