Katie Grimes Headlines Five-Member U.S. Open Water Roster For 2024 World Championships

USA Swimming announced Thursday its open water roster for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, with four-time World Championship medalist Katie Grimes among the five swimmers named.

Grimes, 17, won bronze in the women’s 10km event at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, a performance that made her the first American athlete across all sports to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

On the women’s side, Grimes will be joined in Doha by 2023 World Championship teammate Mariah Denigan, while the men’s team will feature Olympian Michael Brinegar along with Ivan Puskovitch and Josh Brown.

U.S. OPEN WATER ROSTER, 2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

  • Michael Brinegar (Bloomington, Ind./CA – The Swim Team) – Men’s 10K
  • Josh Brown (Winter Park, Fla./Sandpipers of Nevada) – Men’s 5K
  • Mariah Denigan (Walton, Ky./Indiana University) – Women’s 10K, 5K
  • Katie Grimes (Las Vegas, Nev./Sandpipers of Nevada) – Women’s 10K, 5K
  • Ivan Puskovitch (West Chester, Pa./TSM Aquatics) – Men’s 10K, 5K

Grimes is the lone American swimmer who will race both pool and open water events in Doha, as she was named to the U.S. pool swimming roster last month with entries in the women’s 400 and 1500 free, 400 IM, 200 back and 200 fly.

Puskovitch, Brinegar and Brown all qualified for the team at the World Aquatics Open Water World Cup finale earlier this month in Funchal, Portugal, while Grimes’ and Denigan’s performances in Fukuoka locked them in.

Denigan was eighth in the women’s 10km at the 2023 Worlds (the swim that qualified her), and in the 5km, she placed 18th.

Brinegar, currently training at The Swim Team (TST) in California under Mark Schubert, won bronze at the 2019 World Championships as a member of the U.S. squad in the open water Team Event.

In 2021, Brinegar qualified for the U.S. Olympic team in the men’s 800 and 1500 freestyle in the pool, ultimately placing 17th in both in Tokyo.

Puskovitch, who has twice represented the U.S. at the World Junior Open Water Championships, told SwimSwam in September that he plans to join West Virginia University in January after transferring over from USC. He is currently training at Team Santa Monica (TSM Aquatics).

Brown will represent the U.S. for the first time on the major international stage. Although he ranked third among Americans in the 10km at the Funchal World Cup stop, Brinegar has withdrawn from the 5km in Doha which opened up a spot for Brown.

The team will be led by Cory Chitwood, who is currently the associate head coach at Indiana where Denigan trains and Brinegar has previously been based. Chitwood also served as the head coach of the U.S. open water team at the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, and was an assistant earlier this year in Fukuoka.

He will be joined by assistant coach Mohammad Khadembashi, Puskovitch’s head coach at TSM Aquatics.

2024 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OPEN WATER SCHEDULE

  • February 3 – women’s 10K
  • February 4 – men’s 10K
  • February 7 – women’s 5K, men’s 5K
  • February 8 – mixed 4x1500m relay

The open water portion of the 2024 World Aquatics Championships will run from February 3-8 at Old Doha Port.

USA Swimming named an 18-member pool swimming roster last month, with that portion of the competition running from February 11-18.

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ABF
6 months ago

Has the 10k course layout at the Doha Old Port been disclosed?

PFA
7 months ago

Unrelated but not sure where to put this but wow Luke Ellis the 17 year old out of Sandpipers just dropped a 14:29 17-18 NAG 1650 fastest time in the country and Luka Mijatovic just smashed his own 13-14 NAG in BOTH the 1000 and 1650 free going 8:53 and 14:45.

ABF
7 months ago

Tagged wrong Josh Brown.

Admin
Reply to  ABF
7 months ago

Our tagging system (like most) doesn’t have a way to differentiate between people with the same name without repeatedly including their middle name, middle initial, etc., and the odds of that happening consistently are somewhere between slim/none, so the Joshes will just have to have the bond of sharing a tags page.

Kevin
7 months ago

Is Grimes doing the 200 or 800 Free in the pool? The linked roster gives her a grueling schedule at worlds but it only has the 400 and 1500 Free along with the 400IM, 200 Back, and 200 Fly. She had times that qualified her for the 200 (ranked 9th in the qualify period and met the standard) and the 800 (ranked 4th and met the qualifying times as well). But I just assumed she declined those because of the schedule.

As it is she is already looking at swims every day. If the 5 women team tries to do relays it gets worse. I’ll include all the relays and the 200 and 800 just to highlight but putting… Read more »

jess
Reply to  Kevin
7 months ago

Shes not on the roster in those, if you look, what the included in the article is exactly what Weinstein is entered in.

Also i doubt that the women do any relays, except for ***maybe*** the mixed free

Kevin
Reply to  jess
7 months ago

Yeah that was the whole point of the question initially, before I drifted off thinking about the schedule and how crazy and fun to see how they handle it will be. This article and the linked article contradicted each other, at least when I posted. I checked before hitting submit on this reply and they match now, so looks like an edit was made here.

I also agree that only the only likely relay is one of the mixed. The Mixed Medley actually has the fewest conflicts since it’s on day 4 with the 50 back and 200 fly in the morning and the 200 free, 50 back and 200 fly in the evening. Since it’s Curzan and Douglass that… Read more »

About James Sutherland

James Sutherland

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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