The United States completed prime of the swimming medal desk on the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday, overcoming a gradual begin to its marketing campaign during which a number of of its swimmers battled an outbreak of “acute gastroenteritis.”
The crew capped its championships with a world file within the ladies’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday, marking its ninth gold and twenty ninth whole medal because it consolidated first place forward of Australia’s eight gold and 20 whole medals.
The late surge meant that American swimmers had yet another gold and 9 extra medals in whole than they did in final yr’s championships, even when their general haul was considerably lower than the 38 they gained in 2023 and the 45 they claimed in 2022.
The crew’s eventual success got here after it had appeared diminished within the opening days, with its spokesperson telling the Associated Press that lots of its swimmers had been battling “acute gastroenteritis” they’d contracted at a coaching camp in Thailand.
The USA’s preliminary struggles on the championship – it gained solely 5 gold medals within the opening six days – drew criticism from a few of its former stars, notably because it got here a yr after the Paris Olympics the place it gained its lowest tally of Olympic gold medals within the pool since 1988.
Six-time Olympic champion Ryan Lochte posted a picture on social media of a tombstone with the epigraph: “In loving memory of United States Swimming. They set the bar high – until they stopped reaching for it,” which 23-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps reposted with the caption: “Is this the wake-up call USA Swimming needed?” in line with Reuters.
The US crew wasn’t proof against the criticism – Gretchen Walsh, who gained three gold medals in Singapore – mentioned she was “trying to block it out.”
“I think we’ve been dealing with a lot so it’s hard to get the criticism in the first place because I don’t think people quite understand the magnitude of everything going on behind the scenes,” she mentioned.
In the final two days of the world championships, the US gained 4 gold medals, together with Katie Ledecky’s thrilling victory within the ladies’s 800m freestyle, which she claimed with a championship-record time.
That got here a day after Kate Douglass clocked in along with her personal championship-record time within the ladies’s 200m breaststroke.
“I wanted to just get a gold for Team USA to help our medal count there and I think with the rough week that we’ve had, I think we’ve done a great job of coming back and showing that we are here to race,” Douglas mentioned afterward in line with World Aquatics.
Meanwhile, Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh capped one of many best world championships performances of all time on Sunday, successful the ladies’s 400m particular person medley to assert her fourth gold medal of the week.
The 18-year-old completed in a championship-record 4:25.78, not fairly sufficient to beat her personal world file of 4:23.65, however greater than seven seconds forward of her nearest challengers.
McIntosh joins Katie Ledecky as the one ladies ever to have gained 4 particular person golds at a world championships, in line with NBC Sports. The Canadian was trying to affix Michael Phelps’ file of successful 5 particular person golds, however misplaced to Ledecky in Saturday’s 800m freestyle remaining.
In Sunday’s 400m particular person medley remaining, Australia’s Jenna Forrester and Japan’s Mio Narita had been tied in a lifeless warmth for silver with instances of 4:33.26, whereas 12-year-old Chinese phenom Yu Zidi was half a second additional again and completed in fourth place.