Zac Stubblety-Cook aims to become Australia's first world champion in the men's 200 breaststroke, and he has a great chance to do it in world record fashion. Current photo via Fabio Cetti

Sarah Sjostrom won her fourth straight title in the women’s 50 fly and also qualified for tomorrow’s final of the 50 free on Friday in Budapest.

American Katie Ledecky helped boost her nation closer to possibly breaking the record for most medals won at a single World Championships.

Ben Proud of Great Britain won gold in the men’s 50 freestyle on night 7 of the 2022 World Championships swimming a time of 21.32.

Two days ago, I posted an article about the struggles that the Aussies were facing at this worlds. I’m happy to say that the article did not age very well.

Ledecky obliterated the field in this event at the 2022 World Championships, putting up a time of 8:08.04 to win by 10.73 seconds.

25-year-old Naoki Mizunuma became Japan’s first-ever World Championships medalist in the mens’ 100m butterfly event with his silver here.

A 52.03 anchor leg from Mollie O’Callaghan (pictured) helped the Australians break the world record in the mixed 4×100 freestyle relay.

Leon Marchand stunned the world by putting a real scare into Michael Phelps’ world record in the men’s 400 IM on the opening night of the World Championships.

June 23rd, 2022 International, News, Previews & Recaps

The sixth night of finals promises to be another action-packed session as medals will be up for grabs in five more events at the 2022 World Championships.

Day 6 will see finals in the women’s 100 freestyle, men’s 200 backstroke, both the men’s and women’s 200 breaststroke, and then the men’s 800 freestyle relay to finish things off.

The women’s 100 free brings intrigue as we’re missing all three Olympic medalists from last summer, while the women’s 200 breast is also seemingly up for grabs with Australian Jenna Strauch leading the pack and Tokyo silver medalist Lilly King not at her best (though she looked good in the semis).

In the men’s events, Ryan Murphy and Zac Stubblety-Cook are the big favorite to win gold in the 200 back and 200 breast, respectively, with Stubblety-Cook expected to take a run at the world record he set last month.

In the 800 free relay, the U.S. men might be the favorites as they aim to reclaim the title they haven’t won since 2013. The Americans won this event five straight times from 2005 until 2013 before falling to silver in 2015 and then back-to-back bronzes at the last two championships.

They qualified first this morning by over two and a half seconds in 7:04.39, and will bring in Drew Kibler and Kieran Smith for the final, who were both finalists in the individual 200 free.

In the prelims, Carson Foster led off in 1:45.62 and Trenton Julian anchored in 1:45.64, which were the only sub-1:46 splits in the entire field.

We’ll also see semi-final rounds in the men’s 50 free and 100 fly, and the women’s 200 back and 50 fly.

While Day 6 has featured Caeleb Dressel racing the 50 free/100 fly semi-final double at the last two Worlds, we’ll now see Josh Liendo and Michael Andrew take it on. Dressel pulled out of the meet on Wednesday due to medical reasons.

We’ll also see four women—Sarah Sjostrom, Torri Huske, Marie Wattel and Claire Curzan—swim the final of the 100 freestyle and the semis of the 50 fly in tonight’s session.

Read a full preview of the session here.

Mollie O’Callaghan used her patented back-half speed to claim her first career individual world championship title in the women’s 100 freestyle in what was an incredibly tight race between the top four finishers.

The 18-year-old Australian flipped in sixth at the 50-meter mark in 25.96, but closed in a scintillating 26.71 to run down the leaders and win gold in a time of 52.67.

Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, the world record holder in the event, got out to the early lead at the 50 in 25.35, followed closely by American Torri Huske and Canadian Penny Oleksiak.

O’Callaghan crept up on them coming home, and all four were in the fight with 10 meters to go.

With the win, O’Callaghan becomes the youngest 100 free champion since 1991, and brings Australia back on top after they won consecutive titles in this event in 2013 and 2015.

She just misses her personal best time of 52.49 set last month.

Sjostrom touched second in a time of 52.80, earning her fifth straight podium finish in the event. The 28-year-old won three straight silvers from 2013 to 2017 before winning bronze in 2019. She is the only world record holder in this event to have never won the world title.

Huske out-touched Oleksiak for bronze, 52.92 to 52.98, to give the American women their first World Championship medal in a sprint freestyle event not won by Simone Manuel since 2005.

Manuel won back-to-back titles in this event in 2017 and 2019, but didn’t compete at the U.S. Trials in April.

