Dressel & Smoliga Help U.S. Surge To Top Of Overall Gwangju Medal Table

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

Through night 5 of the 2019 World Aquatics Championships, the United States has taken back the lead in the overall medal table, thanks to a gold medal-winning performance by Caeleb Dressel in the men’s 100m free and Olivia Smoliga‘s podium-topping outing in the women’s 50m back.

Dressel’s time of 46.96 falls just .05 shy of the World Record, but checks in as the fastest time ever in textile, as well as a new American Record. As for Smoliga, the former Georgia Bulldog set an American Record for herself, with her time of 27.33 slicing .10 off of her own former mark.

A pair of American women also did damage in the 200m fly, with Hali Flickinger and Katie Drabot finishing with silver and bronze, while Chase Kalisz collected bronze in the men’s 200m IM.

The women’s 4x200m free relay also snagged silver in a time that would have set a new World Record, had the Australians not beaten them to the wall first to capture the win.

Speaking of Australia, besides the 4x200m freestyle gold medal and WR, Matt Wilson raced his way to the top seed in the men’s 200m breast, matching the WR in the process.

Overall Swimming Medal Table Through Day 5:

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  United States 5 5 4 14
2  Australia 4 4 3 11
3  China 3 1 2 6
4  Italy 3 0 2 5
5  Hungary 3 0 0 3
6  Great Britain 2 1 2 5
7  Canada 2 0 3 5
8  Japan 1 2 0 3
9  Russia 0 4 3 7
10  Brazil 0 2 2 4
11  Sweden 0 1 1 2
12  Germany 0 1 0 1
 Norway 0 1 0 1
  Switzerland 0 1 0 1
15  France 0 0 1 1
 South Africa 0 0 1 1
Totals 23 23 24 70

 

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Tm71
4 years ago

A little better than Kazan but much worse than Budapest

Swimy04
4 years ago

Didn’t Brazil get a couple of gold medals in the open water part of the program?

Rafael
Reply to  Swimy04
4 years ago

Here is only Pool.. if we added all events China would have 853953485934853094 diving golds by now..

StuartC
4 years ago

USA population – 330 million; Australia 25 million. USA should be doing better!! Statically, if you have one world championship swimmer per 1 million people, USA should have 330 and Australia should have 25!! China based on population is not doing very well either.

Swimmer
Reply to  StuartC
4 years ago

Based on the way that you qualify for world championship in the us you can’t have 330 swimmers on the world team…

The Man Himself
Reply to  StuartC
4 years ago

You neglect to mention the focus that swimming receives in each country. In Australia, it is considered one of the biggest sports by far, leading to more kids dreaming of being an Olympic swimmer, and therefore a large talent pool. In the US, every kid wants to play football or basketball, not swim. Stop looking for excuses as to why no country will be as dominant as the US in swimming and just accept it for what it is.

Baker-King-Worrell-Manuel
Reply to  The Man Himself
4 years ago

That does not reconcile with the results at the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Championship. Qualifying a team a year out from the FINA World Aquatics Championship is sheer lunacy.

Samesame
Reply to  The Man Himself
4 years ago

It’s actually not considered one of the biggest sports in Australia anymore.

Philip
Reply to  StuartC
4 years ago

Yeah, as someone else said, a lot of our population goes to American football, soccer, basketball, baseball. Most of the kids that get into swimming are those with parents who guide them towards it.

Swimming4silver
4 years ago

Russia is going to win 3 golds tomorrow

Nswim
4 years ago

At least today the American team had some highlights, the 4*200 relay was disappointing due to the silver, but the effort was amazing and honestly much more than what most of us expected seeing how the meet is going and Dressel has been great all along. Yes, the 200 fly and 200 IM defeats were hard, but the US is still pushing on to perform

Texas Tap Water
4 years ago

Smoliga is a beautiful lady with nice outgoing personality.

After so many misses, so happy that she finally gets her first major gold medal.

MikeM
4 years ago

Pfftt….if you look at the medal tally from an Olympic point of view Australia are once again on top @ Day 5 with 4 Golds to 3….(who ever counts 50 form stokes)

anonymous
Reply to  MikeM
4 years ago

Sprinters

PhillyMark
Reply to  MikeM
4 years ago

Congratulations, you’ve won the 2019 Olympic game scoring criteria version of the World Championship of swimming through day 5!!!

MikeM
Reply to  PhillyMark
4 years ago

You obviously had help from your sister to write that :o)

PhillyMark
Reply to  MikeM
4 years ago

Interesting direction you took that one. Best of luck to your rooting interests moving forward, and bless your heart.

MikeM
Reply to  PhillyMark
4 years ago

Oui, good luck on the farm.

Really
Reply to  MikeM
4 years ago

Aussies probably shouldn’t bring up Olympic performances….

MikeM
Reply to  Really
4 years ago

Another trailer park comment with zero substance.

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Former Masters swimmer and coach Loretta (Retta) thrives on a non-stop but productive schedule. Nowadays, that includes having just earned her MBA while working full-time in IT while owning French 75 Boutique while also providing swimming insight for BBC.

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