Torri Huske Has Clearest Path to Record-Tying Eight Gold Medals

Torri Huske Has Clearest Path to Record-Tying Eight Gold Medals

The anticipated girls’s stars of the World Championships are Summer McIntosh, who set three world information and threatened two others ultimately month’s Canadian Trials, and Gretchen Walsh, contemporary off a dominating school profession and 7 gold medals on the Short Course World Championships.

But by the top of eight days of racing in Singapore, probably the most total medals may belong to a different American, Walsh’s counterpart in three particular person races. Torri Huske ran down Walsh to win Olympic gold within the 100 fly final 12 months, and she is going to return as a medal contender within the occasion this 12 months, albeit in all probability out of vary of Walsh’s world file of 54.60. But after the 100 fly takes place over the primary two days of the meet, Huske will embark on an bold marketing campaign of freestyle racing that would yield massive outcomes.

Even although her particular person gold in Paris got here in butterfly, Huske supplied massive swims in freestyle at these Games as nicely. Swimming from lane one within the 100 free ultimate, she gained a shock silver medal, ending forward of favorites Siobhan Haughey and Mollie O’Callaghan. Three days later, Huske fought off China’s Yang Junxuan by 0.12 to earn the Americans gold in world-record time within the blended 400 medley relay.

Torri Huske — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

This time round, Huske’s freestyle efforts will probably be central to the American girls’s quest for a supreme medal haul. It begins on day one when she takes on the 400 freestyle relay, the place the Americans have a official probability to dethrone Australia for the primary time in eight years. All 4 swimmers anticipated to be a part of the finals squad (Huske, Walsh, Simone Manuel and Kate Douglass) have been beneath 53 since June 2024. Huske will then race the 100 fly ultimate on day two earlier than her solely full time without work from competitors.

On the fourth day, count on Huske to be concerned with the U.S. blended 400 medley relay crew, which is co-favored for gold alongside China. The lineup is a query on account of a comparatively weak backstroke contingent for the American males, however even when Huske have been dropped from the finals grouping, she would certainly be concerned in prelims. The day after that, she is going to swim the primary two rounds of the 100 free whereas collaborating within the American girls’s 800 free relay for the primary time. Huske lower greater than two seconds from her lifetime greatest within the 200 free this season, topping out at 1:55.71 for a shock third-place end at U.S. Nationals.

In the 100 free ultimate, Huske would be the slight favourite for a world title because of her time of 52.43 from U.S. Nationals, comfortably placing her first on this planet rankings coming into the worldwide meet. Competition will certainly come from O’Callaghan, Walsh and the Netherlands’ Marrit Steenbergen, however the one swimmer who beat Huske within the Olympic ultimate, Sarah Sjostrom, will probably be absent. This occasion represents her greatest probability at particular person gold this week.

Over the ultimate two days of competitors, Huske is a robust medal contender within the 50 free, having gone 23.98 for second place behind Walsh at U.S. Nationals and the second-quickest time on this planet this 12 months. Huske, Walsh and Jack Alexy make the American crew favored within the blended 400 free relay, and the U.S. girls are anticipated to place forth one other dominant medley relay effort after profitable gold by three-and-a-half seconds in Paris.

Put that collectively, and Huske has a path to eight medals, which might tie the all-time file for many at a single World Championships. Previously, Caeleb Dressel gained six golds and two silver in 2023. Walsh can be anticipated to take part in eight complete occasions, however she may have a more durable time grabbing a medal within the 100 free than Huske will in any of her occasions.

The wild card in all that is well being: Huske is among the many dozens of American swimmers who suffered from gastrointestinal sickness on the conclusion of the crew’s coaching camp in Thailand. She continues to be anticipated to compete in all her occasions in Singapore, however it’s unclear how she shortly she is going to bounce again to full energy. Fortunately for Huske — and the U.S. medal hopes — six of her eight finals happen Wednesday or later, giving her time to get better and be in place for an enormous medal haul.