2025 World Championships
- July 27 – August 3, 2025 (pool swimming)
- Singapore, Singapore
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- LCM (50m)
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- Prelims: Day 1
- Finals:
Claire Weinstein of the US will not race in the 400 freestyle, USA Swimming announced on X. This marks the second event update for the US roster in prelims as Olympic Gold Medalist Torri Huske did not race in prelims of the 100 butterfly.
Event update:
Claire Weinstein will not be racing the 400m freestyle.#AQUASingapore2025
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) July 27, 2025
Weinstein was the #5 seed in the 400 freestyle with an entry time of a 4:00.05 that she swam at last month’s US Summer Nationals. That swim also marked a personal best for Weinstein as she became the #7 performer all-time with the swim. Weinstein has shown great progress in the 400 free this season as she entered the summer with a lifetime best of a 4:04.54 from March 2024. Today’s race was expected to be her senior international debut in the event.
With Weinstein not swimming the 400 free, this leaves Katie Ledecky as the lone swimmer for the US in the event. Ledecky is the #2 seed (3:56.81), sitting only behind Summer McIntosh of Canada who swam to a World Record 3:54.18 last month.
Weinstein is also slated to swim in the 200 free (#3 seed) and 800 free (#7 seed) later in the meet and is projected to be a member of the US Women’s 4×200 free relay as she won the 200 free at US Summer Nationals. She originally was scheduled to race in the 10k open water competition but withdrew and was replaced by Mariah Denigan.
This is a very unfortunate for the US team.
Would’ve loved to see Claire AND Erica in the final where the 4th place goes 3:58
This is one case where the pic doesn’t really fit the headline.
Smile and don’t let the world know you’re suffering.
i don’t want to be pessimistic but unless she’s the one to break the sandpiper curse, this might have been her one real shot at sub 4
She’s young.
I would say Ilya broke the sandpiper curse
well he used to be a miler
Claire ate the egg rolls!
they will sweep it under the rug what happened, who to blame for 2 medal contenders are already out on day 1. Otherwise they would be transparent.
Weird comment. The reason is most likely health related, which is why nobody has been given a clear reason.
health related means someone didn’t protect them. We will never know who
Isn’t that Greg Meehan’s job?
USA swimming didn’t protect them. Athletes used to bring their own food if they were traveling/going to a training camp or before a huge event. Remember, the CEO of USA swimming stepped down because of accusations by abuse in the sport. USA Swimming will only protect their favorites.
Funny when Dressel fled from Budapest, people asked to respect his privacy.
Now when some swimmers are suffering from food poisoning, you’ll want USA swimming to make public of the swimmers health data.
Popovicitis was already on its way to becoming a common illness with obvious side-effects, though.
Am I right that most of the other sports would provide a reason for athlete not competing?
other sports would have athlete and coach on the PR stand facing difficult questions if they missed a practice.
missing one of two spots at nationals with no notice or transparency is insane.
Swimming fans want the attention and revenue of a bigger sport. This is tiny, minor sport, after thought behaviour.
In fact in swimming, the administrators actively discourage athletes from sharing any information.
This is a story so common that it’s almost THE story of the sport:
-SwimSwam asks athlete question
-Athlete answers honestly and interestingly
-Admin asks athlete if they spoke to SwimSwam
-Athlete gets scared and lies (‘no they made my quotes up’ or ‘They pressured me and I panicked’)
-Administrator enacts new rule that nobody is allowed to talk to any media at all, ever, or only in very limited circumstances.
I really appreciate your work Braden and don’t want to suggest that any athlete is to blame for a culture facing rapid and unpredictable changes.
I do think current leadership is unequipped to handle external pressure with a tactful, professional hand in the US. If any group is present to keep leadership accountable I trust yall.
It has been an American problem for a long time, but it’s spreading to other nations unfortunately. The U.S. aren’t even the worst offenders anymore, as they have been doing some work on being more transparent at times.
Appreciate the kind words.
Another theme where USA Swimming needs to learn from the hell that USA Gymnastics went through. USAG used to keep the gymnasts incredibly locked down with regards to media. Post-Nassar reckoning they are much more transparent and also (seemingly) exert less control over the gymnasts’ media relationships.
Of course this also coincided with having the best gymnast of all time come into her own and realize that she was good enough that she could just be herself and USAG couldn’t dare try to stifle her and it cracked the door open for everyone else. USAS doesn’t have a swimmer with that combo of caliber/personality.
that is depressing
Really? Claire Weinstein is an 18-year-old who just graduated from high school. Presumably, she’s ill with some kind of GI virus and hoping to rest and recover enough to compete in her other races. You really expect USA Swimming to trot her out to a press conference because you think you deserve an explanation?
Don’t get me wrong, USA Swimming should let its athletes do press conferences if they want to, but fans certainly aren’t entitled to these details.
Second DNS this morning and obviously mijatovic swam sick too. Doesn’t bode well for the rest of the meet.
Trying to have a positive outlook here, other than Huske (But we all expected Gretchen to win the 100 fly), none of the swimmer so far have been favorites to win gold. Huske obviously factors into the relay though, so it could be pretty bad.
Speak for yourself bro, some of us don’t doubt the reigning Olympic gold medalist
You’re right, but the form Gretchen is in, it definitely seems like her race to lose.
it was her race to lose at the olympics too… huske got past her then too
u can not doubt Torri and at the same time, still think Gretchen is gonna blow the field away
What does it really matter in the end? It is just Worlds not Olympics.
“What does it matter” – $65,000 per event in prize money
Increasing marketability of the sport more than once every four years
Learning about tapers and race approaches
IDK why does the Olympics matter? In the grand scheme it doesn’t, right? I don’t understand why people who think that none of this matters bother spending any time in the comments section.