Huske also resets her best time, having led off the 400 free relay in 52.96, and becomes the first swimmer to win four medals at these championships.

For Oleksiak, she finishes fourth for the second straight major championship after finishing in the same position at the Tokyo Olympics.

Oleksiak also cracked 53 seconds for fourth in 52.98, and then there was a sizeable gap before the rest of the heat came in.

China’s Cheng Yujie secured fifth in 53.58.

Kristof Milak annihilated the field over the second 50 during the second semi of the men’s 100 butterfly, closing in 26.40 to establish the top time of the session in 50.14.

Milak, the second-fastest swimmer in history with a best time of 49.68, qualifies first into the final by nearly seven-tenths of a second while registering the 15th-fastest swim in history and second-fastest of his career.

This race was expected to be a showdown between Milak and reigning two-time champion Caeleb Dressel, but Dressel withdrew from the competition Wednesday due to medical reasons.

If Milak goes on to win the final, he would become the first European to do so since 1994 and the first Hungarian ever.

Naoki Mizunuma joined Milak as the only other swimmer sub-27 coming home (26.62) and sub-51 overall (50.81) to advance second into the final, lowering his Japanese National Record of 50.86 set earlier this year.

Canada’s Josh Liendo, who set a new National Record of his own earlier this year in 50.88, won the first semi in 51.14 to advance in third, while last year’s Olympic bronze medalist Noe Ponti moves through in fourth in 51.18. Ponti swam a season-best of 51.17 in the heats.

Qualifying fifth was Simon Bucher, who broke the Austrian Record this morning in 51.18 and narrowly missed it tonight in 51.22.

American Michael Andrew had the fastest opening 50 split of all 16 semi-finalists (23.49) but narrowly snuck into the final in eighth, holding on for fourth in the second semi in 51.28.

American Phoebe Bacon and Australian Kaylee McKeown duked it out in the second semi of the women’s 200 backstroke, turning one one-hundredths apart at the 150 before Bacon pulled away with a 31.88 final split to touch first in a time of 2:05.93.

Bacon, who won the U.S. Trials in a lifetime best of 2:05.08 in April, advances into the final first overall, while McKeown, the reigning Olympic champion in the event, qualifies second in 2:06.41.

Italian Margherita Panziera, who swam a best time of 2:05.56 in March 2021, was third in the semi and qualifies fourth overall in 2:08.28.

The first heat wasn’t as fast but still produced three of the top six qualifiers, as the other American entrant Rhyan White cruised to a two-second victory in 2:07.04 to lead China’s Peng Xuwei (2:09.19) and Canada’s Kylie Masse (2:09.23).

Masse was the silver medalist behind McKeown at the Olympics last summer, while White placed fourth and Bacon was fifth.

Given that Masse won the 50 back, and appeared to trail off over the second half of this race, she might not be in optimal form for the 200-meter event.

The home crowd will have a pair of swimmers to root for in this race on Friday, as Hungarians Dora Molnar and Katalin Burian move into the final in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Ben Proud used his dynamic start to open up an early lead on the field and ultimately touch first by over three-tenths of a second in the opening semi of the men’s 50 free, clocking a time of 21.42 to advance first into the final.

Canada’s Josh Liendo (21.73) and Great Britain’s Lewis Burras (21.78) took second and third (third and fourth overall), while Italian Lorenzo Zazzeri blasted a best time of 21.70 to claim the second semi and qualify second overall.

Both Liendo and American Michael Andrew (21.80) successfully qualified for both the 100 fly and 50 free finals tomorrow night within less than an hour.

Bruno Fratus, the top qualifier out of the heats, recorded his 99th career sub-22 50 free but will need to hit 100 to earn a spot in the final, tying with Frenchman Maxime Grousset in a time of 21.83. Fratus clocked 21.71 in the prelims, while Grousset’s best time sits at 21.74.

In an impressive bounce-back showing after missing the podium in the 100 breast, Lilly King roared home from fifth at the final turn to win her first world title in the women’s 200 breaststroke, clocking a time of 2:22.41.

King, who reportedly dealt with COVID shortly before the championships, led at the 50 in 31.92 and then fell back to fifth by the 150, but made a massive push coming home in 36.36 to win by a wide margin.

This is her first-ever medal in this event at the World Championships, though she did win silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 25-year-old also now has the complete set of World Championship gold medals, having won both the 50 and 100 in 2017 and 2019. She joins rival Yuliya Efimova as the only women to have won gold in all three events.

