{"id":489320,"date":"2021-10-11T05:15:06","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T12:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=489320"},"modified":"2021-10-10T17:10:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T00:10:36","slug":"the-week-that-was-emma-mckeon-tom-shields-shine-at-world-cup-budapest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/the-week-that-was-emma-mckeon-tom-shields-shine-at-world-cup-budapest\/","title":{"rendered":"The Week That Was: Emma McKeon, Tom Shields Shine at World Cup Budapest"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Over the past week, the FINA World Cup moved to Budapest, where\u00a0Emma McKeon<\/strong>, the winner of seven medals at the Tokyo Olympics, swam the second-fastest time in history in the women’s 100 freestyle, while American\u00a0Tom Shields<\/strong> broke an American record and won four individual events. Meanwhile, the University of Southern California swimming program is in turmoil after head coach Jeremy Kipp<\/b> was placed on administrative leave.<\/p>\n

Read the five biggest stories of the week in The Week That Was sponsored by Suitmate.<\/p>\n

The Week That Was #1: FINA World Cup Budapest: Emma McKeon Crushes 50.58, Tom Shields Breaks American Record<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"world-cup-MCKEON

Emma McKeon — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala \/ Deepbluemedia \/ Insidefoto<\/p><\/div>\n

By David Rieder<\/em><\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s\u00a0Emma McKeon<\/strong>\u00a0is only months removed from the meet of her career and the most prolific Olympic performance ever by a female swimmer. She won seven medals total at the Tokyo Games, four of them gold, and two of those golden efforts came in individual events, the 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle. And after a quick post-Olympics break, McKeon has has steadily built back up to elite form during her brief short course season.<\/p>\n

This week, McKeon is competing at the FINA World Cup (short course) in Budapest, and McKeon posted the highlight swim of the third and final day of the event. In the 100 freestyle, she swam a 50.58. That tied the World Cup record of 50.58 set by\u00a0Sarah Sjostrom<\/strong>\u00a0back in 2017, a mark that was, at the time, the world record.<\/p>\n

The only swimmer to ever go faster is McKeon\u2019s fellow Australian\u00a0Cate Campbell<\/strong>, who swam a 50.25 for the world record in October 2017. McKeon will be back in action during the ISL playoffs in November in Eindhoven and then the ISL final early next year, so she will have more chances to chase Campbell\u2019s record \u2014 or perhaps even the vaunted 50-second barrier. Already, McKeon has become the second-fastest performer in history in the long course 100 free (51.96), so we\u2019ll see if she has a magical short course performance in store over the next few months.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, 30-year-old American Tom Shields<\/strong>\u00a0has recorded a very successful streak of racing in Europe over the past two months. After five weeks in Naples where he helped the LA Current secure a spot in the International Swimming League (ISL) playoffs with consistently strong performances and five individual wins, Shields has been impressive during the two stops of the FINA World Cup, in Berlin last week and now in Budapest. The latest of those efforts resulted in an American record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In Berlin, Shields topped South Africa\u2019s\u00a0Chad le Clos<\/strong>\u00a0in the 50 and 100 butterfly and finished a close second in the 200 fly, and in Budapest, he has won all three of those events.\u00a0His third butterfly victory, in the 50-meter sprint, saw him break\u00a0Caeleb Dressel\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>American record in the event, a 22.04 set last year. Shields clocked 21.96, making him only the sixth man in history to break 22. Shields\u2019 previous best was a 22.09 from the Berlin meet six days earlier.<\/p>\n

And that was not all for Shields on the day. He has focused almost exclusively on butterfly for the entirety of his professional career, but during his high school days, he was a standout 200 freestyler, and during his college swimming career at Cal-Berkeley, he swam the 100-yard back \u2014 and won three individual NCAA titles in the event. With his butterfly work done for the meet, Shields revisited backstroke for a one-off and turned in a dominant performance. He swam a 50.50 to win the 100 back, more than a second ahead of runner-up\u00a0Yakov Toumarkin<\/strong>\u00a0of Israel (51.64).<\/p>\n