While the Russians and Americans have as many medals, 8 golds leaves the team from Australia atop the medals table at the 2015 Junior World Swimming Championships for the 5th time in 5 days on Saturday.
Both team USA and team Australia won gold medals on the penultimate day of the meet; Sean Grieshop took the men’s 400 IM in a minor upset over the Junior World Record holder Brandonn Almeida of Brazil.
The Australians’ gold medal came from the women’s 400 free relay that demolished Russia’s Junior World Record by a second-and-a-half.
The three other winners took their respective countries’ first gold medals of the meet. Italy’s Simona Quadarella won the women’s 1500 free; New Zealand’s Gabrielle Fa’amausili repeated as the 50 back champion in a new Junior World Record to cool off the red-hot Minna Atherton; and Andrii Khloptsov won the men’s 50 fly.
| G | S | B | T | ||
| 1. |
AUS
|
8
|
6
|
0
|
14 |
| 2. |
USA
|
6
|
9
|
4
|
19 |
| 3. |
RUS
|
4
|
1
|
9
|
14 |
| 4. |
TUR
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
3 |
| 5. |
CAN
|
2
|
5 |
3
|
10 |
| 6. | CHN | 2 |
2
|
1 | 5 |
| 7. | GBR | 1 |
1
|
5
|
6 |
| 8. |
ITA
|
1
|
1
|
3 |
4
|
| 9. |
JPN
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
| 10. | NZL |
1
|
0 | 1 | 2 |
| 11. |
ROU
|
1
|
0 |
0
|
1
|
| 12. |
UKR
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
1
|
| 13. |
BRA
|
0
|
2 |
0
|
2 |
| 14. |
SWE
|
0
|
2
|
0 | 2 |
| 15. |
ESP
|
0
|
1
|
2 | 3 |
| 16. |
HUN | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 17. | EGY | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18. |
LTU | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 19. | VEN | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Bobo Gigi’s comments say what a number have suspected…
“Our best young men are not the fastest at 15 or 16 but when they become adult, they go to the club of Marseille, take 25 kilos of muscle and at 21 or 22 are transformed into world-class sprinters. Magic, no?”
Magic, No. Some “secret sauce” in those French dishes? Yes. There’s a quick way to put on that kind of muscle and it’s not by pumping iron.
A lot of French, other European, and Brazilian swimmers develop in the US within the NCAA program. Their potential is reached during the college years. Australia, Japan, and now the UK generally don’t send as many to the US.
NCAA SCY swimming is like another sport. Many fantastic swimmers excel at SCY, but not so much LCM. Swimmers like Phelps and Franklin who generally have more closing speed excel on the World scene and become famous, but damn there are many great SCY swimmers who do not.
France really had a golden age of swimming, it will be difficult to maintain that level of success. I think the UK may be taking the golden age mantle for a while.
The photo associated with this article is excellent!
It really shows how young these kids are. That picture could be taken at any age group meet from anywhere in any swimming nation. (Expect for the flags on the caps, I suppose…)
So this still begs the question: if there was a development pipeline that generated not just a few but many international level French swimmers, what happened to that pipeline? I would think if your “system” (training, coaching, etc.) is producing success, wouldn’t you want to replicate and expand that system? Is the drop-off in super-level junior French swimmers an anomaly or simply a “return to normal”. Then where did all those mature French swimmers (who will supposedly drop off the competitive scene after 2016) come from – an extraordinary combination of talent genes in a relatively large number of swimmers but a narrow span of years? I don’t buy the “late blooming” explanation. How can one nation be characterized by… Read more »
That’s too complicated for me. 😆
The fact is that our young swimmers are much slower than the young swimmers in USA, Australia, Japan, Russia, China and all other big swimming nations.
And take F.Manaudou, C.Lacourt, F.Gilot or J.Stravius, they were nowhere in the juniors.
Manaudou’s best times in the 50 free/100 free at 15 were 25.21/57.31.
Lacourt was in 28.41 at 17 in the 50 back.
Our best young men are not the fastest at 15 or 16 but when they become adult, they go to the club of Marseille, take 25 kilos of muscle and at 21 or 22 are transformed into world-class sprinters. Magic, no?
There’s hope for me!
Except I’m not French lol
All medals tables from all sports are based on gold medals.
Australia has the most gold medals. Australia tops the medals table.
Only the gold medals count!
There are no French swimmers at this meet. All our best juniors, and they are not many, were at the European games in June and at the European youth olympic festival in July.
But overall, France has never been good in juniors. Most of our athletes mature and develop very slowly. And we don’t have a big depth. “France is one the elite swimming powers at the senior:international level….” yes; but until 2016. And thanks to 3 or 4 names. When they will retire…. At least we have had more… Read more »
I replied to Swimphan’s comment but it looks like his comment has disappeared.
Very strange things happen on swimswam these days.
You’re kidding, right?
About his comment which had disappeared? No, I was not kidding. His comment had disappeared. It’s back now.
Since yesterday there’s a 0 on the right instead of the useless up/down things. What’s the signification?
Strange. Very strange. Hopefully the website is not haunted.
Bobo, do you realize that they crown a team champion at this meet? Just wondering because I would think THAT is the most important TEAM goal. I agree that it is nice to lead in the gold medal category but it not the most important one, IMO.
SwimPhan- France did not send a team to this meet. If you look at the psych sheet, there are entry lists by country at the bottom. They don’t have any entries.
The headline is misleading. It should say Australia leads in GOLD medals but it looks like the USA is first with total medals 19 vs 14 for AUS and RUS.
Why is France MIA from this meet and specifically from any medals? The underlying question is: France is one of the elite swimming powers at the Senior/international level but a non-factor in these Junior/international meets. Did they send a team? Where is France’s development pipeline?
I totally agree with Swimphan, it should read the aussies lead in gold medals. This is an argument that continues to go on with the idea that the only thing that counts are gold medals. Looking at the team concept the total number of medals is just as important.
A commenter on this website crowned the best teams at the WC as Australia and GB. I could not understand that reasoning since neither led in medals OR gold medals. Just because one nation (USA) underperforms in relation to the expected results does not mean that nation could not still be the best team.