World Aquatics Awards Extra $200K As 11 Swimmers Earn Triple Crown Bonus At World Cup

2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – BUDAPEST

• Friday, October 20th – Sunday, October 22nd
• Budapest, Hungary
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Entries
• Live Results

Swimmers took full advantage of the $10,000 Triple Crown bonuses offered by World Aquatics at the three-stop World Cup Series, with 11 different athletes securing a sweep of at least one event at the circuit finale last weekend in Budapest.

Seven of the 11 swimmers swept more than one event, led by Kaylee McKeown and Qin Haiyang, who emerged as the overall series winners after McKeown dominated the women’s backstroke events and Qin was untouchable in men’s breaststroke.

By sweeping three events, McKeown and Qin both earned an extra $30,000 as a result of the Triple Crown bonus, while Sarah Sjostrom, Thomas Ceccon, Siobhan Haughey, Zhang Yufei and Matt Sates all earned $20,000 after going three-for-three in two events.

Also picking up the bonus were Erika Fairweather, Lani Pallister, Tes Schouten and Michael Andrew.

Note that Pallister earned the bonus in the 800 and 1500 free (combined) because only one of the distance events was contested at each stop.

With the 11 names combining for 20 Triple Crown bonuses, World Aquatics awarded an extra $200,000 for the series.

There were 32 individual events (combining men’s and women’s 800/1500 free) contested at the series, meaning that well over half (62.5 percent) of races were swept by the same swimmer.

TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS – WOMEN

*New World Cup Record (at the time)
**New World Record

TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS – MEN

*New World Cup Record (at the time)

Swimmers Who Got Faster At Each Stop

• Siobhan Haughey – women’s 200 free
• Kaylee McKeown – women’s 50 back
• Kaylee McKeown – women’s 100 back
• Kaylee McKeown – women’s 200 back
• Zhang Yufei – women’s 200 fly
• Matt Sates – men’s 200 fly

NEAR MISSES

Lithuanian Danas Rapsys was denied the Triple Crown bonus in the men’s 200 and 400 free after winning both events in Berlin and Athens, missing out by just three-tenths in the 200 free in Budapest.

Rapsys was the runner-up to Australian Maximillian Giuliani (1:45.42) in a time of 1:45.72, mirroring his performances from Berlin (1:45.75) and Athens (1:45.72) that earned victories.

In the 400 free, Rapsys was third in Budapest in a time of 3:47.00, with Australia’s Sam Short roaring to the win in 3:44.51. Rapsys approached Short’s winning time at the opening leg in Berlin, clocking 3:44.86, but did just enough to win in Athens (3:48.64).

The only other swimmers who won events in both Berlin and Athens but then missed out in Budapest were Ruta Meilutyte (women’s 50 breast) and Katie Grimes (women’s 400 IM), both of whom did not contest the final leg of the series.

See a full prize money breakdown from the series as a whole here.