Liendo Makes Canadian History With 3rd World Champs Medal (Day 7 N. America Recap)

2022 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• June 18-25, 2022 (pool swimming)
• Budapest, Hungary
• Duna Arena
• LCM (50-meter format)
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On the 7th day of racing at the 2022 World Swimming Championships, Josh Liendo won 2 medals, bringing his total at this meet to 3. That makes Liendo the Canadian man with the most medals at a single World Championships meet.

Liendo’s first medal of the meet came in the 100 freestyle when he swam a 47.71 to take the bronze medal. On day 7 he started off with a 50.97 to take 100 butterfly bronze and then he contributed to Canada’s silver medal-winning mixed 4×100 freestyle relay.

Liendo, Javier Acevedo, Penny Oleksiak, and Kayla Sanchez delivered a 3:20.61 on the relay to break the national record and out-touch team USA for the silver medal. Australia was first overall with a 3:19.58 world record.

Now that he has won 3 medals at a single World Championships, he surpasses the former group of 9 Canadian men who have won 2 medals at a single edition of the meet. The list of men who have pulled off the feat of winning 2 medals at one World Champs begins with Bruce Robertson who won 100 butterfly gold and 4×100 medley bronze in 1973.

Most Medals Won By a Canadian in Swimming At A Single World Championships

Ryan Cochrane managed to win 2 medals at 4-straight World Championships he won 2 medals in different combinations of the 400 free, 800 free, and 1500 free for 4 years but never landed on the podium in all 3 at a single World Championships. The closest that Cochrane came to getting 3 medals was in 2013 when he took silver in the 1500, bronze in the 800, and 4th in the 400 by just 0.17 seconds.

Ryan Cochrane World Championships Performances 2009 – 2015

Cochrane has won the most World Championships medals of any Canadian man in history and is tied with Kylie Masse and Penny Oleksiak for the most from any Canadian with 8 medals total. As of day 7 of the World Championships, Masse and Oleksiak have each earned 8 medals.

Kylie Masse – All-time World Championships Medals

• Gold – 100 backstroke (2017)
• Gold – 100 backstroke (2019)
• Gold – 50 backstroke (2022)
• Silver – 100 backstroke (2022)
• Bronze – 4×100 mixed medley (2017)
• Bronze – 200 backstroke (2019)
• Bronze – 4×100 mixed medley (2019)

Penny Oleksiak – All-time World Championships Medals

• Silver – 4×100 freestyle (2022)
• Silver mixed 4×100 freestyle (2022)
• Bronze – mixed 4×100 freestyle (2017)
• Bronze – mixed 4×100 medley (2017)
• Bronze – 4×100 freestyle (2019)
• Bronze – 4×200 freestyle (2019)
• Bronze – 4×100 medley (2019)
• Bronze – 4×200 freestyle (2022)

While Liendo now had the most medals of any Canadian man at a single World Champs and Oleksiak and Masse are tied for #1 all-time, the records don’t stop there.

Summer McIntosh, Penny Oleksiak, Taylor Ruck, and Kayla Sanchez have all won 3 medals at the 2022 World Championships, which is tied for the most by a Canadian woman at a single World Champs. Kylie Masse, Maggie MacNeil, and Rebecca Smith also pulled off that feat in 2019 (as did Oleksiak and Ruck. That means that there are 7 women tied for that record.

Several of them will have a shot at winning their 4th on the last day of the meet as Summer McIntosh will race in the 400 IM and the other 6 could race the 4×100 medley relay. It’s conceivable that Masse, Oleksiak, Ruck, Smtih, and MacNeil, could all race the 4×100 medley between prelims and finals.

Finally, the Canadian delegation as a whole in 2022 has broken the record for most medals at a single World Championships meet. So far Canada has collected 9 medals at this meet, which is 1 more than the 8 medals they won at the 2019 edition. If McIntosh medals in the 400 IM on day 8 or Canada medals in the women’s 4×100 medley, the total could reach 10 or 11 for 2022.

QUICK HITS:

• By picking up a silver medal in the 50 freestyle, Michael Andrew became the first man to win medals in three different 50s at a single World Championships. He swam a 21.41 to place second in the final to Ben Proud. You can read more about Andrew’s record-breaking medal haul here.
• Another record-breaking performance medal-wise came from the queen of distance Katie Ledecky. Ledecky swam to victory in the women’s 800 freestyle, making her the first swimmer in history to win 5 straight titles in a single event. You can read more about Ledecky’s 5-peat here. In that final, Ledecky’s teammate Leah Smith finished just off the podium with an 8:20.04
• USA’s Claire Curzan and Torri Huske went 5-6 in the women’s 50 butterfly, hitting times of 25.43 and 25.45, respectively. Torri Huske followed that swim up with a 24.63 in the 50 free semi-final to qualify for finals in 7th place. Erika Brown also made the final, hitting a 24.59 for 4th.
• Lilly King made it into her 3rd final of the meet by swimming a 30.35 in the 50 breaststroke semi-final to advance in the 8th position.
• Michael Andrew swam in his second final of the night in the men’s 100 butterfly, posting a 51.11 for 4th place.
• In the women’s 200 backstroke, the American duo of Phoebe Bacon and Rhyan White got onto the podium, hitting a 2:05.12 and 2:06.96 for silver and bronze, respectively. Kylie Masse of Canada placed 5th with a 2:08.00.
• In the 50 backstroke semi-finals, Justin Ress qualified in the #1 spot with a 24.14 while world record-holder Hunter Armstrong was #2 with a 24.16.
• To close out the session, Canada and the USA both landed on the podium in the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay. Canada took silver to Australia with a 3:20.61 and the USA placed third to take bronze with a 3:21.09.

NATIONAL RECORDS:

• Josh Liendo contributed to two national record-breaking swims on day 7 for Canada. He first lowered the 50 freestyle mark to a 21.61 during the final of that event. That was just 0.02 seconds faster than his own previous mark of 21.63.
• Then he swam on Canada’s mixed 4×100 freestyle relay, which earned a silver medal and down the national record with a 3:20.61. He, Javier Acevedo, Penny Oleksiak, and Kayla Sanchez, took out the 3:22.54 NR held by Markus Thormeyer, Yuri Kisil, Taylor Ruck, and Oleksiak from 2019.

NORTH AMERICAN MEDAL TABLE THROUGH DAY 6: