{"id":652678,"date":"2026-08-30T07:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=652678"},"modified":"2026-08-30T07:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:32:25","slug":"battle-for-la28-u-s-women-facing-epic-challenge-for-qualification-in-sprint-freestyle-and-backstroke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/battle-for-la28-u-s-women-facing-epic-challenge-for-qualification-in-sprint-freestyle-and-backstroke\/","title":{"rendered":"Battle for LA28: U.S. Women Facing Epic Challenge for Qualification in Sprint Freestyle and Backstroke"},"content":{"rendered":"

Battle for LA28: U.S. Women Facing Epic Challenge for Qualification in Sprint Freestyle and Backstroke<\/strong><\/p>\n

The group of women representing the United States in international swimming over the past few years represents one of the greatest shows of depth in the sport’s history. At the 2025 World Championships, American women reached the podium in every event except two, with a perfect streak lasting until the 50 breaststroke and 400 IM on the final day of the meet.<\/p>\n

Behind the established stars sit a high-level next crop waiting to pounce and secure their own spots on teams. All involved already understand the massive challenge awaiting them just to book tickets to the Games at the U.S. Olympic Trials, which will be held in June 2028 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

\"regan-smith-\"

Regan Smith — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

As usual, the standard required for qualification in the women’s backstroke events will be vicious. American women won the maximum six medals in backstroke at last year’s Worlds, the first time a country has ever been perfect with podium finishes in a single stroke, and none of\u00a0Regan Smith<\/strong>,\u00a0Katharine Berkoff<\/strong> and\u00a0Claire Curzan<\/strong> have shown signs of slowing down while\u00a0Isabelle Stadden<\/strong> has been the latest to throw her name into contention on the back of a breakout year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The current 50 backstroke world rankings for 2026 have Berkoff second behind Italian world-record-breaker\u00a0Sara Curtis<\/strong> with Stadden fifth and Smith seventh. Smith and Stadden own the top-two spots in the 100, with Berkoff fourth, Curzan sixth and two others, Maggie Wazenek<\/strong> and\u00a0Leah Shackley<\/strong>, also sub-59 this year.<\/p>\n

The picture in the 200 is the most ridiculous: while two-time defending Olympic titlist Kaylee McKeown<\/strong> leads the way with the 2:03.98 she clocked in June before an injury ended her season, the Americans have the rest of the list on lockdown. Smith and Stadden both have 2:04-low swims to their credit, followed by Curzan at 2:05.97 and Wazenek fifth at 2:06.05. Erisman,\u00a0Phoebe Bacon<\/strong> and\u00a0Anna Peplowski<\/strong> are all global top-10 performers while Shackley,\u00a0Charlotte Crush<\/strong> and\u00a0Teagan O’Dell<\/strong> sit on the periphery of contention.<\/p>\n

The situation in sprint freestyle has also escalated in recent months.\u00a0Kate Douglass<\/strong> and\u00a0Gretchen Walsh<\/strong> have traded the world record in the 50 freestyle<\/a> this summer, a stretch that culminated with Douglass’ incredible 23.19 at the Pan Pacific Championships<\/a>.\u00a0Torri Huske<\/strong>,\u00a0Anna Moesch<\/strong> and others are not far behind the rest of the world, but the top-two represent a massive challenge for anyone to catch in the coming years.<\/p>\n

The situation in the 100 free is hardly any easier. Moesch broke the American record on two occasions this year, getting down to 51.88<\/a>, but Douglass eclipsed that with a 51.69 relay leadoff at Pan Pacs<\/a>, only a hundredth behind the world record of Dutch standout\u00a0Marrit Steenbergen<\/strong>. The chase pack here includes Walsh, who went as fast as 52.57 this year to rank seventh globally, while Huske was the Olympic silver medalist in Paris before topping the world rankings in 2025.\u00a0Erisman and\u00a0Liberty Clark<\/strong> also went sub-53 this year while\u00a0Simone Manuel<\/strong> has a decorated record in the event, going under the barrier as recently as June 2025.<\/p>\n

Of course, while individual qualification looks extremely challenging, the Americans will benefit from having numerous speedy options to choose from as the country’s 400 free relay pursues the world record.<\/p>\n

The United States is not the only country with significant challenges in the qualifying process on the road to the 2028 Olympics<\/a>. Groups from Australia, Italy, China, Canada and elsewhere have assembled large contingents of potential qualifiers in numerous events.<\/p>\n

