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

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

• All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
• The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
• Meet site
• Competition Schedule
• FinaTV Live Stream
• Entry Lists
• Results

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.

More North American Notables:

• Canadian Kylie Masse earned a bronze medal in the women’s 200 back final, bringing her career LC worlds medal count to four. Masse now ties Penny Oleksiak as the most decorated Canadian woman and Sydney Pickrem with most individual medals won (3) at the LC World championships.
• 20-year-old American Michael Andrew qualified 7th into the 50 back final alongside 4th-seeded countryman Ryan Murphy. Andrew has now broken the impossible feat of becoming the only swimmer in history to final in all four 50s at the LC World Championships.

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