Tuesday, June 21, 2022
U.S. Collects Another Six-Medal Haul in Budapest
L-R: Regan Smith, Claire Curzan
Team USA collected six medals for the third straight night of competition at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, with Katie Ledecky and Regan Smith each winning individual golds on night three.
Ledecky tied Natalie Coughlin for the most overall medals by a woman at the world championships with 20 en route to her fourth world title in the women’s 1500m free. Ledecky got to the wall first in 15:30.15, with U.S. teammate and Sandpipers of Nevada's Katie Grimes picking up silver in 15:44.89. Lani Pallister of Australia grabbed the bronze in 15:48.96. It’s the second straight international competition that the U.S. has gone 1-2 in the event after Ledecky and Erica Sullivan won gold at silver at last summer’s Olympic Games.
“It was awesome, I fully knew she [Katie Grimes] was capable of getting that and just to see how far she’s come in a year and the maturity that she has and how much energy she brings to the team – I don’t think I was like that when I was her age,” Ledecky said. “It’s just awesome to be on the blocks next to her and in the lane next to her, and to share the swim with her is really special.”
“I was really nervous leading up to it,” Grimes said. “It’s my first world championships and team USA has been doing a great job so I wanted to keep that going. I was just focusing on what my coach and I had talked about strategy-wise and I’m not super happy with the time, but I think it’s good for right now. There’s always room for improvement, but anytime I get to race I’m having a great time.”
The U.S. picked up two more medals in the women’s 100m back final with Smith collecting her second individual world title with a winning time of 58.22. She held off Canada’s Kylie Masse (58.40) down the stretch, while teammate Claire Curzan picked up her first individual medal of the meet with a bronze medal showing of 58.67.
“It was a great race, I knew it was going to be a really tight field and it was going to really hurt towards the end and all those things happened and were true, but I’m really happy I was able to get a gold for USA and that Claire was able to get a bronze,” Smith said after the race. “[Getting the world record back] is definitely a big focus for me, I always kind of have it in the back of my mind. I haven’t gone a best time in three years now so I’m really kind of itching to do that.”
Ryan Murphy’s world record went down in the men’s 100m back final, but that didn’t stop Murphy and teammate Hunter Armstrong from putting up a couple of impressive swims. Italy’s Thomas Ceccon posted a 51.60 to shave 0.25 off Murphy’s world record from the 2016 Olympics, while Murphy (51.97) and Armstrong (51.98) both cracked 52 to take silver and bronze.
“I’m really happy, I saw the splits after and I was a little excited going out that first 50 but that’s what happens when you’re in a heat like that. I knew there were a bunch of talented guys there and I’m really happy with the way I executed,” Murphy said. “Hats off to Thomas, that’s a really, really fast time and it’s going to be an exciting couple of years.”
Murphy was impressed by Armstrong’s bronze medal showing and his improvement to get to that point.
“Hunter’s had such a steep improvement curve in the sport and it’s always fun to race guys like that,” he said. “What I really appreciate about Hunter is he’s incredibly genuine; when you talk to him you know exactly what he’s thinking, you know there’s no games there. I really enjoy sharing the pool deck with him.”
“The first thing I looked at was the time,” Armstrong said after his swim. “I’m still shocked that Ceccon not only broke the world record but crushed it; the next thing I looked for was Murph [Ryan Murphy] and he got me by a hundredth which hurts a bit, but if anybody’s going to get me I’m glad it was those two.”
The U.S. just missed out on medals in the men’s 200m free final, with Drew Kibler (1:45.01) taking fourth by only 0.03 seconds and Kieran Smith not far back in sixth at 1:45.16. David Popovici of Romania set a new world junior record of 1:43.21 en route to gold, with Korea’s Sunwoo Hwang (1:44.47) and Great Britain’s Tom Dean (1:44.98) winning silver and bronze. The women's 100m breaststroke also had its final, seeing Lilly King finish fourth in 1:06.07 behind Italy's Benedetta Pilato (1:05.93), Germany's Anna Elendt (1:05.98) and Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte (1:06.02).
In semi-final swims, Michael Andrew (second, 26.73) and Nic Fink (third, 26.74) will swim in the men’s 50m breast final tomorrow. No Americans advanced to the women’s 200m free final as Leah Smith (ninth, 1:56.90) and Claire Weinstein (10th, 1:56.94) just missed making the top eight.
