Illness has plunged US swimming back into the deep end
Gastroenteritis. This is the official reason for the lack of results from the United States, one of the sport's powerhouses, at the World Swimming Championships, which run until this Sunday in Singapore, after the American team had its worst Olympic performance since 1956 in Melbourne in Paris 2024. Interestingly, in a sport where athletes peak in their careers between 18 and 20 years old, the US's leading figure continues to be Katie Ledecky, who reached the age of... 28 in March. Although the leading figures are slow to emerge, the United States heads into the final day of the competition leading the medal table with 26 medals in total: eight gold, 11 silver, and seven bronze.
With 47 athletes participating in the World Swimming Championships, the USA is actually doing better than in 2024, when they won 20 medals, eight of them gold, but at that time they only had 20 athletes competing. In 2025, the average medal count per swimmer fell by more than half, and the data is even more negative when analyzed individually: so far, American athletes have missed the final in 25 of the 69 events they participated in (36.2%), and only 30 have finished in the top 5. These figures are worrying considering that, in three years, the country will host the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, although they stem from several factors, such as the low emergence of talent and Donald Trump's cut in public funding to universities, which are one of the driving forces of sports in the country.
An example cited by the American press occurred in the 4×200 freestyle relay final, where the United States finished second behind Australia and broke the Americas record (7:40.01). In a team that also included Claire Weinstein, Anna Peplowski, and Erin Gemmell, Ledecky was the last to enter action and excelled in the short course, completing the final 200 meters in 1:53.71, a result that was the fifth-fastest time in history, behind Australian Mollie O'Callaghan's time in this event (1:53.44, a personal best), and which could have been enough for gold had it not been for what had happened before. Gemmell fell short of her rivals and teammates, finishing the third relay in 1:56.72, the worst time among the 12 swimmers who made it to the podium. Thus, the USA lost to the Australians by 66 hundredths (7.39.35).
Furthermore, they've only won one of the six relays held, the mixed 4x100 freestyle (with a world record), this Saturday. In the remaining relays, they recorded two second-place finishes, a third-place finish, a fourth-place finish, and one failure to qualify for the final. On Sunday, there will still be time for the Americans to improve their negative results in the men's and women's 4x100 medley relays. Even so, the results are poor for the country that dominated swimming until the 2021 Tokyo Games. The low point came in Paris, where the United States won 23% of the gold medals, a failure considering that, since the 1956 Games, the average has ranged between 30% and 50%. In Singapore, the average is 23.5% (eight out of 34, as of this Saturday) and 25.2% if we include silver and bronze (26 out of 103).
The greatest. pic.twitter.com/h3tsXU26em
— USA Swimming (@USASwimming) August 2, 2025
"The overall team atmosphere has been very good. I'm very pleased with how they handled this issue and how they're still handling it, considering everything that's happened to us. I think we've overcome the situation in the last 24 hours," Steve Meehan, head coach of the US national swimming team, told reporters on Thursday. For Meehan, the lack of results in Singapore stems from the training camp in Phuket, Thailand, where the swimmers suffered an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis , which primarily affected Claire Weinstein, Luca Mijatovic, and Torri Huske. Due to this illness, 11 athletes missed the semifinals, a similar number to those in Paris. Weinstein and Gretchen Walsh, who missed the 400 and 100 freestyles, respectively, joined the number of swimmers who failed in the morning heats. The mixed 4x100m medley relay, which broke the world record in Paris, finished 10th in the qualifying rounds due to gastroenteritis, according to the coach.
The women's team has been the driving force behind the US team in Singapore, accounting for six of the eight gold medals (75%) and 19 of the 26 medals (73.1%). Luca Urlando, in the 200 butterfly, is, so far, the only man to reach the top of the podium in the Asian competition.
observador
