North America: Team USA Ends Worlds on a High Note (Thanks to the Women)

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
• Meet site
• Competition Schedule
• FinaTV Live Stream
• Entry Lists
• Results

After a sluggish start to the 2019 World Championships (dampened not only by some lackluster performances but also by Katie Ledecky‘s illness that kept her from two of her four individual races), Team USA picked things up over the last few days– the women, that is.

It was Lilly King who took her second breaststroke gold of the meet with the only sub-30 performance of the final in the 50 breast. King hasn’t been quite on her bests, but she’s been a go-to force for Team USA and she added another gold to their count.

Proving yet again that she has some otherworldly magic that she brings to her swims, Simone Manuel ripped another incredibly clutch race in the women’s 50 free. Her hand has found the wall first in both sprint events despite the lifetime bests and relay abilities of Cate Campbell and Sarah Sjöström, and her win in that 50 was emphatic.

In the final event of the meet, the U.S. women put an exclamation point on the week with a thunderous World Record in the 4×100 medley relay.

Things kicked off with Regan Smith‘s WR in the lead-off at 57.57, blowing past Kathleen Baker‘s 58.00. Smith, who has broken backstroke WRs at both Olympic distances and now as part of the 4×100 medley relay, has been consistently lights-out for the Americans. Whereas some of the senior members of the team missed the mark this week, which some likened to the American team’s hollow performance in 2015, Smith was always on her game this week. Smith will head into the Olympic year as the next big thing, and with it, she’ll bring heightened prestige to Team USA.

On that medley relay, it felt like the U.S. women, in particular, were business as usual. They have dominated the medley relay since Rio, and we saw King do what she had to do, Dahlia unearth a great 56-low split despite her 100 fly being off this week, and Manuel bring it all home with the best split of the field (51.86).

It was the women who were responsible for all three of Team USA’s golds as they finished with a combined 14 from the entire team over this week. In total, that’s 27 medals for Team USA, four more than in 2015, but not up to par with their whopping 38 from 2017. Meanwhile, Manuel’s seven medals makes her the most successful American female at a single LC Worlds medals-wise, Caeleb Dressel did the same with his eight medals, and Dressel won the male swimmer of the meet award.

U.S. MEN – MEDAL TABLE

U.S. WOMEN – MEDAL TABLE

U.S. MIXED RELAYS – MEDAL TABLE

More North American Notables:

• Jay Litherland had a great swim to hit a lifetime best in the 400 IM, nearly running down Japan’s Daiya Seto en route to a silver medal, his first at a LC international champs.
• The US men’s 4×100 medley relay of Ryan Murphy, Andrew Wilson, Caeleb Dressel, and Nathan Adrian collected the silver medal. Dressel had the best 100 fly split in history – 49.28.
• The Canadian women’s 4×100 medley relay of Kylie Masse, Sydney Pickrem, Maggie Macneil, and Penny Oleksiak earned the bronze. Macneil’s 55.56 fly split moved them briefly into second place and was the fastest in the field.

BROKEN NORTH AMERICAN RECORDS:

• Women’s 4×100 medley relay: World/American/North American Record, Smith/King/Dahlia/Manuel (3:50.40)
• Women’s 100 Back: World/American/North American Record, Regan Smith (57.57)

NORTH AMERICA — DAY 8 MEDAL TABLE