North America: Regan Smith Continues Teenage Dominance in Women’s 200 Back

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a rather sluggish start to the 2019 World Championships, Team USA turned on turbo boost and pulled through to win 5 of the 6 medal opportunities during the day 7 finals session. The day was powered by Caeleb Dressel’s world title double in the 50 free and 100 fly, where he also successfully defended those event titles. Katie Ledecky showed true perseverance in the 800 free final as she swam to a 4th-consecutive event world title amidst her illness recovery. Dressel then earned a third gold medal in the mixed 4×100 free relay with relay teammates Zach Apple, Mallory Comerford, and Simone Manuel.

The fifth US-earned gold medal of the session went to 17-year-old Regan Smith, who followed up on her 200 back semifinals world record with a world title. The women’s 200 back has been dominated by teenage swimmers (19 years old or younger) at the LC World Championships since the first meet in 1973. Of the 18 crowned world champions in the event, 11 of those champions were all teenagers when they won the event.

Smith is now the 6th American-held world title in the event and the 5th teenage American winner. The last time a teenager won the event was USA’s Missy Franklin, who defended her 2011 World title at the age of 18.

Teenage Winners of the Women’s 200 Back at LC Worlds

Year Winner Country Age During Swim (yrs)
1973 Melissa Belote USA 16
1975 Birgit Treiber Germany (GDR) 15
1978 Linda Jezek USA 18
1982 Kornelia Sirch Germany (GDR) 15
1986 Kornelia Sirch Germany (GDR) 19
1991 Krisztina Egerszegi Hungary 17
1994 He Chihong China 19
1998 Roxana Maracineanu France 23
2001 Diana Mocanu Romania 17
2003 Katy Sexton Great Britain 22
2005 Kirsty Coventry Zimbabwe 22
2007 Margaret Hoelzer USA 24
2009 Kirsty Coventry Zimbabwe 26
2011 Missy Franklin USA 16
2013 Missy Franklin USA 18
2015 Emily Seebohm Australia 23
2017 Emily Seebohm Australia 25
2019 Regan Smith USA 17

More North American Notables:

North American Records Broken:

  • Women’s 50 Fly- American/North American record: Kelsi Dahlia (25.48)
  • Men’s 50 Free- Championships/American/North American record: Caeleb Dressel (21.04)
  • Mixed 4×100 Free Relay- World/Championships/American/North American record: USA (3:19.40)
  • Mixed 4×100 Free Relay- Canadian record: Thormeyer, Kisil, Ruck, Oleksiak (3:22.54)
  • Mixed 4×100 Free Relay- Cayman Islands record: Fraser, Crooks, Embury-Brown, Hew (3:44.54)

North America — Day 7 Medal Table

Rank Country Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 USA 11 6 5 22
8 Canada 2 0 5 7

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SwimPop
5 years ago

Anyone else disgusted to see the GDR swimmers still recognized? Like Mr. Seven in cycling, wipe their names from the books.

13 % Chinese person
Reply to  SwimPop
5 years ago

It won’t be long till we have some competitors with much more background tesoterone than the DDR girls .

Jim C
5 years ago

The first seven winners were in their teens–which was just about par for the course in those days. Beginning with 1998 there have been 7 winners in their 20s, and Smith is the 4th in her teens.

Anon
5 years ago

Kristina Egerzeki won 3 Olympic golds back to back but only one WC 🙁

Really
5 years ago

Technically, Kelsi is a ‘tie’ not a ‘break’ of a North American record…

About Nick Pecoraro

Nick Pecoraro

Nick has had the passion for swimming since his first dive in the water in middle school, immediately falling for breaststroke. Nick had expanded to IM events in his late teens, helping foster a short, but memorable NCAA Div III swim experience at Calvin University. While working on his B.A. …

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