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Rio gold medalist not entered in 200m butterfly as U.S. eyes ending drought

Spain’s Mireia Belmonte is not entered to defend her Olympic 200m butterfly in Tokyo. The rest of the top five from Rio are also absent, opening the door for the U.S. to potentially end its longest Olympic medal drought in any swimming event.

In 2016, Belmonte became the first Spanish woman to win an Olympic swimming title. She backed that up with the world title in 2017, then bowed out in the semifinals at 2019 Worlds.

The U.S. earned zero Olympic medals in the women’s 200m fly since Misty Hyman‘s shock gold at Sydney 2000.