USA Swimming has announced an 18-athlete roster for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar. The team will include just 5 women and 13 men, as was expected from USA Swimming’s updated selection procedure for the ad hoc World Championship event to be held next February in Doha, Qatar.
- The 2024 World Aquatics Championships will run from February 2-18 in Doha, Qatar
- The swimming portion runs from February 11-18 in the Aspire Dome
Unsurprisingly, the list is light on active college swimmers. Among those competing in the 2023-2024 NCAA season, only Jack Aikins from Virginia and Luke Hobson from Texas are competing at Worlds.
Several others, including Will Gallant from NC State, David Johnston from Texas, and Claire Curzan from Virginia, are on NCAA redshirt seasons.
The roster will also include brothers Carson Foster and Jake Foster. Carson, the younger of the two who turned pro early this year to focus on international pursuits, has won 5 total medals at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships. Jake, meanwhile, who is putting off med school to chase his Olympic dream, while make his long course World Championship debut. He represented the US at the 2022 World Short Course Championships and the 2023 Pan American Games, winning a gold medal in the 100 breaststroke in the latter event.
The roster also includes Piper Enge, who became Washington’s first high school swimmer to break one minute in the 100 breaststroke earlier this month while leading her team to a state championship.
Of the 5 women on the US roster, 3 return from last year’s World Championship team (Douglass, Grimes, and Weinstein) while Curzan also has World Championship experience.
The men’s team returns Hunter Armstrong, Shaine Casas, Charlie Clark, Nic Fink, Carson Foster, Luke Hobson, David Johnston, and Matt King from the 2023 roster, with others like Michael Andrew having World Championship experience as well.
200 IM champion Douglass and 50 backstroke champion Armstrong are hte only individual gold medalists to return from a team that only had four swimmers win five events in 2023.
USA Swimming’s selection procedures allowed a maximum of 14 men and 14 women to be chosen for the meet. These procedures allowed only the available swimmer with the fastest time in each individual Olympic event to be chosen between October 2022 and November 1, 2023. Those swimmers had to be among the top 10 in those events to be selected. The women’s roster is smaller than the men’s because the swimmers on the women’s team are much more versatile and much more often have the top times in multiple events. Because the US isn’t sending relay-only swimmers, that means the US women will be in a tough spot to assemble relays, though depending on what other countries do, they should have a decent shot at a medal in the 400 medley, at least.
This means very few events with two American entrants. With many big name Americans, and big names from other meets, missing, there will be lots of opportunities for swimmers to grab otherwise-unlikely medals (and the big prize checks that go with them).
The US had the most medals (38) and 2nd-most gold (7) at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, with the gold tally being one of the country’s worst in history.
Women’s Roster
| Name | Events | Hometown | Club/College Team | College Affiliation |
| Claire Curzan | 50/100/200 BK; 50/100 FL; 50 FR | Cary, N.C. | Alto Swim Club | Virginia, ‘26 |
| Kate Douglass | 50/100 FR; 200 IM; 200 BR; 50 FL | Pelham, N.Y. | New York Athletic Club | Virginia, ‘23 |
| Piper Enge | 50/100 BR | Mercer Island, Wash. | Bellevue Club Swim Team | ^Texas, ‘28 |
| Katie Grimes | 400 IM; 400/1500 FR; 200 BK; 200 FL | Las Vegas, Nev. | Sandpipers of Nevada | Undecided |
| Claire Weinstein | 200/400/800 FR | White Plains, N.Y. | Sandpipers of Nevada | ^California, ‘29 |
Men’s Roster
| Name | Events | Hometown | Club/College Team | College Affiliation |
| Jack Aikins | 100/200 BK | Atlanta, Ga. | Swim Atlanta | Virginia, ‘24 |
| Michael Andrew | 50 FR; 50 BK; 50 BR; 50 FL | Encinitas, Calif. | MA Swim Academy | N/A |
| Hunter Armstrong | 50/100 BK | Dover, Ohio | New York Athletic Club | N/A |
