Youngest, Oldest, and Twins! On Team USA for 2023 World Championships

In the period of American swimming from 2012-2016, dominated by the rise of Missy Franklin and Katie Ledecky and the winding down of the career of Michael Phelps, American swimming was getting older.

Ledecky was the youngest swimmer on the US Olympic Team in both 2012 and 2016, and Rio was the first time since the 1900 Olympics when the US roster had no 18 & unders.

There was somewhat of a youth wave after Rio, with a team that was, on average, about 9 months younger at the 2017 World Championships than at the 2016 Olympics – 22 years, 204 days.

After many years of a maturing American roster, a youth wave hit at the 2023 US World Championship Trials, with high schoolers like Alex Shackell, Henry McFadden, Claire Weinstein, Bella Sims, Katie Grimes, Jillian Cox, Erin Gemmell, and Thomas Heilman adorning a roster that saw a lot of turnover.

In fact, there are more high school swimmers than NCAA post-grads (excluding those who swam the college season last year).

The math confirms the perception – the women’s roster has an average age of 21 years, 262 days (21.72 years); the men’s team has an average age of 22 years, 216 days (22.59 years); and the overall team has an average age of 22 years, 70 days (22.19 years).

That makes the 2023 team one of the youngest in recent memory.

• Ages based on the start date of the competition, June 23, 2023

Happy Birthday…

• Two swimmers, Jillian Cox (July 18, 2005) and Matt King (July 9, 2002) will celebrate their birthdays while in training camp in Singapore.
• Another, Alex Walsh (July 31, 2001), will celebrate hers the day after the conclusion of the competition.

Superlatives…

• The youngest member of the men’s team is Thomas Heilman, who broke a famous Michael Phelps National Age Group Record at Trials. He will be 16 years, 170 days at the start of the competition. Heilman is the youngest American male to qualify for a World Championship team since Phelps, Nick Zaccardi says he’s the youngest to qualify for a US Worlds or Olympic team in multiple events since Rick DeMont in 1972.
• The youngest member of the women’s team is Claire Weinstein, who will be 16 years, 148 days at the start of the competition. She’s about a month younger than Heilman, and her Sandpipers of Nevada group includes three of the five youngest swimmers on the women’s team (Grimes and Sims).
• The oldest member of the men’s team is the defending 50 breast champion Nic Fink, who will be 30 years and 27 days old as of the start of competition. He’s also the oldest member of the team overall, followed by Chase Kalisz (29 years, 145 days).
• The oldest member of the women’s team is the resurgent Olivia Smoliga, who will be 28 years, 291 days old as of the start of the competition.

Other Stuff…

• Twins! Sprinter Chris Guiliano and distance swimmer Luke Hobson were born on the same day: June 25, 2003.
• There will be 9 teenagers on the American roster, 7 of whom are on the women’s team.
• There are 1,065+ Years of experience on Team USA. Because the roster is bigger than some in the past, that’s actually more than 2017 by 50 years, though the average age is lower.
• The most common zodiac sign for Team USA is, appropriately, Aquarius: the water bearer (which is not uncommon for American teams, interestingly). Every sign on the traditional zodiac is represented except Virgo (August 23-September 22).

By Zodiac Sign

By Birth Month

Team USA, from Youngest to Oldest