{"id":372190,"date":"2019-06-02T10:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-06-02T17:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=372190"},"modified":"2019-06-02T02:21:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-02T09:21:33","slug":"swimming-world-presents-18th-fina-world-aquatics-championships-preview-mens-swimming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swimming-world-presents-18th-fina-world-aquatics-championships-preview-mens-swimming\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming World Presents “18th FINA World Aquatics Championships Preview: Men’s Swimming”"},"content":{"rendered":"

18th FINA World Aquatics Championships Preview: Men’s Swimming
\nJuly 21-28<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

FREESTYLE
\n<\/strong>BY DAN D\u2019ADDONA
\n<\/strong><\/span>The men\u2019s 50 free has been the must-see event in international pools since its inception as an Olympic event in 1988.
\nWith just fractions of a second deciding first through eighth, it takes nothing short of a perfect race to win the 50 free on the international stage.<\/p>\n

With sprinters sticking around longer such as Anthony Ervin<\/strong>, Nathan Adrian<\/strong> and a host of others, the event continues to get faster\u2014and tougher to get into the finals. Meanwhile, in the short-course domain, Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> has gone times that have simply astonished the entire swimming world. So what does that mean for this year\u2019s World Championships? It means, like always, it could be anyone\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

BACKSTROKE
\n<\/span><\/strong>BY DAVID RIEDER<\/span>
\n<\/span>Ryan Murphy<\/strong> swept the 100 and 200 back gold medals at the 2016 Olympics and holds the world record in the 100-meter distance, but the conversation around men\u2019s backstroke in 2019 involves many different men who could capture gold in the 50, 100 and 200 at the World Championships. In fact, three different swimmers\u2014none of them Murphy\u2014won World titles in each event in 2017.<\/p>\n

France\u2019s Camille Lacourt won gold in the 50 back in 2017, but he retired after that meet. In his absence at last year\u2019s European Championships, Russia\u2019s Kliment Kolesnikov<\/strong> broke the world record with a 24.00. Over the course of the year, Hungary\u2019s Robert Glinta<\/strong>, Murphy and Russia\u2019s Vladimir Morozov<\/strong> all swam times within 3-tenths of that mark. China\u2019s Xu Jiayu<\/strong>, the 100 back World champion in 2017, should contend as well.<\/p>\n

BREASTSTROKE<\/span><\/strong>
\nBY DAN D\u2019ADDONA<\/span>
\nAdam Peaty<\/strong> has proven to be the best breaststroker in the world, but at the 2019 World Championships, he will need to prove it again.
\nThere are plenty of contenders in the sprint breaststroke events that should push the competition to blistering speeds.<\/p>\n

In the 50, Peaty has been in the 26-mid range, just like Ilya Shymanovich<\/strong> of Belarus and Brazil\u2019s duo of Felipe Lima<\/strong> and Joao Gomes<\/strong> Junior<\/strong>. That quartet has made up the entire top 10 list for most of the year.<\/p>\n

BUTTERFLY
\n<\/strong>BY DAN D\u2019ADDONA
\n<\/strong><\/span>The butterfly battles at the World Championships will feature the champions versus the upstarts. There are several men\u2019s swimmers performing at the top of their game heading into the 2019 World Championships, but their names are not Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> (2017 World champ, 100 fly), Joseph Schooling<\/strong> (2016 Olympic champ, 100 fly) or Chad le Clos<\/strong> (2017 World champ, 200 fly).<\/p>\n

Still, these champions should be in the mix for multiple gold medals as they look to fend off some of the swimmers who are cruising into Worlds with strong 2019 performances.<\/p>\n

However, there is one former champion who has been swimming well this year: Great Britain\u2019s Benjamin Proud<\/strong> (2017 World champ, 50 fly), who has been in the low-23s in the 50, as have Australia\u2019s William Xu Yang<\/strong>, U.S. swimmer Michael Andrew<\/strong> and Ukraine\u2019s Andrii Govorov<\/strong>. Leading the list of contenders in that event is Brazil\u2019s Nicholas Santos<\/strong>, who swam a 22.60 at the FINA Champions Swim Series in Budapest on May 11. He also clocked this year\u2019s third-fastest time: 23.01 at the CSS in Guanzhou, China, on April 27.<\/p>\n

INDIVIDUAL MEDLEY
\n<\/strong>BY DAN D\u2019ADDONA
\n<\/span>The men\u2019s individual medley races have had the same international storyline ever since Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte were out of the picture. Can Chase Kalisz<\/strong> and his U.S. teammates keep up with the stellar group of Asian IMers?<\/p>\n

In the 200 IM, Japan\u2019s Daiya Seto<\/strong> (400 IM bronze medalist, 2016 Olympics and 2017 Worlds) has been one of the world\u2019s best for years. He and France\u2019s Jeremy Desplanches<\/strong> are the only swimmers to go sub-1:57 so far this year, though China\u2019s Wang Shun<\/strong> (200 IM bronze medalist, 2016 Olympics and 2017 Worlds) and Haiyang Qin<\/strong> are within striking distance, as is Kalisz.<\/p>\n

RELAYS
\n<\/span><\/strong>BY DAVID RIEDER
\n<\/span>Two of the three men\u2019s relays at the World Championships should be the United States\u2019 to lose, while in the third, the 400 meter free relay, the Americans will be going for revenge after falling short on the anchor leg at each of the last two editions of FINA\u2019s global showcase.<\/p>\n

American Caeleb Dressel<\/strong> holds the fastest lifetime best in the entire field\u2014his 47.17 that he swam to win the individual World title two years ago\u2014and he is joined by a deep relay contingent, including Blake Pieroni<\/strong>, Zach Apple<\/strong>, Townley Haas<\/strong> and Nathan Adrian<\/strong> (if he is able to compete after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in December). But Australia, Russia and Brazil all have squads capable of challenging the Americans.<\/p>\n

MIXED RELAYS<\/span><\/strong>
\nBY DAVID RIEDER<\/span>
\nGiven the American and Australian strength in both the women\u2019s and men\u2019s relays, it seems only logical that those two countries would be best equipped for success in the two mixed events. Imagine a 400 meter mixed free relay that included Caeleb Dressel<\/strong>, Blake Pieroni<\/strong> or Nathan Adrian<\/strong>, Simone Manuel<\/strong> and Mallory Comerford<\/strong> against the Campbell sisters (Cate and Bronte)<\/strong>, Kyle Chalmers<\/strong> and Cameron McEvoy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For a more in depth look at the men headed to the FINA World Aquatics Championships this year,
\ncheck out the June 2019 issue of Swimming World Magazine<\/em>, available now!<\/p>\n

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