2024 Short Course World Championships
- December 10-15, 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Roster Index
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Pick’em
- Psych Sheets
- Live Results
- Prelims Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
- Finals Live Recap: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
The United States won four gold medals on Day 4 of the 2024 Short Course World Championships, extending its overall lead in the medal table. The nation now has 13 gold medals–ten more than the teams with the next-highest total, Canada and Neutral Athletes ‘B’–and 26 medals total.
The U.S.’s gold medals came from Kate Douglass (200 breast), Regan Smith (50 back), Gretchen Walsh (100 IM), and Luke Hobson, Carson Foster, Shaine Casas, and Kieran Smith (men’s 4×200 free relay). All four golds came with world records–the U.S. got two for the price of one in the men’s 4×200 free relay as Hobson broke the 200 free super-suited world record en route to the quartet smashing the mark from 2022.
The Neutral Athletes ‘B,’ comprised of the Russian athletes approved for neutral athlete status, could potentially surpass the gold medal count the Russian Swimming Federation amassed at the 2021 Short Course World Championships. There, the federation won four gold medals. The Neutral Athletes ‘B’ already have three through four days of competition. Miron Lifintsev completed his sweep of the sprint backstrokes today by winning the 50 backstroke with another world junior record, and the quartet of Lifintsev, Kirill Prigoda, Arina Surkova, and Daria Trofimova won the mixed 4×50 medley relay.
Italy’s Leonardo Deplano, Alessandro Miressi, Silvia di Pietro, and Sara Curtis opened the day four final session by winning the mixed 4×50 freestyle relay, claiming Italy’s first gold medal of the meet. Spain also earned its first gold–and first overall medal in Budapest–with Carles Coll Marti upsetting the field in the men’s 200 breaststroke. His win is the first gold medal ever won by a Spanish man at a short-course World Championships.
Ireland and Japan also made their first entries on the medal table. Shane Ryan earned bronze in a competitive 50 backstroke final for Ireland, extending the success the nation had this summer in Paris to Budapest. Yamato Fukasawa claimed bronze in the 200 breaststroke behind Coll Marti and Prigoda for Japan’s first medal of the meet.
| Nation | Gold Medals | Silver Medals | Bronze Medals | Total |
| United States | 13 | 8 | 5 | 26 |
| Canada | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 |
| Neutral Athletes – B | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 |
| Australia | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| China | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Switzerland | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Italy | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 |
| Germany | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Tunisia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| France | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Hungary | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Brazil | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Austria | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Poland | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| Neutral Athletes – A | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Cayman Islands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Estonia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Netherlands | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Turkey | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Japan | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The athletic patriotism of seeing TEAM USA, not only at the top of the medals chart, (that was to be expected) but the # of world records are amazing. Today’s 4 X 200 men’s relay was a moment of magic, twice over: actually seeing Paul Biedermann’s record go down (and I can still remember seeing it on TV), and then the team’s new world record mark: magic! And more to come in the days ahead.
13-2