OMAHA — But for the pandemic, the teenager Lydia Jacoby was a lock to go to the 2020 Olympics — as a fan on a family vacation with her parents.
Though she had surpassed the 100-meter breaststroke qualifying time for the U.S. Olympic trials two years earlier as a precocious 14-year-old, Jacoby was in a race against time in the winter of 2020, with only a few months to lop a sizable chunk off her personal best to seriously contend for a spot on the Tokyo-bound team.
The coronavirus-induced postponement of the Tokyo Games worked in Jacoby’s favor, enabling her to gain more strength in the weight room as well as another year of physical maturity.