The Longest Current Medal Streaks in International Swimming

The Longest Current Medal Streaks in International Swimming

At final summer time’s World Championships, Katie Ledecky continued one of many all-time nice streaks in athletic competitors. In the ladies’s 800 freestyle ultimate, Ledecky held off spirited expenses from Lani Pallister and Summer McIntosh to safe her record-setting seventh world title within the occasion. Ledecky has by no means misplaced the occasion in worldwide competitors, a run that dates again to her win on the 2012 Olympics and consists of 4 Olympic gold medals plus two Pan Pacific Championships wins along with the aforementioned world honors.

But Ledecky has not been the 800 freestyle winner at each worldwide meet up to now decade, having skipped quite a few occasions that weren’t the 12 months’s most vital competitors. Like many big-name swimmers, Ledecky opted out of the February 2024 World Championships held in Doha to arrange for the Olympic marketing campaign. She has by no means competed on the Short Course World Championships, turning down spots on seven totally different events to concentrate on lengthy course competitors.

That absence in early 2024 meant that Ledecky doesn’t personal the title for many consecutive world titles in a single occasion on her personal. Instead, she shares that title with Sarah Sjostrom, the Swedish legend with six consecutive crowns within the 50 butterfly from 2015 via 2024. However, that run didn’t proceed into 2025 as Sjostrom took the 12 months away from racing to welcome her first youngster.

So who does personal the longest streak of profitable titles when together with all contests formally labeled as worldwide? There have been 4 such meets within the final two years alone, with the Paris Olympics, two lengthy course World Championships plus one version of the 25-meter meet — and never a single swimmer has swept any occasion in any respect 4 meets. Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte has been the 50 breaststroke champion at each main meet (lengthy course and quick course) courting again to 2022, however the occasion was not on the Olympic program in Paris.

The swimmer closest to going four-for-four was American Kate Douglass, who’s clearly established because the world’s dominant 200 breaststroker. She took down defending champion Tatjana (Schoenmaker) Smith in Paris earlier than simply surpassing Evgeniia Chikunova for brief course (2024) and lengthy course (2025) world titles. But earlier than that, Douglass was the runnerup within the occasion on the 2024 World Championships, ending behind the Netherlands’ Tes Schouten.

Two different swimmers who had been gold medalists in Tokyo have captured each quick course and lengthy course world titles since then: McIntosh within the ladies’s 400 IM and 200 butterfly and Hubert Kos within the males’s 200 backstroke. McIntosh was shut to a different three-for-three, however she ended up with silver behind Ariarne Titmus within the Paris ultimate of the 400 free. In an identical scenario was Gretchen Walsh, who misplaced out to American teammate Torri Huske within the 100 fly in Paris earlier than crushing the following two world finals. Douglass had a 200 IM silver (behind McIntosh) in between quick course and lengthy course world titles in 2024.

We can’t overlook about Cameron McEvoy, by no means a medalist on the Short Course World Championships however an completely dominant drive within the lengthy course 50 free. He has captured gold within the splash-and-dash every of the previous three summers, just for a slip-up on the February 2024 meet to interrupt a would-be streak. McEvoy was second at that meet to Ukraine’s Vladyslav Bukhov by one hundredth.

If solely end-of-summer long course championship meets are thought-about, the longest streak of dominance clearly belongs to Ledecky, going again to 2012. Only one different swimmer has a run courting again to the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown within the 200 backstroke. Those who’ve four-year profitable streaks courting again to 2022 embrace Meilutyte within the 50 breast, McIntosh within the 200 fly and 400 IM and Leon Marchand in each IM occasions.

As for medal-winning streaks, the one extra swimmers to succeed in the rostrum at each summer time championship meet courting again to Tokyo are Nicolo Martinenghi within the males’s 100 breast, Regan Smith within the ladies’s 100 again and Bobby Finke within the males’s 1500 free. Alex Walsh could be on that listing for the 200 IM if not for her heartbreaking disqualification within the Paris Olympic ultimate. There could be too many four-year stretches to notice, however a particular point out must be made for what Douglass has performed within the 200 breast. She first raced the occasion internationally on the 2022 World Championships and has made the rostrum each time. That consists of Olympic gold, an extended course world title plus two silver and a bronze and two quick course wins.

Finally, Kyle Chalmers deserves recognition for his superb run of excellence within the 100 free. He has by no means missed a global podium in his greatest occasion, though he has skipped a number of massive meets; he was fully absent from Worlds in 2017 and 2024 and raced solely butterfly and relays in 2022, and he has solely been to Short Course Worlds as soon as. But his profession accomplishments embrace Olympic gold and two silvers, one medal of every colour on the lengthy course World Championships and a brief course world title in 2022.