2023 WORLD JUNIOR SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- September 4 – 9, 2023
- Netanya, Israel
- Wingate Institute
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- How To Watch
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Day 1 Prelims Live Recap | Day 1 Finals Live Recap
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap| Day 2 Finals Live Recap
- Day 3 Prelims Live Recap | Day 3 Finals Live Recap
- Day 4 Prelims Live Recap | Day 4 Finals Live Recap
- Day 5 Prelims Live Recap | Day 5 Finals Live Recap
- Day 6 Prelims Live Recap | Day 6 Finals Live Recap
- Day 6 Finals Heat Sheet (Start List)
Olivia Wunsch earned her second individual gold medal and fourth gold overall at the World Junior Championships on Saturday with another dominant showing in the 50-meter freestyle.
After clocking a personal-best 24.60 to lead Friday’s semifinals, the 17-year-old Australian sprint star knocked another hundredth of a second off her lifetime best to tie the World Junior Championship meet record of 24.59 set by Japan’s Rikako Ikee in 2017.
Wunsch has gone through a long week of swimming featuring victories in the women’s 400 free relay (52.61 relay anchor), mixed 400 free relay (world junior record 3:24.29), and 100 free (53.71). Still, she had enough left in the tank for one more personal best on the sixth day of racing in Netanya, Israel.
GIRLS 50 FREESTYLE – FINAL
- World Junior Record: 24.17 – Claire Curzan (USA), 2021
- Championship Record: 24.59 – Rikako Ikee (JPN), 2017
- 2024 Olympic ‘A’ Standard: 24.70
- ‘B’ Standard: 24.82
- Time for 8th at 2022 World Jr Champs: 26.44
RESULTS:
- Olivia Wunsch (AUS) — 24.59 *= CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD*
- Annam Olasewere (USA) — 24.95
- Hannah Casey (AUS) — 25.07
- Sara Curtis (ITA) — 25.15
- Caroline Larsen (USA) — 25.26
- Lillian Slusna (SVK)/Zoe Pedersen (NZL) — 25.59
- –
- Seoa Lee (KOR) — 25.70
Her teammate, Hannah Casey, made it two Australians on the podium, touching third in 25.07, eight-hundredths ahead of Italy’s Sara Curtis.
Annam Olasewere broke 25 seconds for the second time at this meet, tying the 24.95 she went in semifinals for the silver medal. The time makes her 6th all-time in the American girls’ 15-16 age group. Before the meet, her best was 25.08, which she swam at U.S. Nationals.
Soper excited to see what improvement Wunsch can make leading into Paris . I am going to predict over the next 4 years she will be a bigger star than Molly
That is a possibility. But whether she is or isn’t, I can see her having a positive impact on our Olympic gold medal tally in the not-too-distant future.
Wunsch has great potential but you are getting a bit carried away. MOC was significantly faster at 17 than Olivia at 100 and she set a WJR at 200. She is now a multiple individual WC at just 19. It will take something amazing for Wunsch to outshine Mollie by 2027/8. Just let them both develop.
17 y.o moc @100free: 53.25
17 y.o wunsch@100 free:53.71…not sure how that’s a significant difference
Mollie’s best at 17 yo is 53.08
As Troyy said, MOC swam 53.08 at age 17 (at the Olympics). 0.63 of a second is a significant difference over 100 m. Doesn’t mean Wunsch is slow, just that MOC was significantly faster at the same age (just after they turned 17). And my comments were in the context of a reply to Kevin, who was pumping up Wunsch (IMO too much too soon) and downplaying MOC, whose achievements by age 19 are amazing. I am a big fan of both these swimmers.
Yeah Wunsch is great and definitely be a star in the coming years but its certainly not easy to outshine MOC like to put her achievements into perspective she’s 2 years older (April 2004 vs May 2006) she’s already collected herself 29 senior international medals (Bronte Campbell has 27, Simone Manuel has 29) 9 of which are individual (Bronte and Simone both also have 9), out of MOC’s 29 – 18 are gold (Simone and Bronte both have 13 gold), she’s been apart of 8 relay WR’s (Simone 7, Bronte 6) so from like a statistic point of view in a way she’s basically already matched both of their careers the main difference is Simone’s 100 PB is 0.04 faster… Read more »
ahh, i see..my bad then, i had looked up her timings on “world aquatics”, and there was no mention of the 53.08 swim. if you don’t mind me asking, which meet was that set in? and could you recommend me a more reliable site for checking historical timings?
There is no perfect source for all swimming results, unfortunately. You have to kind of cobble it together from different places.
For Australians, this is the official and most complete database. Doesn’t mean it’s not without the occasional error or omission, as would be any database of that size, but it’s 99.99% of the way there for Australian swimmers.
https://results.swimming.org.au/portal/
It was set at a small meet in Tokyo in July 2021. The heats of the 4*100 free relay (lead off).
Doubtful.
In early 2021, Boxall already predicted MOC to be even faster than Cate Campbell.
I like the coaching and the already enormous talent that Wunsch has so in my opinion anything is possible but man that’s a bold prediction. Lots of variables with “potential” where as MOC already “there”. I share in your excitement with this young lady and I hope your prediction becomes reality, but she still has to finish what she has started to be categorised in the realms of your predictions.
And remember, there have been tons of junior swimmers with huge talent that didn’t quite make it to pinnacle as elite senior.
I remember Bobo Gigi declared Gretchen Walsh as the most talented female sprinter ever right after she won 2019 Junior Worlds.
I remember in 2013 Dubai Luke Percy beating Dressel in the 50 & just got beaten by Dressel in the 100 & talk was going to be their great rivalry over the next 10 years at the Olympics & WC, well we know about Dressel.
Lol that is a massive call! Not impossible, but Mollie is arguably the biggest female swimmer in the world right now
So with the medley relay win that’s 5 gold medals for Wunsch – 2 individual and 3 relays plus an individual bronze. 6 medals total. Coincidentally a very similar tally to what Mollie had at Worlds.
I was hoping for big things from Wunsch and she has delivered in spades. She has shown her ability to perform consistently over the course of a busy schedule. Congrats to Olivia, her coach and Carlile.
I’m super happy to see programs outside of SEQLD deliver great performances.
Looking at the big 3 juniors, Wunsch is clearly the leader now, Milla has done fantastic at Bond and is keeping pace. Hannah still did fine with solo medaling, but she has stagnated for some time now, indicating she may have to move to an elite program if she wishes to make the senior team anytime soon.
Rackley could be a good option for Casey now that Harris is there.
Funny thing about the coaching…….ex SEQLD coaches before taking on the rebuild of Carlile. Wunsch is in very good hands though, I must admit.
Forbes last words to Ursula, ‘tell them it’s speed through speed’
Current coaches have in the past been centred around volume but this young athlete seems different to their previous, so probably a bit of learning going on on both sides of the equation. Beauty of it is, the head coach has taken many an athlete to Olympic level status and I am certain he has the skills to replicate this with Wunsch but my understanding is that Wunsch is with a female coach under the head coach and I know she is as good as a coach comes. Particular coach I am referring to developed one of the other junior dolphins that was on the same team as Wunsch in Israel last week, but because of their age this athlete… Read more »
Way to go Annam! Everyone back home is super happy for you!