5 Storylines (& Some Bonuses) to Watch at the 1st World Aquatics World Cup Stop – Berlin

2023 WORLD AQUATICS SWIMMING WORLD CUP – BERLIN

• October 6-8, 2023
• Berlin, Germany
• LCM (50 meters)
• Meet Central
• Full Entry List

The first stop of three in the 2023 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup kicks off Friday, October 6th, in Berlin, Germany. As previously reported, the first leg has a stacked field that sees swimmers hailing from all over the swimming world, with large contingents coming from Australia, Japan, and the United States, as well as smaller yet star-studded teams from Great Britain, Canada, China, and Italy.

With the full entry lists out, let’s dive into some of the top storylines of the coming into the Berlin stop. As a reminder, all three meets will swim in long course meters in preparation for the 2024 Olympics.

Sister, Sister

The women’s sprint events at the 2023 World Championships were electric. Sarah Sjostrom took down her own world record in the 50 free during the semifinals and nearly equaled it in the finals to win the gold ahead of Australia’s Shayna Jack. In the 100 free, fellow Aussie Mollie O’Callaghan used her trademark back-half speed to move from 7th to 1st to nab the gold medal, touching ahead of Siobhan Haughey.

While Jack and O’Callaghan aren’t part of the Aussie team that includes fellow gold medalists, Kaylee McKeown and Lani Pallister, the Australian team will see the return of the Aussie sprinting royalty to international competition. Both Cate Campbell and her younger sister Bronte Campbell are entered in the 50 and 100 freestyles, with Cate also contesting the 50 fly and Bronte the 50 back. The pair were both former world record holders in the 4×100 free relay and will look to put up fast times in Berlin,

The pair will face tough competition in the sprint frees, as three of the six medalists from Fukuoka are entered. In addition to the aforementioned Sjostrom and Haughey, the 100 free bronze medalist, Dutch swimmer Marrit Steenbergen, is entered in both the 50 and 100. Also in the mix to contest the podium is American Torri Huske, who is taking a redshirt year from NCAA swimming and is entered in the 50/100/200 freestyles as well as 50/100 fly and 200 IM. If Huske can show off the form that she had in 2022, she could easily contest for not only the titles in Berlin but also the overall World Cup title.

Up for Grabs

Usually, when looking for favorites to win the overall titles, it is natural to look at the defending champions, and while both the male and female winners from last year are entered in the meet, they are not the hands-down favorites to repeat this year. The USA’s Beata Nelson and Trinidad and Tobago’s Dylan Carter won three events at all three legs in 2022, showing off remarkable consistency, but the change in format from short course to long course severely hampers both swimmers and their strong underwaters (as well as removing the 100 IM from the event list).

Both Nelson and Carter are world-class swimmers and certainly will be up near the top of the rankings, but with the aforementioned Haughey (who finished 2nd last year) as well as Kaylee McKeown, who could easily repeat the backstroke sweep that led her to be named the 2023 World Champs Female Swimmer of the Championships, Nelson’s path is difficult.

Carter, too, has to face his stiffest competition from last year, in the form of 2022 runner-up Nic Fink, 3rd place finisher Chad Le Clos, and his fellow South African and 5th place finisher Matt Sates.

Battle in the Breaststrokes

Fink also won three events at all three stops in 2022 but faces a considerably more difficult path here in Berlin. Not only does he have to contest the breaststroke titles with fellow Fukuoka 100 breast silver-medalists Nicolo Martinenghi and Arno Kamminga, but also with Qin Haiyang.

The Chinese swimmer set a new world record in the 200 breast in Fukuoka on the way to sweeping the breaststroke events, a feat he also repeated at the recently completed Asian Games.

Throwing his hat into the proverbial ring, or pool in this case, is the 50 and 100 breaststroke world record holder, Adam Peaty. Peaty has been in the headlines of late for non-swimming reasons and will look to restart his preparations for the 2024 Olympics.

Home hopes for a breaststroke medal sees a strong contender in Lucas Matzerath. The German will look to improve upon his 6th place in the 50 and 5th place in the 100 from Fukuoka, but it is a crowded field in the 50/100 especially.

Jet-Lagged or Just Too Much Hardware

With exactly a week in between the end of the Asian Games and the start of this World Cup stop, it will be highly interesting to see how these swimmers rebound (see below as well).

Qin Haiyang repeated his feat from Fukuoka and swept the breaststroke events at the Asian Games. All of his times were slower in Hangzhou, but not by much; just .06 in the 50 and .07 in the 100.

Zhang Yufei walked away from Fukuoka with gold, silver, and bronze medals but increased upon that total by sweeping the women’s fly events at the Asian Games as well as taking the 50 free crown. Notably, her 100 fly time was faster than her gold-medal outing earlier in the summer and her 200 time would have medaled in Fukuoka. China’s only other entrant in Berlin also collected hardware at the Asian Games; Dong Zhihao won silver in the 200 breast, behind compatriot Qin.

Siobhan Haughey is also coming off of a successful meet in Hangzhou, where she won the 100 and 200 free as well as medaling in the 50 free and 50 breast. Haughey’s 100 free time at the Asian Games of 52.17 (a new Asian Record), would not have improved her silver medal from Fukuoka but would have placed her only .01 behind O’Callaghan’s winning time of 52.16. Haughey now sits as the 7th fastest ever in the 100 free but will face off against the World Record holder Sjostrom as well as the 3rd fastest of all time Cate Campbell.

Form?

While not a storyline specific to one swimmer or one stroke, perhaps this question is the most important. What form will swimmers be in when the meet starts?

Le Clos, after withdrawing from the 2023 World Champs, has announced that these meets will be used as momentum for 2024. Matt Sates, too, withdrew from the World Champs, stating that “It didn’t place in my new training program leading up to Paris,” Meanwhile, on the other end of the spectrum are several swimmers who have been very busy this year.

The American contingent also has a variety of swimmers, all in different training programs and stages of their careers. Katie Grimes and Claire Weinstein are household names in the swimming community but still are in high school while on the other end of the spectrum, pro-swimmers Beata Nelson, Sean Grieshop, and Michael Andrew will look to rebound after a disappointing US Championships.

The swimmers mentioned in the section above, as well as several others, including Japanese Asian Games medalists Ryosuke Irie and Waka Kobori, will have to deal with the quick turnaround. While meets back-to-back weekends are not uncommon, moving from a week-long championships meet into a compact three-day meet, especially one with a loaded field, will be a shock to some of these swimmers.

With multiple swimmers having competed in both zero, one or two championship meets this summer, it will be very interesting watching to see who is in what training mode and how each swimmer approaches this first stop.

Bonus:

A few bonus storylines to look out for as the weekend progresses

• Jenna Strauch, who withdrew from the Aussie World Trials due to a knee injury, returns to competition and will look to help ease the qualms surrounding the Australian women’s medley relay hopes in Paris.
• Strauch isn’t alone in being a returning Australian to international competition, as both Zac Incerti and Mitch Larkin find themselves in the entry lists, having returned to competition after recovering from injury and a year-long break, respectively.
• Qin isn’t the only newly minted WR holder to enter into Berlin; Ruta Meilutyte will look to keep up her form and replicate her double gold performance in the 50/100 breast
• Home country hopes of medals lie most heavily on the shoulders of Lucas Martens and Florian Wellbrock, who go head to head in the 400 free.