| Shaine Casas | 200 IM; 50/100 FL | McAllen, Texas | Longhorn Aquatics | N/A |
| Charlie Clark | 800/1500 FR | Sandusky, Ohio | Ohio State University | Ohio State, ‘24 |
| Nic Fink | 50/100/200 BR | Morristown, N.J. | Metro Atlantic Aquatic Club | Georgia, ‘15 |
| Carson Foster | 200/400 IM; 200 FR | Cincinnati, Ohio | Mason Manta Rays | Texas, ‘24 |
| Jake Foster | 100/200 BR | Cincinnati, Ohio | Mason Manta Rays | Texas, ‘23 |
| Will Gallant | 800/1500 FR | Canton, Conn. | Wolfpack Elite | NC State, ‘24 |
| Zach Harting | 100/200 FL | Huntsville, Ala. | Cardinal Aquatics | Louisville, ‘19 |
| Luke Hobson | 200 FR | Reno, Nev. | Longhorn Aquatics | Texas, ‘25 |
| David Johnston | 400 FR; 400 IM | Dallas, Texas | Longhorn Aquatics | Texas, ‘24 |
| Matt King | 50/100 FR | Snohomish, Wash. | Texas Ford Aquatics | N/A |
- As of 11/21/23
- Club and college affiliations updated as of 11/21/23
- Future year marks anticipated graduation date and is subject to change
- ^ Verbally committed
So it’s reported elsewhere that St Peters will be sending some swimmers to Doha but not Titmus because she had too much time out of the water recovering from surgery.
Worlds comes shortly after the yearly Thailand training camp, so whoever swims there doesn’t have time to do a full taper, ergo it is being treated as an in season meet. Whoever swims there will probably skip NSW states and go straight to Nationals. It will be very interesting to see who commits, WC medals don’t come easier, but it cannot detract from Paris prep.
For now, seeing what times are dropped at QLD states should be a tease.
The camp has been moved to January 10 so they’ll have about 10 days between the camp and Doha.
10 days isn’t much after heavy training and a flight.
I’m sure they will get faster during the meet, assuming they don’t do too many events.
But not many people can get to peak speed after only 1.5 weeks. Of course it really is a chance to just go for it and not sweat on the result, a warmup for the meet that really matters.
Just a question of who goes.
I feel like it’ll probably just be the people with little experience like Jamie Perkins/Jaclyn Barclay /Kai Taylor, I’d like to see Jenna Forrester go she’ll have better medal opportunities than she will in Paris, I’d like to see Shayna actually get to swim the individual 100 free after the past 2 worlds and I’d like to see Mollie swim the 100 back there for once but I really doubt Mollie and Shayna will go
Coaches would have to use a discretional pick to get Perkins on the team because she doesn’t meet any of the QTs.
If K8 can hold a lead in through the first half and do what she does normally on the second half, goodbye world record. Question is, has she or will she be concentrating on improving that backstroke leg.
Once the US and AUS (who win 2/3rds of the medals/golds on offer at the WCs) qualified all their relays this was an inevitable result…….
The “Intercalated World Championships of 2024”. I wonder if that’s what they might be known as in future decades? Similar to the 1906 Olympics which were retrospectively downgraded.
Does a list exist of the eligible candidates who skipped this?
It is hard for me to understand how only 5 woman are going. Can they swim all the events listed for them or will they drop some with no USA swimmer in the final of some events?
I found the answer to the first question. It is at:
https://staging.swimswam.com/2023-24-national-team-rankings-douglass-leads-all-with-6-cfoster-atop-the-mens-roster/
Still an open question:
With only 5 woman going. Can they swim all the events listed for each of them or will they drop some with no USA swimmer in the final of some events?
Is Italy sending much of a team to this meet?
They will send swimmers to ensure relays qualification
Wonder what the coaching staff will look like. Can’t imagine any college HCs taking a spot with the timing. Aitken, Peter Andrew, Coley, and Schubert just for sh*ts and giggles?
OMG Big Brother that s&&& because I would watch every second of it.
Coaches are turning it down in the same proportion as swimmers.
Elaborate?
I’m surprised USA Swimming could afford to send a team at all. Dollars are low at 1 Olympic Plaza.