Australian Jenna Strauch was actually faster than King’s time tonight in the semis, going a best of 2:22.22, but she settles for silver here in 2:23.04, out-touching American Kate Douglass (2:23.20) for the runner-up position.

Douglass made a move on the third 50 and led at the final turn before falling to third, but still wins her first career individual Worlds medal after earning bronze in the 200 IM at the Tokyo Olympics.

Canadian Kelsey Wog (2:23.86), Lithuanian Kotryna Teterevkova (2:23.90) and Great Britain’s Molly Renshaw (2:23.92) followed in what was an incredibly tight battle for fourth.

Ryan Murphy finally claims his first individual LC World Championship title with a victory in the men’s 200 backstroke, using a strong middle 100 to roll to the win in a time of 1:54.52.

Murphy, who won this event at the 2016 Olympics and then won three straight silvers at the 2017 Worlds, 2019 Worlds and 2021 Olympics, flipped third at the 50 and then took off, splitting 28.48/29.33 over the middle 100 to lead the field by nearly one second at the final turn.

Although five men out-split him coming home, Murphy touched first by over six-tenths, with Great Britain’s Luke Greenbank charging home to solidify second in 1:55.16.

Greenbank, who was nowhere near the top of the world rankings coming into the meet, moves one step up on the podium after winning consecutive bronzes at the 2019 Worlds and 2021 Olympics.

Two Americans will stand on the podium in this event once again as Shaine Casas executed a great swim to claim third in 1:55.35, dipping under his previous best time by just over a tenth (1:55.46).

The U.S. wins this event for the first time since 2013, and get two swimmers on the podium for the seventh time in the last nine championships. The Americans won gold eight straight times from 1998 to 2013 before falling short at the last three editions.

Great Britain’s Brodie Williams took fourth in 1:56.16, re-lowering his PB from the semis by .01, while Frenchman Mewen Tomac also hits a best of 1:56.35 for fifth.

In what was the second swim of the session for both, Sarah Sjostrom and Torri Huske claimed the top two seeds for tomorrow night’s final of the women’s 50 butterfly in the first semi, clocking respective times of 25.13 and 25.38.

The swim is a new American Record for Huske, her second of the competition, as she knocks a tenth off Kelsi Dahlia‘s mark of 25.48 (that she swam three times).

Sjostrom will have a chance at winning her fourth straight title in the event tomorrow, and Huske could be the first American to medal in the women’s 50 fly since 2003.

France’s Melanie Henique paced the second semi in 25.41 for third overall, and she owns the second-fastest PB in the entire field behind Sjostrom at 25.17 (set June 2021).

Egypt’s Farida Osman, who has won back-to-back bronze medals in this event, was seven one-hundredths off her African Record in 25.46 to advance in fourth.

Marie Wattel and Claire Curzan join Sjostrom and Huske in qualifying for the final after swimming the 100 free final earlier in the session.

The time required to final in this race (25.75) was more than a quarter of a second faster than 2019 (26.01).

Although he was a bit slower than the semis and well off his world record, Zac Stubblety-Cook wins the world title in the men’s 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:07.07.

The Australian sat back in eighth at the 100 in 1:02.48 and was third at the last turn, but used a monstrous final 50 of 31.98 to earn his first World Championship title and Australia’s first-ever in this event.

Stubblety-Cook won the Olympic gold medal last year and set the world record last month in 2:05.95.

The only other swimmer to break 33 seconds coming home was Japan’s Yu Hanaguruma, who closed in 32.95 to move up from sixth at the 150 to tie Sweden’s Erik Persson for silver in 2:08.38, earning Japan its fourth medal in this event at the last three championships.

Persson’s silver is Sweden’s first in the men’s 200 breast as well.

Ryuya Mura (2:08.86) gives Japan two men inside the top four, while American Nic Fink, who had a chance to win a medal in all three breaststroke distances here in Budapest, was off his best in 2:09.05 for sixth.

Since moving to train at Georgia Tech, Fink’s focused more on speed and less on volume, as evidenced by his win in the 50 breast.

The United States is back on top in the men’s 4×200 freestyle relay after three straight defeats at the World Championships, winning gold by over three seconds in a time of 7:00.24

The quartet of Drew Kibler (1:45.54), Carson Foster (1:45.04), Trenton Julian (1:45.31) and Kieran Smith (1:44.35) came together to win the first American gold medal in the event since 2013 and record the sixth-fastest relay time in history.

This victory also comes after the U.S. team missed the podium in this event in Tokyo, which was the first time an American men’s relay failed to finish in the top three in Olympic history.

