Medal Count: 2013 Worlds Round Up

Well, the 2013 FINA Swimming World Championships have concluded.  In lieu of a longer written summary, here are some more highlights of days 7 and 8, as well as the overall medal table…

• There were 120 medals given out in total over 40 events (17 individual, 3 relays for each gender), but not in equal distribution, thanks to Matt Grevers and Jeremy Stravius tying for second in the men’s 50 backstroke on the final night.  A total of 40 gold, 41 silver, and 39 bronze medals were awarded.
• As expected, the United States led the way with 29 medals overall (24.17% of all awarded), including 13 gold (32.50%). Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky were the most valuable swimmers for the Americans, bringing nine gold medals between the two of them.  Here’s how that compares with recent years, in terms of percentage of available medals (World Championships have more medals due to the inclusion of the 50’s of stroke and the non-Olympic distance free events).

Even though this was thought to have possibly been a down year with some pretty significant retirees leaving the ranks, Team USA didn’t take too much of a hit without the likes of Michael Phelps.  The American squad got Wonder Woman-esque performances from Franklin and Ledecky, but also had a lot of first-time individual qualifiers step up and earn medals (Michael McBroom, Eugene Godsoe, Chase Kalisz, and Jimmy Feigen to name a few).

• Fran Halsall salvaged an otherwise dismal team performance for Great Britain by winning bronze in the women’s 50 free on the final night, the first and only medal for the Brits.
• The struggles for Germany, Great Britain, and Italy continued this week.  These three traditionally strong swim nations brought home a combined four medals (two silver, two bronze).
• Despite bringing home the second highest gold total, China’s overall count took a bit of a hit from previous years.  The Chinese team won 14 medals (five gold) in 2011, and ten medals (five gold) a year ago in London.  Though their total this week is just one less than last summer, remember that the Olympic schedule does not include the 50’s of stroke or non-Olympic distance events, which accounted for four of China’s nine medals this week.
• While Russia won eight medals overall–their highest total at a world-level long course championships since the 1998 World Championships (not a typo)–you could tell their men’s squad was hurt by putting together a fully-tapered performance less than two weeks before at the World University Games.  The biggest evidence of that was in the men’s 4×100 freestyle relay, where the Russian team would have easily won gold with their time from Kazan.
• If Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky were a country (Frankdeckland?  Ledecklinland?  Franklideckia?), they would place third overall in terms of medalsm and second overall in terms of golds.  Their total haul: nine golds.