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The 2019 FINA World Championships have started with swimming taking place this week in Gwangju, South Korea.
You can read about some of the biggest news in the swimming world from this last week below.
The Week That Was #5 – That Backstroke Starting Platform Situation
Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
Yikes. The platforms failed at an alarming rate in prelims last week, resulting in multiple re-swims and 18 swimmers competing in the men’s 100 back semifinals. Two hours before finals, the platforms were ruled out for the session, only to be brought back at the last minute with only one setting allowed after massive uproar.
Kathleen Baker, the world record-holder in the women’s 100 back and No. 4 qualifier for Tuesday’s final, chimed in.
“When I heard that there weren’t going to be any, I think my heart rate was like 300,” Baker said. “I mean, that ledge is huge for backstrokers. It’s not just about having a better start, but it’s about not slipping and issues like that, and taking that stress away with the wedge is amazing. And then hearing that we might not be able to was very anxiety-producing I think for every backstroker here.”
So sure, good for FINA getting the situation sorted out and not throwing months and years of preparing for backstroke starts off the ledge down the drain. But this sort of equipment failure shouldn’t be happening at the last minute, not at any local meet and certainly not at the World Championships.
The Week That Was #4 – Katie Ledecky Scratches 200 and 1500
Photo Courtesy: Becca Wyant
About an hour before the day three prelims session began, USA Swimming put out word that Katie Ledecky was scratching the 200 free as she battled an illness, with hopes of being well enough to swim the 1500 free final in the evening session. Immediately, our minds raced: Perhaps Ledecky was already sick during the 400 free final, and that’s why she struggled so badly down the stretch, when Ariarne Titmus swam past her to claim gold.
Not long after, the news came out that Ledecky was scratching the 1500 final as well. Gone was her second shot at winning four straight world titles in one event, but more importantly, what a massive bummer. After months of planning and targeting this week as her chance to swim fast, Ledecky’s health has betrayed her, and that’s just lousy luck and timing.
“This is brutal for her not to be competing. She’s such a tough competitor. She wants to be here,” Greg Meehan, Ledecky’s coach at Stanford and the head coach for the U.S. women in Gwangju, told the New York Times. “If we can get her back in the meet at some point, that would be an ideal scenario.”
The Week That Was #3 – 100 Fly Goes To 19 Year Old Maggie MacNeil
Photo Courtesy: Swimming Canada/Ian MacNicol
Ten years ago, when Sarah Sjostrom won her first world title in the 100 fly, she started out slowly, turned in seventh place at the halfway point before roaring home for the first major gold of the 15-year-old’s now legendary career. In Gwangju, 19-year-old Canadian Maggie MacNeil turned fifth at 50 meters—and then pulled off the exact same feat.
Back in 2009 in Rome, Sjostrom had already established herself as the headliner via a stunning world record in the semifinal. Fast forward a decade, and MacNeil had pulled off a nice qualifying swim as well with a 56.52, but that still seemed like nowhere close to Sjostrom territory.
That’s because going into the final, Sjostrom owned history’s 11 quickest performances in the women’s 100 fly. Her world record stood at 55.48, with Dana Vollmer the only other woman to ever break 56 all the way back in 2012. The next-fastest lifetime best in the Gwangju final belonged to Emma McKeon at 56.18.
Conventional wisdom spoke that no woman was coming close to Sjostrom in the event she has dominated since 2013. This wasn’t like Katie Ledecky in the 400 free, where Ariarne Titmus had been steadily closing the gap and figured to pose a threat should Ledecky falter.
For 50 meters of the Gwangju final, conventional wisdom held. Sjostrom went out in 25.96, five hundredths under her own world-record pace. Kelsi Dahlia and McKeon, who joined Sjostrom on the podium at the World Championships in Budapest, were closest to her. MacNeil was fifth, not even in the picture at 26.77.
But off the turn, as the swimmers popped up from their underwater dolphin kicks, MacNeil materialized right next to Sjostrom. She had the acceleration, she had the momentum, and by the last 15 meters, Sjostrom was gassed.
MacNeil clocked in at 29.06 for her homecoming split, the fastest in history—just ahead of the 29.12 Sjostrom swam with the aid of a polyurethane bodysuit at those World Championships a decade ago.
Just like day one, when Titmus took down Ledecky in the 400 free, a surreal feeling grasped the World Championships. Only this was even more of an out-of-nowhere shock because MacNeil entered the year with a 100 fly lifetime best of 58.44. She entered the meet with a 57.04 from Canada’s Nationals in April.
Now, in 55.83 seconds, MacNeil is the second-fastest swimmer in history. “I can’t even fathom it right now,” MacNeil told NBC Sports in a post-race television interview.
The Week That Was #2 – Men’s 200 Free Disqualification
Stand-off: Britain’s Duncan Scott, right, refuses to pose with Sun Yang, flanked by Katsuhiro Matsumoto, left, and Martin Malyutin, after the 200m free medals ceremony – Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer
Reaction to the men’s 200 free progressed through three stages. As the athletes touched the wall, Danas Rapsys appeared to win his first World title, his blistering final 50 enough to get by Sun Yang and break 1:45 for the first time. Big breakthrough swim for the 24-year-old Lithuanian.
But then came the disqualification. Rapsys was gone, his flinch on the blocks enough for a false start, and now Sun would be awarded his second gold medal of the week.
Then came the awards ceremony, where co-bronze medalist Duncan Scott, fresh off a performance (1:45.63) that he surely knew wasn’t his best, became a hero in the eyes of much of the Gwangju crowd and many more across the world.
Best to read our Craig Lord’s take on the situation, which continues to become more embarrassing for both Sun and FINA as swimmers across the world have stood in support of Mack Horton and now Scott.
From Gwangju, the men’s 200 free will go down as perhaps the best-remembered race of the World Championships, for reasons that have nothing to do with Rapsys, the man who no one disputes as the first to touch the wall.
The Week That Was #1 – Michael Phelps Loses 200 Fly World Record to 19 Year-Old Hungarian – Kristof Milak
Kristof Milak celebrates victory in Gwangju in world-record time – Photo Courtesy: Patrick B. Kraemer
Finally, Kristof Milak, wow. Just wow. He annihilated a Michael Phelps world record, his victory in the 200 fly coming in an unfathomable 1:50.73. He won his first world title by more than three seconds, and Phelps’ tenure as 200 fly world record-holder, which began March 30, 2001, officially came to a close July 24, 2019.
Phelps, at one point or another, held world records in five individual events, and three of those marks have stood the test of time. He held the 200 free world record for just two years, from 2007 to 2009, and Ryan Lochte ended Phelps’ run as standard-bearer in the 200 IM in 2011, eight years after Phelps first set it.
Moving forward, Phelps’ 400 IM mark of 4:03.84 will likely live on, but his 49.82 in the 100 fly, another mark from those 2009 World Championships, is likely in its last days. The 100 fly final, scheduled for Saturday, will pit Milak against Caeleb Dressel, who won the 2017 world title in a 49.86 that fell just four hundredths short of Phelps’ world record. It’s not an unreasonable bet that both Milak and Dressel eclipse Phelps in their upcoming showdown.