South Korea’s Hwang Sunwoo held a slight lead after the opening leg in 1:45.30, and then Foster took over the lead for the U.S., with Australia’s Zac Incerti moving them into second place.

Elijah Winnington had gotten the Aussie team off to a strong start in 1:45.83, and then Samuel Short (1:46.44) and Mack Horton (1:45.72) closed things off to earn them silver in 7:03.50.

The Brits sat fifth at the final exchange, but Tom Dean anchored in a blistering 1:43.53 to get them in for bronze in 7:04.00, edging out the Brazilians (7:04.69).

Dean’s split stands up as the fourth-fastest in history with a relay takeover, not including relay lead-off legs from Paul Biedermann (1:42.81, 2009) and Michael Phelps (1:43.31, 2008).

Great Britain won gold last summer at the Olympics but were missing Duncan Scott here after he withdrew due to COVID-19.

Brazil breaks their South American Record by over two seconds, and move up four spots after finishing eighth at the 2021 Olympics.

This race featured four different nations compared to Tokyo: Hungary, South Korea, France and China.

Kristof Milak anchored the Hungarians home in 1:44.68 to edge out South Korea for fifth, recording the third-fastest split in the field behind Dean and Smith.

Milak was notably the fastest swimmer by a mile on the first 50, out in a scorching 23.20.

France’s Maxime Grousset upset Brazilian Bruno Fratus to earn the eighth spot in tomorrow night’s final of the men’s 50 freestyle, out-touching him by three one-hundredths of a second in the swim-off.

The two men had tied for eighth in the semis in 21.83, and in a razor-thin battle where the two appeared to trade the lead a few times, Grousset got his hand on the wall first in a new best time of 21.59.

Fratus, who was going for his fifth career World Championship final in this event, just missed out in 21.62, though it stands up as his 100th-career swim under 22 seconds.

If the two men had gone those same times in the semis, they would’ve qualified second and third into the final.

Just like Chlorine Kid didn’t touch Dressel’s (or even Chalmers’s) 100 free time, Milak won’t be touching Dressel’s 100 fly time and Proud won’t be touching Dressel’s 50 free time.

Literally not a single person thinks proud will get to Dressel’s 50 Free time.

That 4×200 freestyle relay victory the Americans had is definitely a highlight of the world championships. Last year was a total bummer for the Americans, finishing 4th (for the 1st time they missed the podium) in the 4×200 freestyle relay. Great performance and comeback done by team USA!

A hearty congratulations to Mollie O. for a convincing victory, despite a pre-race leg cramp, and Huske for coming a commendable third!

That’s the third time that a hyped world record attempt never came close. I doubted Popovici was big and strong enough to do it, and logically the 1:54 medley is a truly exceptional time because unlike the 400 medley record you had Phelps and Lochte in their prime battling to the wall. I thought Marchand might sneak under 1:55 but certainly not threaten the record.

However, Zac seemingly had everything set up perfectly. Very surprising. I thought he would either get it or seriously threaten it. Not sure why he was so comparatively unhurried during the middle of the race.

I assume he was just swimming to win. In Aus he is so far ahead of the pack that he doesn’t have to worry about winning and can just swim for time. But when a world championship is on the line, I can definitely see him racing strategy differently than just on his own.

That and the shorter pool the Aussies always swim trials in…. 😬

Yes I agree, there are different type of swimmers, some can swim fast when there is no pressure, some need pressure to swim fast and some like Phelps who was a great great swimmer, but imo a even better racer, he was at his best under the biggest pressure, hence hey he was the GOAT.

He’s also probably going to be targeting comm games.

Yeah, I feel he went for it in the semi (or maybe tried to push it somewhat to see how he’s going), but in the final he just focused on the win.

Who knows if he has more to give this year, but if so it will be at Comms Games, which I’m sure would be a better stage to break the WR as there will be more eyes on that than these WCs (I still don’t think people understand the media the Comm Games get).

If you are fast enough to do a 47-low pretty consistently you are capable of going sub 47 on your best day.

It’s only a matter of time until he gets that world record in my opinion.

Tonight, in 3-4 events showed swimmers coming home with a wet sail on the last lap, Lilly King, Mollie O’Callaghan & Zac Stubbley Cook & though Tom Dean was not the last lap, he was the last swimmer & motored home. All showed tremendous speed on the way home.

I think they all studied at the feet of MASTER FINKE!

Cannot disagree there, Finke is amazing!!!!

How cool is Zac, very very easy laconic Aussie without the bravado.

