The U.S. Worlds Team Got Younger, But Not By as Much as We Thought

The United States’ team for the 2017 World Championships has gotten younger – but perhaps not by as much as you’d expect.

The average member of the U.S. team at the Olympic Games was 23.3 years old. This year’s team is younger, but maybe not by as much as you’d think – the average member of the 2017 team is 22 years, 204 days old. That’s a drop of about .7 years (about 9 months) per swimmer on average.

It feels like that gap should be bigger. There were 5 members of the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team who were at least 30 years old, and none of the 5 (Phelps, Lochte, Weir, Ervin, Plummer) are on this year’s World Championships team. Other veterans from Rio like Tom Shields, Dana Vollmer, Allison Schmitt, Jimmy Feigen, and Connor Jaeger are also not on this year’s team.

There are also far more teenagers on this year’s team, including 15-year old Regan Smith and 17-year olds Robert Finke and Dakota Luther.

What seems to have happen, in spite of the extremes on both ends getting younger, is that the ‘middle class’ of swimmers have been rewarded for prolonging their careers beyond college. Swimmers like Zane Grothe and Katie Meili and Melanie Margalis have brought up the average age. The median age of the team is 22 years and 100 days, which is fairly close to the mean age. The median age, which is one way to control for the effects of outliers (like the 15-year old Smith), being so close to the mean age indicates that it’s this group in the middle that has the biggest impact on the average age of the team, and that median lands where one would expect – right around the age of someone recently graduated from college. This year’s team is dense with swimmers in that category.

Also true is that in spite of a lot of turnover, there’s a large core of the team that remains the same from Rio, and that core is one year older than they were at the Olympics. If one compared the average age of this year’s Worlds team on August 5th, 2016 to the age of the Olympic Team on August 5th, 2016, that gap would be more like a year and 9 months, which is more what the perception of the shift is.

Happy Birthday….

  • …to Kelsi Worrell, who celebrated her 23rd birthday on Saturday, July 15th, at training camp in Ostia
  • …to Nic Fink, who will celebrate his 25th birthday in Budapest on the day after the conclusion of swimming, July 31st
  • …to Ryan Murphy (July 2nd) and Hali Flickinger (July 3rd), who got to celebrate their birthdays before leaving for camp

Superlatives…

  • …the youngest male member of the team is Robert Finke, who will be 17 years, 264 days old when the meet starts.
  • …the youngest female member of the team is Regan Smith, who will be 15 years, 168 days old when the meet starts.
  • …the oldest male member of the team is Matt Grevers, who will be 32 years, 127 days old when the meet starts.
  • …the oldest female member of the team is Katie Meili, who will be 26 years, 105 days old when the meet starts.

Other Stuff

  • The men’s team is on average older than the women’s team, as is usually the case. The average male swimmer is 23 years, 103 days old, while the average female swimmer is 21 years, 267 days old.
  • Both the male and female teams have dropped in age about evenly since Rio – the men’s team has gotten .7 years younger on average, while the women’s team has gotten about .9 years younger, on average.
  • There will be 6 teenagers swimming for Team USA in Budapest. That’s the same number as were in Rio, with the difference that in Rio – all 6 of them were 19.
  • Two of the three high school swimmers on the team, Robert Finke and Dakota Luther, were born 1 day apart.
  • The entire team combined has been on earth for just over 1,015 years. This is still a useless stat, but we still think it’s fun.