Australian Duo Still Dominating 200 Freestyle<\/h2>\n
\"Lani

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n

Two years ago,\u00a0Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong> and\u00a0Ariarne Titmus<\/strong> went 1-2 in the 200 free at the Paris Olympics. Titmus, the world-record holder, has since retired, but Australia still holds the world’s top-two times in the 200 freestyle thanks to a brilliant showing in the event at the country’s selection meet in June. Mollie O’Callaghan<\/strong> led the way with her 1:52.86, a time only she and Titmus have ever beaten, while\u00a0Lani Pallister\u00a0<\/strong>took a step forward in the four-lap event this year as she went 1:53.65.<\/p>\n

While O’Callaghan struggled at the Commonwealth Games and withdrew from Pan Pacs with injury, Pallister shined. She out-dueled\u00a0Summer McIntosh<\/strong> in the 200 free at Pan Pacs<\/a>, part of a meet where she won three individual golds<\/a> and a silver, and her 1:53.46 split was the difference-maker as Australia held off the U.S. in the 800 free relay at Pan Pacs. Australia has other strong 200 swimmers, with\u00a0Inez Miller<\/strong>,\u00a0Milla Jansen<\/strong> and\u00a0Hannah Casey<\/strong> all swimming 1:56 or better this year, but good luck catching the two women at the top.<\/p>\n

Others Around the World<\/h2>\n

The Italian men dotted this year’s world rankings in sprint breaststroke, and the women are not far behind.\u00a0Benedetta Pilato<\/strong> is the current standout, having won 50 breast silver and 100 bronze at the European Championships, but\u00a0Anita Bottazzo<\/strong> and\u00a0Lisa Angiolini<\/strong> are also top-15 swimmers in the world this year in the 50 breast. Those two also have 1:06s to their credit in the 100, setting up intriguing qualifying challenges for next year’s Worlds as well as the Los Angels Olympics.<\/p>\n

In China, Yu Zidi<\/strong> vaulted herself to the forefront of contention in the 200 butterfly with a fourth-place finish at last year’s Worlds as a 12-year-old. Now 13, Yu ranks fourth in the world this year in the event at 2:05.71, but she does not have a huge gap from the rest of her domestic competition. Fellow teens Chang Mohan<\/strong> and\u00a0Gong Zhenqi<\/strong> both swam 2:07s earlier in the year while\u00a0Cheng Luying<\/strong> went 2:05.45 last fall.<\/p>\n

Finally, Canada might have three veteran contenders for two spots in the 100 back. During her resurgence in 2026,\u00a0Taylor Ruck<\/strong> swam as fast as 58.37 while\u00a0Kylie Masse<\/strong> topped out at 58.77 and\u00a0Ingrid Wilm<\/strong> went 59.35. The 30-year-old Masse has been winning international backstroke medals for a decade, with 100-meter world titles in 2017 and 2019 while Wilm has won bronze medals in the 100 back at the lightly-attended 2024 World Championships plus Short Course Worlds in 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Battle for LA28: U.S. Women Facing Epic Challenge for Qualification in Sprint Freestyle and Backstroke The group of women representing the United States in international swimming over the past few<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":650641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,122077,17,7,10],"tags":[70617,128665,60521,58437,63211,25010,56016,70409,77839,45350],"class_list":["post-652678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-americas","category-commentary","category-usa","category-world","tag-2028-olympic-games-coverage-los-angeles","tag-anna-moesch","tag-claire-curzan","tag-gretchen-walsh","tag-isabelle-stadden","tag-kate-douglass","tag-katharine-berkoff","tag-lani-pallister","tag-mollie-ocallaghan","tag-regan-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nBattle for LA28: U.S. Women Facing Challenge for Qualification<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"American depth in women's sprint freestyle and backstroke could leave individual medal contenders on the sidelines in two years.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/battle-for-la28-u-s-women-facing-epic-challenge-for-qualification-in-sprint-freestyle-and-backstroke\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Battle for LA28: U.S. Women Facing Epic Challenge for Qualification in Sprint Freestyle and Backstroke\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American depth in women's sprint freestyle and backstroke could leave individual medal contenders on the sidelines in two years.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/battle-for-la28-u-s-women-facing-epic-challenge-for-qualification-in-sprint-freestyle-and-backstroke\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-30T14:32:25+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/kate-douglass-gretchen-walsh-2026-Pan-Pacs-0799-Edit.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Rieder - 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