He’s just so understated. A wonderful talent and role model.

Can liendo do the triple tomorrow?

Great meet so far, I think Milak has his measure in the 100 fly.

there is still the possibility that he makes the podium in 3 events, even if it’s not gold

I think a big chance.

In 50 free and 100 fly he can get to the podium, probably gold, although unlikely, esp in 100 fly. In mixed 4x100m free relay, the chance is still open. Apart from USA, Australia and GBR, other teams lack in either male or female :

It’s a raw analysis. To be precise, I need to do math calculation for this. Maybe I miss the other teams that can deny Canada to get to the podium.

Well done to the USA men for the 4X200. They looked to have it in the bag but you still have to deliver on the night and they did. I’m a bit annoyed with British complaints about Scott being ill and Richards being out of form. Well, those things happen. That’s why you need depth. It is why the USA and Australia usually end up fighting for gold. Look at Australia. Their two fastest splits in this relay in Tokyo, Neal and Graham, were not here. The third-place finisher from their trials, Southam, was not here. Yet they managed to put together a team that won silver. It all comes down to depth in the end.

I mean… I get your point. But the theme of these WCs is basically “most of the best swimmers in the world either aren’t here or are injured/sick”.

No point in whining, but I think to say that this WCs is actually representative of the state of swimming and who is the best right now is just objectively ridiculous.

Disagree. Post these other swimmers times from this week and let’s compare.

Oh wow you got me. Any swimmer who hasn’t swam a FINA sanctioned time this week cannot be considered good. Great logic there lol

Well you can only have the meet one week a year from there its up to everyone to decide if they want to show up and compete for a world title. Its really arrogant, condescending and superficial to sit back at home and claim you could have won an event at the meet while the other swimmers are there actually doing it. So I call BS on anyone making that claim they need go out this weekend and post a time that would win a medal otherwise they are FOS.

I didn’t say that any particular individual would definitely have won an event had they been present. I don’t think any individual swimmers have made a claim like that either. The statement I made was “most of the best swimmers in the world aren’t there or are injured/sick” and I absolutely stand by that. I also said this week isn’t representative of the state of swimming or the current best in the world, and that’s also true.

Your suggestion that the measure of “best” only relates to a time swam this week is ridiculous. While the Commonwealth Games are on, I suppose I have to conclude that whoever wins an event is the best in the world unless someone who…  Read more »

1) That’s bull. 2) Sounds like sour grapes to me.

LOL this is great. You’re absolutely right about Comm Games. Comments on here are constantly on about how they’re a ‘Mickey Mouse event’ because they’re missing swimmers. But don’t you dare suggest the World Champs is impacted by missing swimmers.

Actually, if the US decided to prioritise a different event or had some huge Covid outbreak that kept a bunch of them from competing, THEN it would be allowed to say the World Champs were affected.

Worlds invites everyone. Comm Games just cherry picks a bunch of weak nations so England can feel superior once again. I suppose they will do an analysis on this question of strength of this meet and compare it to 2017 and 2019 and we can see for ourselves. The fairest comparison would be to 2017 which was post olympic year.

You literally just said that if someone who is at home can prove they swam a faster time then they should “prove” they would have won a medal. Same goes for Comm Games. Nothing is stopping Dressel from proving he would have won an event there by swimming at home.

You literally contradict all your own arguments to do some mental gymnastics to appear like you have a point. But you don’t.

Whether the World Champs invites everyone or not is immaterial. The majority of Olympic events did not have the Olympic Champion from last year participating. You are just completely delusional if you think that doesn’t have any impact on the games.

13 events at Worlds had the Olympic…  Read more »

But I thought USA escaping from the Commonwealth was some amazing victory? Now you’re saying the Commonwealth deliberately cherry picks weak nations so England can win stuff? It literally can’t be both, so which is it? I’ve seriously never seen someone wrote so many blatantly wrong things so many times in a row, consecutively.

Australia always wins Comm Games anyway lol

The bottom line is that Australia is getting stomped in the medal table at the 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships. The tactic is to deflect from the paltry results in a pathetic attempt to rationalize the shortcomings.

Worlds didn’t invite Russia or Belarus this year, so that’s not quite accurate.

Comm Games doesn’t Cherry Pick anyone… any member of the Commonwealth is free to compete.

“most of the best swimmers in the world either aren’t here or are injured/sick”.

“Most” means majority or greater than 50%, you do know understand that correct?