Each swimmer’s birthday and age

Men’s Team Birthdate Age Zodiac Sign
Chase Kalisz 3/7/1994 23 years, 144 days Pisces
Kevin Cordes 8/13/1993 23 years, 350 days Leo
Ryan Murphy 7/2/1995 22 years, 27 days Cancer
Townley Haas 12/13/1996 20 years, 227 days Sagittarius
Conor Dwyer 1/10/1989 28 years, 201 days Capricorn
Jack Conger 9/26/1994 22 years, 306 days Libran
Clark Smith 4/17/1995 22 years, 103 days Aries
Nathan Adrian 12/7/1988 28 years, 235 days Sagittarius
Caeleb Dressel 8/16/1996 20 years, 346 days Leo
Cody Miller 1/9/1992 25 years, 202 days Capricorn
Blake Pieroni 11/15/1995 21 years, 256 days Scorpio
Jay Litherland 8/24/1995 21 years, 339 days Virgo
Jacob Pebley 9/17/1993 23 years, 315 days Virgo
Matt Grevers 3/26/1985 32 years, 127 days Aries
Zach Apple 4/23/1997 20 years, 96 days Taurus
Abrahm DeVine 9/3/1996 20 years, 328 days Virgo
Nic Fink 7/3/1993 24 years, 26 days Cancer
Tim Phillips 11/30/1990 26 years, 242 days Sagittarius
Pace Clark 6/24/1994 23 years, 35 days Cancer
Michael Chadwick 4/15/1995 22 years, 105 days Aries
Zane Grothe 4/22/1992 25 years, 98 days Taurus
True Sweetser 10/14/1997 19 years, 287 days Libran
Robert Finke 11/6/1999 17 years, 264 days Scorpio
Justin Ress 8/3/1997 19 years, 359 days Leo
Women’s Team
Katie Ledecky 3/17/1997 20 years, 133 days Pisces
Kelsi Worrell 7/15/1994 23 years, 14 days Cancer
Lilly King 2/10/1997 20 years, 168 days Aquarius
Olivia Smoliga 10/12/1994 22 years, 290 days Libran
Leah Smith 4/19/1995 22 years, 101 days Aries
Elizabeth Beisel 8/18/1992 24 years, 345 days Leo
Kathleen Baker 2/28/1997 20 years, 150 days Pisces
Katie Meili 4/16/1991 26 years, 105 days Aries
Simone Manuel 8/2/1996 20 years, 360 days Leo
Lia Neal 2/13/1995 22 years, 166 days Aquarius
Abbey Weitzeil 12/3/1996 20 years, 237 days Sagittarius
Hali Flickinger 7/7/1994 23 years, 22 days Cancer
Melanie Margalis 12/30/1991 25 years, 212 days Capricorn
Madisyn Cox 5/30/1995 22 years, 60 days Gemini
Bethany Galat 8/10/1995 21 years, 353 days Leo
Mallory Comerford 9/6/1997 19 years, 325 days Virgo
Hannah Stevens 5/9/1995 22 years, 81 days Taurus
Regan Smith 2/9/2002 15 years, 168 days Aquarius
Sarah Gibson 4/20/1995 22 years, 100 days Taurus
Dakota Luther 11/7/1999 17 years, 263 days Scorpio
Cierra Runge 3/7/1996 21 years, 143 days Pisces

 

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Neither
7 years ago

Couple of comments:

1) You’ve listed not the USA team roster but the pool team roster. Including the entire USA Swimming worlds team roster would certainly alter your math – but further prove your initial point (not as young as one may think).

2) Running science is, and has been for a while, a few faces ahead of swimming research. There are many interesting journal entries regarding the peak age of athletic performance of different mediums of running. Especially endurance athletes who peak much later in life than was originally suspected – and even more for female athletes. It’s no longer the social “expectation” for athletes to stop competing and have children and it is no longer thought to be… Read more »

75M FREE
7 years ago

I doubt there is much statistical significance with those numbers. Now if we said 20 out of the 45 swimmers were Leo, then I think we’d have a story.

gregor
7 years ago

No Jenny Turralls then breaking records at 13 yrs old!

Nah
7 years ago

Why is it that the men seem to be swimming longer, as a whole, compared to the women? I know there are exceptions like coughlin and vollmer, it just seems that there are more men that go till their late 20s and early 30s. Is it physical development?

Swimmer?
Reply to  Nah
7 years ago

Women seem to peak in their late teenage or early 20s, but men usually peaked at 23 or 24, but more are peaking at 25 and 26 now. Unless you are on the Japanese team, then you peak at specifically 19.

cynthiacurran
Reply to  Swimmer?
7 years ago

Partially true, I think women could hold on to 23. Think of all the women here around 22 to 23 in the sport these days;. Late teens, few peak in the late teens anymore. Its more like 21 to 23. Guys tend to hold on in the sport past their peak at 24

Swimmer?
Reply to  cynthiacurran
7 years ago

Yea, for the guys it used to be 23, but it has changed

Baker-King-Vollmer-Manuel
Reply to  Swimmer?
7 years ago

2012 London Olympics
USA Swimming
World Records
Dana Vollmer – 24 years old
Rebecca Soni – 25 years old

Baker-King-Vollmer-Manuel
Reply to  Swimmer?
7 years ago

2016 Olympic Trials
Katie Meili
100 m breaststroke
Heats – 1:06.57
Semifinals – 1:06.37
Final – 1:06.07

2017 World Championship Trials
Katie Meili
100 m breaststroke
Heats – 1:06.10
Final – 1:05.51

Katie Meili is swimming faster at the age of 26 than at the age of 25.

tea rex
Reply to  Nah
7 years ago

Child bearing is a factor if you want to start a family before you are 35. Plummer, Grevers, Lochte, and Phelps probably missed very few practices while expecting. Much respect to Dana Vollmer – most women cannot do what she has.

Wirotomo
7 years ago

https://swimswam.com/bio/leah-smith/

did leah smith born in 1995 or in 1996?

Zanna
7 years ago

Didn’t realise that True Sweetser and Justin Ress are only 19.

Kevin
7 years ago

Thats not Mr. Finks birthday nor is he turning 25 for another 11+ months. In other comments I absolutely love what Ms. Meili is doing with her swimming career after college – keep dropping time!

Hswimmer
7 years ago

Madisyn Cox a Gemini, same as I am. You’re not alone <3

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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