The American swim team for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships has elected four swimmers as captains as the team breaks its training camp in Singapore and heads for final preparations in Fukuoka, Japan.
Abbey Weitzeil and Leah Smith were chosen as women’s team captains, while Nic Fink and Ryan Murphy were chosen as men’s team captains. The group are all veterans of many, many senior international teams, and are four of the seven oldest swimmers on a relatively-young American squad.
The US historically has elected five or six captains, but at December’s Short Course World Championships and now this long course meet, that number has been shrunk to four. Fink, Murphy, and Smith were all captains at Short Course Worlds as well.
Murphy was a captain at the Long Course World Championships in 2022 and the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2021 as well, while Smith was also a captain at last year’s long course World Championship meet.
Weitzeil is having a resurgent season and is scheduled to swim the 50 and 100 free individually, along with likely entries in the women’s 400 freee and medley relays, plus mixed relay possibilities as well.
Smith will swim as a member of the women’s 800 free relay.
Fink, the top American male breaststroker, will swim the 50 and 100 breaststrokes individually, as well as the men’s 400 medley relay and probably a mixed medley relay as well.
Murphy, the most decorated of the group with 13 long course World Championship medals and six Olympic medals, is scheduled to swim the 100 and 200 backstroke individually, plus the men’s 400 medley relay and a possible leg in the mixed medley as well.
Why wasn’t heilman picked as a captain
Do Captains put themselves forward for election? Always found it surprising Ledecky never gets the nod but wondered if she rules herself out due to heavy schedule and the extra media duties she tends to get as the “face of the team”.
I think they have a tendency to shy away from the biggest superstars. I don’t think Phelps or Lochte ever served as captain, either. As to why, I assumed it was due to the heavy event schedule but I don’t really know.
I thought maybe MP was in Rio.
MP was a captain in Rio, but KL is still 5 years younger than MP was when he was first named captain, and both were mainstays on international trips since 15
KL is also younger than both Leah and Abbey (the Olivia snub is pretty crazy tho)
Yup
https://swimswam.com/6-including-michael-phelps-named-captains-u-s-olympic-team/
Thanks, makes sense. To be fair there were probably other reasons Lochte didn’t top any votes as well.
Phelps was a captain for Rio in 2016
Dressel was captain at Tokyo I believe and Worlds or maybe just one. I recall an interview where he was nervous about being captain and missed having Adrian there.
Not sure about Tokyo but he was a captain for worlds last summer.
congrats to them!
Strange Ledecky is not a captain but maybe she has too busy a schedule to be a practical option for this job.
Not Smoliga?
Guess not!
too busy posting on social media
You are making that burn by posting on social media. Well done.
And stalking her social media?
In the realm of swimming, a tale unfolds,
USA’s team captains, courageous and bold.
Abbey, Leah, Nic, and Ryan, their names resound,
Leading the charge, with victories renowned.
Stfu
Glad they finally turned back the captain inflation.
100% agree on that, when captains make up more than 10% of your team there’s an issue. Most teams only need two captains, one for the women’s team and one for the men’s. Maybe mix it up between strokes or sprint/distance so everyone’s fairly represented, but nobody needs 6 captains