2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – ATHENS
- Friday, October 13th – Sunday, October 15th
- Athens, Greece
- LCM (50m)
- Prelims 9:00am (EEST)/ 2:oo am (EDT)
- Finals 6:00 pm (EEST)/ 11:00 am (EDT)
- Meet Central
- Entries
- Live Results
Make that five World Cup records in five finals for Australian backstroke phenom Kaylee McKeown.
The 22-year-old world record holder cruised to victory in the 100 back by more than two seconds with a winning time of 57.63 on Saturday, within two tenths of her global standard (57.45) from 2021.
McKeown was only a tenth of a second away from her winning time from the 2023 World Championships (57.53), in the process lowering her own World Cup record of 57.95 from the previous stop in Berlin, Germany. She was the only swimmer under a minute in the final as Canada’s Kylie Masse (1:00.10) and Ingrid Wilm (1:00.57) took silver and bronze, respectively.
McKeown’s 57.63 is tied for the sixth-fastest swim ever, and she now owns six of the top seven performances of all time — all the others coming in either May, June, or July. It’s the fastest October swim on record by more than half a second ahead of Emily Seebohm‘s 58.37.
After McKeown came just .04 seconds shy of the 50 back world record on Friday with a personal-best 27.02, we may be on world record watch next weekend in Budapest, Hungary. One thing is for certain: She’s running away with the overall World Cup crown on the women’s side, which is accompanied by a six-figure bonus.
McKeown’s 100 back World Cup record was one of four to fall on Saturday after only one went down on Friday (courtesy of McKeown in the 50 back).
Norwegian Olympian Henrik Christiansen, 27, got the record-breaking action started with an 800 free victory in 7:51.92. It wasn’t a lifetime best (7:41.28 from 2019 World Championships, where he won silver), but he still crushed Gregorio Paltrinieri‘s World Cup record of 7:56.96 from 2015 by more than five seconds.
Then Hong Kong’s Siobhan Haughey kept the ball rolling with a 200 free win in 1:55.03, sneaking under the previous World Cup record of 1:55.10 that the 25-year-old set last weekend in Berlin. Her best time is a 1:53.92 from the Tokyo Olympics, where she claimed silver.
Last but not least, Swedish world record holder Sarah Sjostrom brought the 50 fly World Cup record under 25 seconds for the first time with a winning time of 24.97. The 30-year-old sprint legend lowered her own World Cup record of 25.06 from last weekend in Berlin.
Her turn was phenomenal. She’s improved her underwater work immensely.
Masse clearly going in the wrong direction. Might be time to have serious considerations about the Ben Titley experiment being a failure. Just as the Canadians are starting to see some promise in BR, they are losing their Backstroker to obscurity in the barely makes a Semi next summer category.
The race was ridiculous.
She made Kylie Masse and Ingrid Wilm look like junior swimmers.
If Regan wants her individual Olympic gold, I believe she should put all her effort into the 200 fly. Kaylee is on fire and appears to keep getting better and in my opinion, is favored to repeat both back titles in Paris. The 200 back in the US is stacked and a place on the team isn’t guaranteed for her.
I think it makes sense for her to keep her current 3 main events. 100 back doesn’t conflict with anything and she gets a relay medal from it. 200 back and 200 fly both have juggernauts standing between her and the gold. They conflict but the fly final is before the back semi so it shouldn’t affect her. If anything, the 200 back really only has 1 rival for her while the 200 fly has McIntosh and Dekkers who could both potentially beat her.
I don’t think dropping one or the other will make a difference. If I was her I would keep all 3 and hope for the best.
I’m not saying don’t swim back, but she should put most training on the 200 fly. I just don’t see her beating Kaylee in Paris. I’m American and I can admit that. 😂
Haha as an Aussie of course I want Kaylee to win the double again! But I really like Regan and I think her best shot at the best medal haul is to go with her current main 3. If she misses the 200 back at trials (seems very unlikely at the moment but could happen) then she can obviously throw everything into the 2 fly.
There is another big rival in the 200 fly, Zhang Yufei.
She hasn’t swum it at worlds for the last 2 years so wasn’t sure where she was at with it.
She won it at Asian Games.
Might have been prioritising the MMR which clashes with 200 fly heat and semi.
She swam it at Budapest 2022 – 3rd place.
I think Regan would prefer a single Olympics individual gold than 3 minor medals.
She has to think seriously about 200 fly.
She said she only had two weeks off after Worlds. Which sounds about right. (Someone said she’d only been back training for 4 weeks.). She is incredible no matter what. I’d love to see a WR next week.
Hopefully in the 50 so she has the full collection but I won’t complain if she breaks the 100 instead 😉🐐
Kaylee is on 🔥