America’s 2 Fastest Male 100 Backstrokers This Season Swam at the World University Games

The post-Olympic World Championships are often an odd one, with the post-COVID trend of swimmers taking a post-Olympic break becoming more common.

Historically, the U.S. depth has benefited in those post-Olympic years. In 2022, they won 17 gold medals at the World Championships, almost triple what Australia won (6) as the #2 nation. In 2017, the U.S. won 18 gold medals, while nobody else had more than 4. In 2013, the U.S. again dominated the medals table, winning 13 golds and 29 total medals, both well more than double the next-best in those categories.

That’s as compared to the pre-Olympic World Championships, where the U.S. has struggled in recent years.

In 2025, though, the U.S. is facing a huge generational turnover on the men’s side, and layered on top of a generally-thin bench between the aging veterans and the young talent, 2025 feels like it’s going to be a year of growth and learning for the team as a whole.

An example of that is the men’s 100 backstroke, where the top two Americans so far this year are Will Modglin and Daniel Diehl, who are both swimming at the World University Games this week.

After both swimmers cruised through prelims in Berlin, Modglin had the first breakout, swimming 52.75 in the semifinals to qualify 2nd behind South Africa’s Pieter Coetze.

Then in finals, Modglin went even faster, 52.54, while Diehl dropped to a 52.94. They finished with the silver and bronze medals, again behind Coetze’s Meet and African Record of 51.99.

Modglin’s best time coming into the meet was a 53.59 from the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials; at Nationals in June, he finished 5th in 53.83.

Diehl, meanwhile, had a previous best of 53.07 from December 2022, two-and-a-half years ago, just after his 17th birthday.

US Rankings, Men’s 100 LCM Backstroke, 2024-2025

Note: with the U.S. choosing their Pan Pacs team next year, this ranking matters more than it might in other years where #1 rank is more for bragging rights.

As the table shows, while the U.S. has no dearth of young talent in the event, they do have a lack of swimmers who are already there in this event, especially. The two Olympic representatives, Ryan Murphy (29) and Hunter Armstrong (23), are both sitting the year out and have presented uncertain futures for their swimming.

Another contender, Adam Chaney, has shown flashes in sprints in his move to Arizona State, but not yet in the 100 back. He didn’t swim at US Nationals either.

The American pair swimming at the World Championships are both great stories. Tommy Janton made the team as a true Cinderella after his program, Notre Dame, was forced to sit out last season over findings of gambling and team culture issues. Aikins was the tough luck backstroker at last year’s Olympic Trials, finishing 3rd in both the 100 and the 200.

But with an American medley relay that really only has one hammer right now, freestyle anchor Jack Alexy, going into the meet with a 53-second backstroker isn’t reassuring for the U.S. to reclaim its medley relay throne. Aikins, for his part, has been 52.74, and the U.S. still has the option to use Casas at Worlds: he has a best time of 52.51 from 2022, but didn’t swim the race at Worlds Trials. Casas is qualified in the 100 fly, but the U.S. has a lot more depth on the roster at the moment to fill that leg of the medley relay.

This is going to be one of the most-fascinating domestic events for America heading toward the Los Angeles Olympics. Will Murphy and Armstrong return? Will Casas pursue this event seriously? Which of the prodigious American talent pool in this race will rise to the top? It feels like a race that, while maybe at the bottom of the American ranking right now, could be the most brutal qualification path to the Olympic Team in 2028.