North America: Team USA Ends Worlds on a High Note (Thanks to the Women)

2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

After a sluggish start to the 2019 World Championships (dampened not only by some lackluster performances but also by Katie Ledecky‘s illness that kept her from two of her four individual races), Team USA picked things up over the last few days– the women, that is.

It was Lilly King who took her second breaststroke gold of the meet with the only sub-30 performance of the final in the 50 breast. King hasn’t been quite on her bests, but she’s been a go-to force for Team USA and she added another gold to their count.

Proving yet again that she has some otherworldly magic that she brings to her swims, Simone Manuel ripped another incredibly clutch race in the women’s 50 free. Her hand has found the wall first in both sprint events despite the lifetime bests and relay abilities of Cate Campbell and Sarah Sjöström, and her win in that 50 was emphatic.

In the final event of the meet, the U.S. women put an exclamation point on the week with a thunderous World Record in the 4×100 medley relay.

Things kicked off with Regan Smith‘s WR in the lead-off at 57.57, blowing past Kathleen Baker‘s 58.00. Smith, who has broken backstroke WRs at both Olympic distances and now as part of the 4×100 medley relay, has been consistently lights-out for the Americans. Whereas some of the senior members of the team missed the mark this week, which some likened to the American team’s hollow performance in 2015, Smith was always on her game this week. Smith will head into the Olympic year as the next big thing, and with it, she’ll bring heightened prestige to Team USA.

On that medley relay, it felt like the U.S. women, in particular, were business as usual. They have dominated the medley relay since Rio, and we saw King do what she had to do, Dahlia unearth a great 56-low split despite her 100 fly being off this week, and Manuel bring it all home with the best split of the field (51.86).

It was the women who were responsible for all three of Team USA’s golds as they finished with a combined 14 from the entire team over this week. In total, that’s 27 medals for Team USA, four more than in 2015, but not up to par with their whopping 38 from 2017. Meanwhile, Manuel’s seven medals makes her the most successful American female at a single LC Worlds medals-wiseCaeleb Dressel did the same with his eight medals, and Dressel won the male swimmer of the meet award.

U.S. MEN – MEDAL TABLE

GOLD SILVER BRONZE
5 3 2

U.S. WOMEN – MEDAL TABLE

GOLD SILVER BRONZE
8 4 3

U.S. MIXED RELAYS – MEDAL TABLE

GOLD SILVER BRONZE
1 1 0

More North American Notables:

BROKEN NORTH AMERICAN RECORDS:

  • Women’s 4×100 medley relay: World/American/North American Record, Smith/King/Dahlia/Manuel (3:50.40)
  • Women’s 100 Back: World/American/North American Record, Regan Smith (57.57)

NORTH AMERICA — DAY 8 MEDAL TABLE

RANK COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE TOTAL
1 USA 3 2 0 5
8 Canada 0 0 1 1

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David
5 years ago

I wonder how seriously US Swimming takes this meet vs preparation for Tokyo. The qualifying process for this pre Olympic team is always a bit weird and a lot of the swimmers making the team are veterans looking at peaking next year. The men in particular seemed undercooked, without Dressel it would have been mostly bleak. Still, this was certainly a lot better than the drudgery of the last pre Olympic WCs, 2015 WCs… 11th place in the 4×100.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
5 years ago

lol

Tupperware
5 years ago

Feels like the US straightened out a lot of problems, but also created a few more. We got a consistent sub 59 breastroker, simone showed again that she can throw down, and half our team can now do sub 48 100 frees. Yet now we have a male sprint backstroke problem, an envigorated GB medley team, and a katie ledecky that has a seed of self doubt…
Interesting shakeup all around

Yabo
Reply to  Tupperware
5 years ago

Also for some reason our IM now sucks

Roch
Reply to  Yabo
5 years ago

Jeah it does.

Victor
5 years ago

Dominated since Rio is dead wrong. They lost to Australia in Pan PAC 2018. However if they keep it up like this World Champs, they are highly unlikely to be defeated. Go 🇺🇸

masters swimmer
5 years ago

This was an incredible meet. Is it just me, or does the quality of times and exciting races at this meet seem better than the Olympics?

Chaitha D.
Reply to  masters swimmer
5 years ago

Probably feels like that because Dressel really came on to the scene after 2016 Rio and every time he swims we can expect something mind blowing

Heyitsme
5 years ago

Where’s the pickem results

Roch
5 years ago

Would be interesting to see a breakdown of the American medals by men/women overall. Feels like other than Dressel, Litherland (sadly only one event), Apple (only relays) and Wilson (no individual medals but outperformed expectations) the men really failed to step up. But I’d like to put numbers to that rather than just say the women had a good meet and the men fell on their faces.

PK Doesn’t like his long name
Reply to  Roch
5 years ago

Pieroni swam well too.

Roch
Reply to  PK Doesn’t like his long name
5 years ago

Yep this is why I need a breakdown. It was a long week, I totally forgot about Blake.

PK Doesn't Like His Long Name
Reply to  Roch
5 years ago

The breakdown is pretty simple:
50/100: Pieroni and Dressel good, MA meh
200/400: Blah to super blah
800/1500: ???
Fly: Dressel good, MA’s 50 fly good, everyone else meh
Back: I guess okay? Nothing near best times for Murph but he did medal an event. MA’s 50 back was disappointing given he had been fast enough to medal multiple times this year.
Breast: Wilson good, everyone else meh
IM: Kalisz obviously off, really good for Litherland, very meh for Devine.
Relay-only swimmers: Apple great, one great swim for Adrian, everything else meh

Wondering
Reply to  Roch
5 years ago

Definitely wasn’t MA…

Scribble
Reply to  Wondering
5 years ago

MA didn’t medal, but was the first person to ever make the finals of all 4 strokes.

Hmm....
Reply to  Scribble
5 years ago

Gee, hadn’t heard that before….

Roch
Reply to  Scribble
5 years ago

I’m a fan of MA and it’s exciting he made all the finals, but a bit disappointing that he didn’t medal in any. Anyone know how his Worlds times compare to his in-season bests this year? Did we set our expectations too high or did he underperform?

What a beast
Reply to  Roch
5 years ago

The man is 19 swimming 50s against mid 20-30 year olds. I would say he is in a really good spot looking to 2020. Let the man gain some more muscle, he is still developing.

Zanna
Reply to  What a beast
5 years ago

He is 20

About Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon

Karl Ortegon studied sociology at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT, graduating in May of 2018. He began swimming on a club team in first grade and swam four years for Wesleyan.

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