Yesterday’s 2015 FINA World Championships’ medal table saw a three-way tie for total golds between Australia, the United States and Great Britain. But, after the seventh day of competition, the U.S. bumped itself up to become the sole owner of the top spot in terms of number of golds.
Katie Ledecky came up big for the stars and stripes yet again, earning the 800m freestyle event in a brand new world record. In her incredible feat, Ledecky became the first woman ever to clock a sub-8:10 time (8:07.39) in the race. Ledecky has now been a part of 5 monstrous golds for the United States in Kazan, earning the top prize in the 200-400-800-1500m individual freestyle events, as well as part of the 4x200m freestyle relay. She became the first woman to ever win four freestyle gold medals at one single edition of the world championships.
The second American gold on the day came from the mixed 400 free relay, where the combination of Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian, Simone Manuel and Missy Franklin proved potent enough to hold off a charging Dutch team who was firing on all cylinders the last leg. The U.S. touched in 3:23.05 to register a new world record.
While Great Britain’s total golds of 5 remained untouched on day 7, Australia added one to their tally in the form of Emily Seebohm, who cranked out her second backstroke win. After having already won the 100m backstroke title, Seebohm overtook American Missy Franklin in the final 50m of the 200m distance to earn the gold in a new Australian record of 2:05.81.
Swimming Medal Table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States |
7 | 7 | 4 | 18 |
| 2 |  Australia |
6 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
| 3 |  Great Britain |
5 | 1 | 3 | 9 |
| 4 |  China |
4 | 1 | 7 | 12 |
| 5 |  France |
3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 |  Hungary |
2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| 7 |  Japan |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
 Sweden |
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| 9 |  South Africa |
1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 10 |  Russia* |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
Total Medal Table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China |
14 | 10 | 10 | 34 |
| 2 | United States |
12 | 11 | 5 | 28 |
| 3 | Russia |
9 | 4 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Great Britain |
7 | 1 | 6 | 14 |
| 5 | Australia |
6 | 2 | 6 | 14 |
| 6 | France |
4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| 7 |  Italy |
2 | 3 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 | South Africa |
2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| 9 | Hungary |
2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 10 |  Germany |
2 | 1 | 4 | 7 |
| Japan |
2 | 1 | 4 |
Actually, given the huge number of misfiring American swimmers and the depth of talent the idiotic selection process (and a certain DUI) left at home, I’d say it’s a fairly encouraging result. This was a transition year to end all transition years.
One result is that MF is no way ‘the world’s 4th most marketable athlete ‘ or whatever the hype was .
She is not even world champ in her events .
Now Ledecky could rake it in but I cannot see her promoting sox & kitchen bench cleaners .i can’t see her eating Wheaties on a packet or gulping Pepsi at a burger place or checking into the Ritz . She is totally Un marketable .
‘ Good morning , I am Katie Ledecky & I will be using this product in order to assess its’ viability . I am carefully considering the ecological impact , it’s quality , endurance & cost / price equations . I will… Read more »
It hasn’t been a great meet for the US even with expectations tempered by the questionable selection process. A lot of credit has to go to the standard of swimming by other nations. I think the US will win the medal table a little more comfortably in Rio but not to the extent we saw in London or Barcelona. We have a lot of young talent with age group records being broken at an astonishing rate but the same thing is happening in other countries, particularly Australia. I’m a little more convinced that Australia can challenge us by 2020.
How about the UK riding so high on the medals table…what a great week for the Brits.
They need to apologise to Bill Sweetenham big time . When he went in 2001 he found only 6 50 m pools in the whole UK ( australia had 1500 ) . He got another 14 built & set up HPC & the Australian sportscommissionsystem of Results = Funding . He regularly returned to canberra & almost wept at the frustrations he had changing attitudes of british sports bureaucrats. They almost broke him .
Even James Guy’s club – Milfield School which has been around for 30 years , needed both time & change to produce a champion.
I completely agree with you but I also think that makes the progress even more impressive is that they’ve done this without anywhere near the same level of resources and facilities available to them as the U.S. and Aus teams and without the same quantity of people to draw from. Swimming also had further funding withdrawals after 2012 because the performance was so substandard. Imagine what could be done if swimming did have more funding and more interest in Britain.
I think the relay gold was a watershed moment and will give them more confidence. They’ll face much less pressure next year than they did in 2012. I think Guy and O’Connor in particular can improve a lot more which is scary.
Whatis it with the toy & 50 m events taken out? What isThe Republic of Ledecky total?
A note on the 10 year old Bahraini girl entered in the 50 fly . One could think of it several ways But I am going with this . The UAE is entrusting a 10 year girl – their first f swim star – to Russia when half the boofhead Australian team is frozen in fear . UAE has complete confidence in Russian security, laws,& religious observance – interesting . I’d be curious to know any special arrangements were made ( eg were her parents brought over also) because this is really quite a big advance in ME Girls World . Those… Read more »
Actually, Gregg Troy, speaking at the ASCTA clinic in May, said this meet is just a “see where we are” meet and really not very important in the big scheme of things.
All I know is that Olympic Trials are going to be fierce next year!
Rubbish . He cannot just deem 2015 worlds as non important . He is not the world .As to everything for Rio – blah blah blah . Kazan is reality .
but nothing is very important in the big scheme of things!
Every meet can be said to be “see where we are” meet but that implies against some goals. It will be a surprise and worrisome of the goal setting that there is no intermediate goals but all hopes in OT. I am not too sure if that quote is taken out of context or what, but as coaches, they know better to live/train/race in the moment because no on can “save” it for OT. Someone better always will come along and no one is a lock for a spot/medal unless they train and race to be the top.
At the end of the day, the swimmers, especially… Read more »
Take away Ledecky’s 4 Gold medals and this is a complete joke for the U.S. Squad!fortunately we have the greatest distance swimmer that has ever lived swimming her best meet ever! But if you look at almost everything else…not so great!
US awful meet = 8 or 9 golds and 22 or 23 medals overall
Missy Franklin awful meet = 2 golds and 5 or 6 medals overall
😆
i think the previous low medal haul for the us team at the fina worlds i think was in rome in 2009 with 10 golds and 22 total.
1994 – 4 gold, 21 total
Can you split this into men’s and women’s please?