Team USA collected six medals for the third straight night of competition at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, with Katie Ledecky and Regan Smith each winning individual golds on night three.
Ledecky tied Natalie Coughlin for the most overall medals by a woman at the world championships with 20 en route to her fourth world title in the women’s 1500m free. Ledecky got to the wall first in 15:30.15, with U.S. teammate and Sandpipers of Nevada's Katie Grimes picking up silver in 15:44.89. Lani Pallister of Australia grabbed the bronze in 15:48.96. It’s the second straight international competition that the U.S. has gone 1-2 in the event after Ledecky and Erica Sullivan won gold at silver at last summer’s Olympic Games.
“It was awesome, I fully knew she [Katie Grimes] was capable of getting that and just to see how far she’s come in a year and the maturity that she has and how much energy she brings to the team – I don’t think I was like that when I was her age,” Ledecky said. “It’s just awesome to be on the blocks next to her and in the lane next to her, and to share the swim with her is really special.”
“I was really nervous leading up to it,” Grimes said. “It’s my first world championships and team USA has been doing a great job so I wanted to keep that going. I was just focusing on what my coach and I had talked about strategy-wise and I’m not super happy with the time, but I think it’s good for right now. There’s always room for improvement, but anytime I get to race I’m having a great time.”
The U.S. picked up two more medals in the women’s 100m back final with Smith collecting her second individual world title with a winning time of 58.22. She held off Canada’s Kylie Masse (58.40) down the stretch, while teammate Claire Curzan picked up her first individual medal of the meet with a bronze medal showing of 58.67.
“It was a great race, I knew it was going to be a really tight field and it was going to really hurt towards the end and all those things happened and were true, but I’m really happy I was able to get a gold for USA and that Claire was able to get a bronze,” Smith said after the race. “[Getting the world record back] is definitely a big focus for me, I always kind of have it in the back of my mind. I haven’t gone a best time in three years now so I’m really kind of itching to do that.”
Ryan Murphy’s world record went down in the men’s 100m back final, but that didn’t stop Murphy and teammate Hunter Armstrong from putting up a couple of impressive swims. Italy’s Thomas Ceccon posted a 51.60 to shave 0.25 off Murphy’s world record from the 2016 Olympics, while Murphy (51.97) and Armstrong (51.98) both cracked 52 to take silver and bronze.
“I’m really happy, I saw the splits after and I was a little excited going out that first 50 but that’s what happens when you’re in a heat like that. I knew there were a bunch of talented guys there and I’m really happy with the way I executed,” Murphy said. “Hats off to Thomas, that’s a really, really fast time and it’s going to be an exciting couple of years.”
Murphy was impressed by Armstrong’s bronze medal showing and his improvement to get to that point.
“Hunter’s had such a steep improvement curve in the sport and it’s always fun to race guys like that,” he said. “What I really appreciate about Hunter is he’s incredibly genuine; when you talk to him you know exactly what he’s thinking, you know there’s no games there. I really enjoy sharing the pool deck with him.”
“The first thing I looked at was the time,” Armstrong said after his swim. “I’m still shocked that Ceccon not only broke the world record but crushed it; the next thing I looked for was Murph [Ryan Murphy] and he got me by a hundredth which hurts a bit, but if anybody’s going to get me I’m glad it was those two.”
The U.S. just missed out on medals in the men’s 200m free final, with Drew Kibler (1:45.01) taking fourth by only 0.03 seconds and Kieran Smith not far back in sixth at 1:45.16. David Popovici of Romania set a new world junior record of 1:43.21 en route to gold, with Korea’s Sunwoo Hwang (1:44.47) and Great Britain’s Tom Dean (1:44.98) winning silver and bronze. The women's 100m breaststroke also had its final, seeing Lilly King finish fourth in 1:06.07 behind Italy's Benedetta Pilato (1:05.93), Germany's Anna Elendt (1:05.98) and Lithuania's Ruta Meilutyte (1:06.02).
In semi-final swims, Michael Andrew (second, 26.73) and Nic Fink (third, 26.74) will swim in the men’s 50m breast final tomorrow. No Americans advanced to the women’s 200m free final as Leah Smith (ninth, 1:56.90) and Claire Weinstein (10th, 1:56.94) just missed making the top eight.