2012 World Championships Medals Recap; Lochte Makes History

Perhaps Ryan Lochte’s 8 medals at the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Istanbul, Turkey won’t carry the same weight as the 8 that rival Michael Phelps won at the Olympics in 2008.

It is still a history-making performance for the swimmer, as this is the most medals that have ever been won at a Short Course World Championship, which earned Lochte the FINA Trophy for the best male swimmer of the meet for the 4th consecutive event – an impressive feat in its own right that shows his dedication to showing up and racing at big meets.

Altogether, Lochte won 6 golds, 1 silver, and 1 bronze medal.

The winner of the women’s FINA Trophy was Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, reaping the final rewards from a long, hard-fought season of racing, with 2 golds, 2 silvers, a bronze and a pair of Meet Records to go with them.

As for the overall national medal counts, the Americans once again led the way with 27 medals, including 11 golds. This was somewhat of a predictable result, given the relative strength and depth of the American team as compared to the other swimming superpowers like China and Australia, who brought bare-bones squads.

The Danish team are the ones who really impressed, however. Including their first two ever World Championship relay medals (gold in the women’s 400 medley, bronze in the women’s 400 free), they took 10 total medals (including 3 golds). The Danes had their best-ever performance at a global championship meet (Worlds/Olympics), speaking to the overall direction of the program. They are on a precipice, however, as their National Team coach, and the coach of a good portion of their National Team, Paulus Wildeboer is headed to Australia.

Many of their swimmers are now looking overseas for new training grounds, which one would hope won’t stifle the program’s development.

Meanwhile, his new home country had arguably their most disappointing global championship ever. They usually turn out strong teams for this meet, and have even won the medal table over the Americans in the past. This year, they walked away with only 8 medals and only a single gold. Internally, that will be written off to the country sending a smallish squad to the meet, however globally this will be another chip taken out of the sterling, historic reputation of the Aussie program.

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  United States 11 8 8 27
2  China 3 5 3 11
3  Hungary 3 4 3 10
4  Denmark 3 2 5 10
5  Russia 2 3 4 9
6  Italy 2 3 0 5
7  Germany 2 1 1 4
 Japan 2 1 1 4
9  Lithuania 2 1 0 3
10  Australia 1 4 3 8
11  Great Britain 1 2 3 6
12  South Africa 1 1 0 2
13  Spain 1 0 2 3
14  Brazil 1 0 1 2
 New Zealand 1 0 1 2
 Poland 1 0 1 2
17  Belarus 1 0 0 1
 Norway 1 0 0 1
 Ukraine 1 0 0 1
20  Jamaica 0 2 0 2
 Slovenia 0 2 0 2
22  France 0 1 1 2
23  Czech Republic 0 0 1 1
 Faroe Islands 0 0 1 1
 Trinidad and Tobago 0 0 1 1
Total 40 40 40 120

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11 years ago

And Ricky Berens , Peter Vanderkaay , will they still be competing as well in the future ???
For me Ryan had a fantastic meet , specially with his relay performances on Freestyle . Probably the second most medalled swimmer of all time with M Phelps . Bravo !!!
Important to mention the very good performances of Olivia Smoliga , Ryan Murphy , Kevin Cordes , Thomas Shields , Conor Dwyer , Laura Sogar , Lia neal and Megan Romano . The future of Usa swimming is allready there as many Olympians may retire this year or next year . Nobody knows yet ……

ole 99
Reply to  Jean-michel Blue
11 years ago

To me the future of USA swimming lies in the 16-18 year olds. Obviously that includes the likes of Murphy, Cordes, Neal and Smoliga, but there were also a number of really impressive swims this past month in that age range that bode well for 2016. Still need to convert SCY swimming to LCM, but very exciting prospects.

bobo gigi
11 years ago

Can anyone tell me if Ryan Lochte has given up the 400 IM forever? It would be logical after London.
Can anyone tell me if Katie Hoff, Brendan Hansen, Rebecca Soni and Kate Ziegler continue their careers? We haven’t seen them in a meet since the olympic games. I believe Brendan Hansen has officially retired from swimming but I’m not sure and for the others I don’t know.

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
11 years ago

I have forgotten Dana Vollmer, Natalie Coughlin, Eric Shanteau and Peter Vanderkaay. I also don’t know if they continue. It would be interesting if Braden the machine could inform us.

liquidassets
Reply to  Braden Keith
11 years ago

I saw an interview with Coughlin somewhere; she’s still training. She’s swimming regularly, but also doing a lot of running and other cross-training. She hasn’t decided on which meets she’s swimming except she’ll be at Trials for Worlds for sure.

liquidassets
11 years ago

Yeah it’s short course, a different animal, but honestly if you take the record number of medals, the two world records, and the fact that it’s a post-Olympic year, that’s damn impressive by Lochte. He’s a workhorse performer and this is another notch on his belt building his legacy meet by meet… perhaps toward a legacy of being the 2nd best swimmer ever??

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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