2019 FINA WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- All sports: Friday, July 12 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- Pool swimming: Sunday, July 21 – Sunday, July 28, 2019
- The Nambu University Municipal Aquatics Center, Gwangju, Korea
- Meet site
- Competition Schedule
- FinaTV Live Stream
- Entry Lists
- Results
A streak of 4 consecutive World Championships in the women’s 800 free relay came to an end on Thursday for thee American women, in spite of swimming under the World Record. Their 7:41.87 lost out to Australia’s 7:41.50, with both going under the old World Record of 7:42.08 set in 2009 by China.
The old American Record was set in 2009 by the team of Dana Vollmer, Lacey Nymeyer, Arianna Kukors, and Allison Schmitt.
The fastest split for the 2019 American Record relay was done by Katie Ledecky in 1:54.61. Under other circumstances, that would not be significant, as Ledecky is currently the country’s top 200 freestyler. Given that she had to scratch the individual 200 free prelims and the 1500 free finals just a few days ago, and only returned to the water this morning, that she had the 3rd-fastest split of the field is momentous. It’s not quite a “Michael Jordan flu game” moment, but it is still can maybe the emotional lift that the Americans need to finish strong at a meet of disappointments.
Comparative Splits, American Records:
| 2019 American Record | 2009 American Record | ||
| Simone Manuel | 1:56.09 | Dana Vollmer | 1:55.29 |
| Katie Ledecky | 1:54.61 | Lacey Nymeyer | 1:57.88 |
| Melanie Margalis | 1:55.81 | Ariana Kukors | 1:55.18 |
| Katie McLaughlin | 1:55.36 | Allison Schmitt | 1:54.21 |
| Total Time | 7:41.87 | Total Time | 7:42.56 |
Other splits of significance for the Americans: Simone Manuel swam a best time and is now the 7th-fastest American in history in the event: her previous fastest was 1:57.01 on a flat start. Further, Melanie Margalis was 6-tenths faster than she swam in this relay final at the 2017 World Championships, and Katie McLaughlin‘s swim was 1.12 seconds better than her flat-start lifetime best. In a week where the Americans have had lots of challenges, all 4 swimmers in this race had good swims by their own standards.
It looked like the current American wave was losing out on its best chance to break this record, with the ‘super relay’ that was to include Missy Franklin (retired) and Allison Schmitt (moving past her athletic prime) never putting the full relay together. But with a gutsy performance from a sick Katie Ledecky, with Katie McLaughlin returning from a serious injury to her previous trajectory, with Simone Manuel being able to do just enough to extend her range from the 100 free, and with Melanie Margalis continuing to be a rock of versatility for the Americans, the American Record and silver comes away as a consolation prize.
Great swim by both teams. Good choices for the Americans, all were ‘on’ and swam well, props to Simone for stepping into unfamiliar territory and, I hate to quote Rowdy 😁, but ‘doing her job’… And to Katie for a solid split at less than 100%.
Both teams had 8 girls firing, it could have been a 3 horse race with Canada as 3 of the 4 were on, unfortunately Taylor was a bit off. Canadians 2.8 sec behind with Ruck approx 2 sec off her 2018 flat start time. Not saying they would win but with Ruck on her best form they would certainly make it a fun 3-way battle…
Huge props to those girls, especially Emily… Read more »
Two notes on McLaughlin: 1. She seems to slow down a lot on her breathing strokes. Needs to keep head lower and get it under the surface after the breath. 2. Relatedly, watching her next to McKeon, you can really see the drag caused by McLaughlin’s hair bump on the back of her head. McKeon’s head is submerged after each breath, during the power phase of that stroke, while McLaughlin’s is always breaking the surface.
Great swim by the US to grab that long standing American record and bring even more momentum back to the meet! What’s Comerford’s best 200 meter free time? Wonder if she could get onto that relay in 2020 with more experience. This event has so much depth (and more to come) for 2020!
Comerford PB is even slower than Manuel’s.
USA went under World Record time with a less-than-100% Ledecky. Hard to second guess anyone’s effort or execution, nor the coaches’ final lineup decision. Hats off to the Ausies, they earned it. Can’t wait to see these two teams go at it again in Tokyo where it’s probably going to take another World Record to win.
It is very good to see Aussie swimming making a comeback. Makes the competition more exciting.
Such an amazing performance by all 4 swimmers. It just turns out that the Aussie women are a historic group. I’m excited to see both teams push each other. Already thinking about the next iteration, but this one is worth dwelling on for a while. What a fantastic race!! I thought McLaughlin was gonna take it for a second…. you could tell the FINA announcers were surprised by how well she hung on there
Catie is such a clutch relay swimmer – she swam up to expectations
They should of had Katie gone second and had Ledecky anchor!! Ledecky could of chased down for the gold
They tried that strategy last year at Pan Pacs and it didn’t work, remember?
Allison Schmitt was absolutely wretched in the lead-off leg at the 2018 Pan Pacs.
So Simone is #7 all time US in the 200m free. Interesting. Let’s not let facts get in the way of the hate.
It’s nice that she was able to draft Titmus
It’s unfortunate she won’t be able to draft Sarah or Cate tomorrow.
I believe you already covered this once before, but hey go ahead and throw it out there again.😂😅
Did you never watch any of her races at world championships or Olympics?
Was I wrong in my analyses?
Draft? Does that mean “pressure bust pipes”? I don’t recall Simone being beside C1 in the Rio 50 when C1 was damn near last. As great as you say Cate is, she’s come up real small in Worlds/Olympics individually. But she’s a great relay swimmer. I like Sarah, she comes to swim and has no excuses win or lose
“she’s come up real small in Worlds/Olympics individually”
You mean from the fact that she has World Championship individual gold medal and also Olympics medal.
Just admit you hate Cate and go somewhere else.
“I like Sarah, she comes to swim and has no excuses win or lose”
Same here. I like Sarah too.
No excuses like “illness”, “swam 100 free semis” etc just to undermine that they got beat by someone else. Amirite
Just admit you hate Simone and go somewhere else
Wrong. I don’t hate Simone just because I wrote some facts about her swimming strategy, which is actually very sound and smart.
Simone and Katie both looked really upset on the medal podium