Breaststroke Breakthroughs? Where U.S. Team Has Openings Entering Nationals
The United States has never lost a women’s medley relay when Lilly King has handled the breaststroke leg, with two Olympic gold medals and four world titles to show for it. Three of those wins came in world-record time, including at last year’s Paris Olympics. But that run is coming to an end with King announcing her retirement following this summer’s major competitions.
Meanwhile, Nic Fink has become entrenched as the breaststroker on the U.S. men’s medley relay as well as the mixed version, with his contributions vital in a world-record-setting mixed relay in Paris. But Fink has not competed since those Games, and although he has made no formal announcement, it would be no surprise if his elite career is over. Fink and wife Melanie Margalis Fink welcomed their first child late last year.
In short, the United States has holes in breaststroke events entering the National Championships in Indianapolis. The one exception is the women’s 200-meter event, where Kate Douglass is the Olympic gold medalist and a near-lock for a medal at this summer’s World Championships, with world-record holder Evgeniia Chikunova her only real threat. Her Virginia teammate Alex Walsh is poised to step into the No. 2 spot that King is vacating and become a real medal contender. Beyond that, questions abound.
In the 100 breast, Tokyo Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby is skipping the meet after narrowly missing the Paris team. Emma Weber, another Virginia product, was the swimmer to earn the second spot behind King a year ago, but she did not advance out of prelims in Paris. Weber, Walsh and Douglass have all clocked 1:06s in their career while McKenzie Siroky and Skyler Smith hold 1:07 entry times prior to the meet. Even if King remains No. 1 this year, seeing another swimmer enter 1:05-territory would be a good sign for the future prospects of the medley relay.
Meanwhile, the 50-meter events are now full-fledged Olympic events, and that could be the opening Smith needs to become a player for the U.S. team. She ranks in the global top-10 in the event for 2025, having clocked 30.46 at the Mare Nostrum meet in Monaco.
Josh Matheny — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
As for the men, joining Fink in absentia are two further breaststrokers from the Paris team, Charlie Swanson and Matt Fallon. That makes Josh Matheny, a finalist in the 200-meter race in Paris, the de facto favorite for both the 100 and 200-meter events. Matheny has the top entry time in the 100 at 59.23, with Michael Andrew and AJ Pouch the only other swimmers to have cracked the 1:00-barrier. For this year, the leading American is Campbell McKean, who clocked a best time of 1:00.40 at the Fort Lauderdale Pro Series.
The 100 can be considered the most urgent matter of attention for U.S. men’s breaststroke considering its importance for both the men’s and mixed medley relays, but the 50 and 200-meter distances are similarly unsettled. In the 200, the swimmers best positioned for international contention are Matheny and Pouch, who clocked 2:08.00 in the Olympic Trials semifinal but struggled in the final. Matheny’s Indiana teammate Jassen Yep was the surprise NCAA champion in the 200-yard breast this year.
The 50 breast among the best opportunities for Andrew to return to the World Championships squad. The Tokyo Olympian has publicly expressed his joy regarding the inclusion of 50-meter races to the lineup for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, and while Andrew should contend in the one-lap events of the other three strokes as well as the 100 breast, he is the clear favorite here.
Outside of breaststroke events, several other events will find the American team eager for new challengers, particularly among the men. Here are some races to watch:
Men’s Backstroke
The entire foursome who captured silver in the men’s medley relay in Paris is absent from this meet. The team still has capable sprint freestylers in Jack Alexy and Chris Guiliano while butterfly figures to be handled between Thomas Heilman, Shaine Casas and Dare Rose. But men’s backstroke looks like a void, a highly unusual situation for a country traditionally dominant in the stroke.
Keaton Jones — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Most notable is the absence of Ryan Murphy, the Olympic champion over 100 and 200 meters in 2016 and the top American in both events ever since. That will leave Keaton Jones and Jack Aikins as the favorites in the 200-meter race. Jones is coming off a fifth-place finish in the event in Paris while Aikins missed the Olympic team by 17-hundredths despite clocking a time of 1:54.78 in the Trials final.