I’ll ask it again: Who are these other swimmers and how fast are they swimming right now? Come at me with some real life examples. You can’t include swimmers who are taking it easy in a post olympic year. Okay I’ll give you Titmus but who else do you have? Look at mens freestyle they are all here just maybe not in greatest form. Scott is sick anyway he is not even a sure medalist. Hafnoui the one hit wonder of Tokyo? Likely to never medal again.

Most of the Olympic champions aren’t competing, and most of the winning relays are missing their strongest leg. That’s not even accounting for swimmers who are at the WCs but not at their best.

Yes, when I say most, I literally mean greater than 50%. I’m literally just telling you facts and you’re whining about them.

most of the best swimmers aren’t here is a gross exaggeration don’t you think

Zhang Yufei proved to be best last year (textile world record), only to finish third this year in the women’s 200 meter butterfly.

Unless the athletes actually compete, one cannot actually make any definitive statements.

No I don’t. 14/28 Olympic events did not have the gold medal winner participate. 20/28 were missing at least one medallist. 5/7 gold medal winning relays were missing their fastest (or in the case of Australia, their 3 fastest) leg.

You could call it a slight exaggeration based on what you consider the phrase “most of the best” to include, but it’s definitely not a gross exaggeration.

Lol – come through with the facts and get downvoted anyway. Are people allergic to numbers?

I’m assuming you didn’t count Kaylee’s 100 back because she withdrew last minute. If you include that it’s 15/28 (the majority) and 21/28

By that logic its also very easy to belittle Australia success in Tokyo. You ve won so many medals only cause the main stars/record holders like Ledecky, Sjostrom and Regan Smith couldn’t prepare properly cause of injuries and/or covid lockdown.

That’s not even kind of close to the same thing at all. By Tokyo it had been over two years since the last major swimming event, and everyone was affected by COVID restrictions. Melbourne had some of the strictest COVID restrictions in the world. This is a really stupid argument lol. Regan Smith didn’t make the team in any event she was the current world record holder in, by the way. The world record holder in the 100 back was also the Olympic champion.

EDIT: Oh and I should add that the Tokyo articles were full of Americans claiming Australia was only winning because of COVID lol. So people certainly did try that.

Still some were affected more than the others, Katie’s and Regan’s difficulties in preparing for Olympics are well-known. And Sarah had to deal with a shoulder injury. As a result all of them were not at their best in Tokyo and Aussie ladies took advantage.

Katie was less impacted than most athletes worldwide because she was only without pool access for a couple of weeks. Most Aussies were out of the pool for two months or more during the early stages of the pandemic.

Don’t give him facts. He doesn’t like those

Chalmers had shoulder injury & was not at his best in Tokyo neither & Dressel took advantage of that.

The difference is Chalmers even at his best is slower than Dressel while those ladies were/are record holders in their events.

Are you saying that without injury Chalmers couldn’t have beaten Dressel? Is that like a now standard moving forward? That if someone has a faster time they shouldn’t be beaten at any point in time?

How many straws do you guys have that you’re grasping at to make your arguments?

Its NOT my argument, on the opposite I think Australia fully deserved their Olympics success. Just as winners of the current World Champs fully deserve theirs. Thts my point.

I’ve literally read through all of the comments below and there are only two specifically complaining about the absence of Scott – and both of them are from none Brits.

There are a lot of comments speculating about the potency of a British relay firing on all 4 legs, but they aren’t complaining about this race.

So be annoyed all you like, but I think you’re wasting your energy.

As for depth, the British team pulled off a Bronze with two of their Tokyo gold medallists absent from the final lineup, and a 3rd Tokyo gold medallist almost 2 seconds behind his time from last year. Two other swimmers were left at home. Australia brought 39 swimmers and USA 41…  Read more »

Only 2? It seems more like 20. Commenters think “if we can only put our 4 best on the team AND they all swim right at PB it will be an easy victory. It rarely happens, when it does like for USA today we think all teams should be able to mimic this. USA reloads quickly because of their depth, Canada women are tantalizingly close every year but they can’t put 4 pieces together at the same time.

Well, American went through the same hardships. Apple was heavily criticized for his 1:47.31 split. Dressel was omitted from the race. But that’s not the point; the point is to move forward. This time the 4×100 medley relay is a problem for the Americans, for Dressel has scratched from the World Championships yesterday. But the coaches are aware and have already made verdicts.

James swam five years at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, specializing in the 200 free, back and IM. He finished up his collegiate swimming career in 2018, graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics. In 2019 he completed his graduate degree in sports journalism. Prior to going to Laurentian, James swam …

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