Swimming World Magazine Parting Shots in Review – 2017

This photo was taken at Sports Illustrated’s 2016 Sportsperson of the Year event at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., where Michael Phelps (right) was honored as the greatest Olympian of all time by other Olympic greats, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Tom Dolan (pictured in background, from left) as well as Aly Raisman (behind Phelps).

Stanford senior Lia Neal (facing camera) gives teammate Simone Manuel a hug at this year’s women’s Division I NCAAs after the two combined with Katie Ledecky and Janet Hu to set an American record in the meet’s last event, the women’s 400 freestyle relay.

Says her coach, Greg Meehan: “We really wanted to win that last relay for Lia—give her a little victory lap. There is no better moment for a senior than to win your last race at the NCAA Championships. That is a storybook ending.

“She set this thing in motion ve years ago when she committed to our program as an Olympian out of high school. Everything just rolled from there. She legitimized our program in that moment.”

American Adolph Kiefer (June 27, 1918 – May 5, 2017), who was America’s oldest living Olympic champion, passed away last month at the age of 98. He was considered by many to be the best backstroker ever, having set records in every backstroke event—many of which lasted for 15 years and more. At 16, he was the rst man to break a minute in the 100 yard back. At 18, he was the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic team that competed in Berlin, where he won the 100 meter back in an Olympic record that would stand for 20 years. It is said that in more than 2,000 career races, Kiefer lost only twice. (See related story, page 24.)

Powered by driver Filip Filipović (left), the world’s best water polo player, the Serbia men’s team will compete at this summer’s World Championships in Budapest and attempt to accomplish what no team has ever done: win Olympic and World Championship gold medals in consecutive years. (Pictured at right: Spain’s Alberto Munarriz Egana demonstrates “in-your-face” defense at last year’s Olympics in Rio!) (See related story, page 33.)

After a testing 2016 in which he failed to make his third Olympic team, Matt Grevers launched into a redemptive summer of swimming. Grevers won the 100 backstroke at the Phillips 66 National Championships in Indianapolis, earning his ticket to his fourth World Championships— this one in Budapest, Hungary. Many fans wept with Grevers after his heart- wrenching third-place nish at the 2016 Olympic Trials. In Indianapolis, the same fanbase jumped with glee to see Grevers make it back to the international stage.

To read more about Matt Grevers’ story, check out David Rieder’s online feature:

https://www.swimmingworldmagazine. com/news/one-year-later-matt-grevers- redeems-himself-and-smiles/

(from left) Team USA’s Kevin Cordes, Caeleb Dressel and Matt Grevers cheer on teammate Nathan Adrian (in the water) to an exciting nish in the men’s 4×100 meter medley relay at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. The Americans clocked 3:27.91 to win by a second over Great Britain (3:28.95) and come within 63-hundredths of the 3:27.28 world record set at the World Championships in Rome in 2009 during the height of the high-tech swimsuit era. See related stories, pages 10-26.

For extensive day-by-day reports and complete results of the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, check out Swimming World’s online coverage at swimmingworldmagazine.com/meet/2017- na-world-championships.