Also in contention will be Destin Lasco, the 200-yard back American-record holder and a World Championship finalist in the event in 2023. Lasco could have been in the mix at Trials, but he made the difficult decision to skip his best event in an attempt to qualify for Paris in the 400 free relay, a strategy that did not pay off as he finished seventh in the 100 free final. Lasco gives the field a third swimmer who has been 1:54 in his career.
Hunter Armstrong would be the favorite in both the 50 and 100-meter races, but the former world-record holder in the 50 back and three-time World Championship medalist in the 100 did not enter the competition. That leaves Aikins as the only swimmer entered under 53 in the 100 back. His leading challenger will be Casas, a 25-year-old poised to contend in any of the seven events in which he is entered, while Lasco and Will Modglin could also get near the 53-second barrier.
Casas has not raced backstroke internationally since 2022, and he has never done the 100 on an international level, but he was the 2021 short course world champion in the event. Casas owns the quickest lifetime best in the 100-meter field at 52.51, and his 50 time of 24.23 has him seeded first. Speaking of the 50, sprint specialist Quintin McCarty could have a opening to reach international waters while Andrew, Aikins and Modglin are threats.
Men’s Distance Freestyle
Rex Maurer — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Yes, Bobby Finke remains a distance freestyle stud, but he has never been joined by a second American in a Olympic or World Championship final. Moreover, the 400 free has been the weakest event for the U.S. team for a decade, with no Worlds medals in the event since Connor Jaeger took bronze in 2013 and the Olympic bronze captured by Kieran Smith in 2021 an outlier.
Smith remains among the leading American contenders in the event, and Aaron Shackell was the Trials winner before making the final in Paris, but the leading candidates to turn around American fortunes in the eight-lap event are the two swimmers who have clocked 3:46s this year, Carson Foster and Rex Maurer. The two Texas-trained swimmers broke the 500-yard free American record on the same day in November, with Foster taking down Smith’s five-year-old mark before Maurer eclipsed that time an hour later, and Maurer continued his breakout season with two NCAA titles in March.
Foster might opt to skip the 400 free to focus on individual medley and the 200 butterfly, but Maurer could take this chance to make his first senior-level U.S. squad. He will also have a chance to reach Worlds in the 400 IM, where the absence of Chase Kalisz and Jay Litherland opens things up behind Foster, the Olympic bronze medalist in the event.
As for the distance races behind Finke, 1500-meter Olympian David Johnston and teenager Luke Ellis look like the leading challengers, with Maurer possibly throwing his name into the 800-meter mix. Luke Whitlock, who took second behind Finke at Olympic Trials, will not compete in this meet.
Women’s Events
Caroline Bricker — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
Opportunities to jump onto this loaded American women’s squad will be scarce with all but four members of the Paris team entered at Nationals and most swimming consistently well this season. Tokyo Olympians Claire Curzan and Bella Sims will also be looking to bounce back after not making the cut at last year’s Trials. The team should head to Singapore with medal favorites in nearly every event, with the only uncertainties lying in the aforementioned sprint breaststroke events and the 200 freestyle, where teenager Claire Weinstein has made significant strides.
Thus, anyone looking for their first run on the global level will have to overcome talented and experienced swimmers, but a few standouts from the NCAA season could be in position to do so. Consider the Stanford duo of Caroline Bricker and Lucy Bell, both first-time national champions this season. When Bricker won the NCAA title in the 400-yard IM, she beat a field including Olympic medalists Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant. Grimes in particular has struggled this year, so perhaps that leaves an opening. Bell, meanwhile, will try to overcome Douglass and Walsh in the 200 breast.
Relays could also provide an introduction for first-timers. With veterans Abbey Weitzeil and Erika Connolly absent, the door is open for teenager Rylee Erisman or collegiate standouts Anna Moesch and Camille Spink in the 100 free. Of the U.S. 800 free relay from Paris, only Paige Madden is absent, but Erisman, Kennedi Dobson and Madi Mintenko could put themselves in the mix.
