{"id":627926,"date":"2025-12-03T05:29:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=627926"},"modified":"2025-12-03T05:29:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T12:29:41","slug":"u-s-open-races-to-watch-mens-distance-aces-caeleb-dressel-in-the-spotlight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/u-s-open-races-to-watch-mens-distance-aces-caeleb-dressel-in-the-spotlight\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Open Races to Watch (Men’s): Distance Aces, Caeleb Dressel in the Spotlight"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Open Races to Watch (Men’s): Distance Aces, Dressel in the Spotlight<\/strong><\/p>\n

This week, the final major long course competition of 2025 will take place in Austin, Texas, and the men’s racing will see the two best backstrokers in the world squaring off. South Africa’s Pieter Coetze<\/strong> won this year’s world title in the 100 back<\/a> while taking silver in the 50 and 200, but Hungary’s Hubert Kos<\/strong> edged out Coetze for gold in the 200-meter event<\/a> before dominating the backstroke events on the World Cup circuit. During that run, Kos blasted short course world records in the 200 back<\/a> and then the 100 back<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These two international athletes are sure to steal the show in their signature events while rising American backstrokers try to battle for competitive times in their wake. That is largely the story for the U.S. men right now as they are coming off consecutive rough summers of international competition, with just one individual gold at the Paris Olympics and one individual gold at the 2025 World Championships. Many top Americans will be in action at the U.S. Open, and they will try to build momentum entering the middle year of the quadrennium.<\/p>\n