USA, Australia Commit to Sending Teams to the 2023 World Junior Championships in Israel

Many of the world’s top swimming nations were absent from the 2021 World Junior Swimming Championships, but at least two of those countries plan to return in 2023, their respective spokespeople told SwimSwam on Tuesday.

• See Swimming Australia’s selection criteria here.
• See British Swimming’s selection criteria here.
• Swimming Canada says that they will select at their World Championship Trials.

Representatives from USA Swimming, Swimming Australia, and Swimming Canada all confirmed to SwimSwam that they intend to send teams to the 2023 edition in Netanyahu, Israel from September 4-9. A representative from British Swimming said that he had not yet been told whether his organization would be at the championships. The country has released selection criteria, though that document anticipated an August meet.

All three countries were absent in 2022, but formally announced their plans to skip the meet in 2021 – before it was originally canceled. Russia was due to host the 2022 World Junior Championships in Kazan in what was a postponed event from 2021. The 2021 meet was delayed when the Olympics moved to that year because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.

FINA (now World Aquatics) announced Lima, Peru as the new host in April 2022.

None of those four countries publicly cited Russia’s war in Ukraine, or COVID-19, as a direct reason for their decision to not participate in the rescheduled meet in 2022, though individuals that SwimSwam spoke to at the time indicated that it was driven by a number of factors, including the general challenges and season-planning caused by the above disruptions.

At the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships, the last before the Tokyo Olympics, USA Swimming won the most medals with 37 (including 18 gold). Russia was 2nd with 22 medals (7 gold), and Australia was 3rd with 13 medals (4 gold).

Even after not competing last year, those three countries remain atop the all-time medals standings (by a gold-silver-bronze sort order, anyway) in World Junior Championship history even without participating in 2021.

Canada ranks 6th in that order with 16 golds and 63 total medals, while Great Britain ranks 10th with 10 gold among 41 total medals all-time.

The absence of some nations didn’t mean the absence of big swims. There were nine new World Junior Records set during the meet, including from Romania’s David Popovici (who would set a regular World Record earlier in the summer) and Portugal’s Diogo Ribeiro, who turned heads with his World Junior Record in the 50 fly.

Russia did not compete in any international World Aquatics or LEN championships in 2022 after the country invaded Ukraine. While that war is ongoing, World Aquatics has declined to comment on Russia’s status for 2023 competitions.

A number of star swimmers from all four countries have participated in the World Junior Championships on their way to bigger podiums. That includes names like Caitlin Leverenz, Jacob Pebley, Lia Neal, Caeleb Dressel, Michael Andrew, Torri Huske, Carson Foster, and Regan Smith for the United States; Bronte Campbell, Mack Horton, Kyle Chalmers, and Mollie O’Callaghan for Australia; James Guy and Freya Anderson for Great Britain; and Taylor Ruck, Penny Oleksiak, and Josh Liendo for Canada.