Follow our Olympic coverage in the lead-up to Paris.
For years, the voice of “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been omnipresent in Olympic swimming pools.
From the 1992 Barcelona Olympics to the pandemic-delayed 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the U.S. swimming team has won more gold medals than any other national team. As Team USA won the gold medal on the podium, its national anthem played over and over again. The last time the U.S. didn’t win the most gold medals at a single Olympics was in 1988, when the U.S. finished second to East Germany. All swimmers currently on the roster died at the time.
Over the years, U.S. swimmers have been almost taken for granted in terms of medal totals and gold medals. Of course, it helps that Michael Phelps has 23 wins by himself in four Olympics, but it’s not just him. The U.S. team is often the best in the world in its best events, and they often do well in relays as well.
Now, that dominance is far from assured. Going into the Paris Olympics, Australia will be the team with the most gold medals in the gold medal pool. A year ago at the world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, Australia beat the United States, winning 13 gold medals to the Americans’ seven. Although Team USA won the medal total (38 to 25), its medal was less golden in tone than usual.
Paris could be the same. Americans do not shy away from this possibility and are determined to avoid it.
“Historically, the U.S. has done better and performed better than any other country in the world,” said Todd DeSorbo, head coach of the U.S. women’s team. “Of course, there are some unisex activities. , we still have a lot of ground to make up, but I have every confidence in the drive, excitement and commitment of everyone on the team, both men and women, to be ready to do this and do something very special.
Australian star Cate Campbell is among those hoping to the contrary. She liked what she heard at Worlds—or, rather, liked what she didn’t hear.
“It’s one thing for Australia to be on top, but to beat the United States is even sweeter,” Campbell told Australia’s Channel 9 last August. “There were a few nights, especially the first night, when we didn’t hear the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ ring out in the stadium, and I can’t tell you how happy that made me.
“If I ever hear that song again, it’ll be too soon.”
This is the first time since 2001 that the United States has not won the most gold medals at the world championships. Of the nine swimmers to win multiple individual gold medals, Katie Ledecky is the only American swimmer to do so. “The world is getting better,” U.S. men’s world championships head coach Bob Bowman told reporters in Japan. In that competition alone, the Australian team set five world records. Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Kaleb Dressel and two-time Olympic gold medalist Simon Manuel are not competing in Japan and both will swim in Paris.
Katie Ledecky is the favorite for gold in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle in Paris, but beyond that, most races are tight and unpredictable. (Sarah Steele/Getty Images)
Campbell failed to qualify for the Paris Olympics but drew a backlash for her comments, which included calling the U.S. team “sore losers” as they celebrated their highest medal total as Australia nearly doubled their tally. Contest. That struck a nerve with Phelps, who served as a commentator for NBC during last month’s U.S. trial. He said that if competitors talked about him like this, he would “make them take back every word they just said about me” and hoped Americans would use the video as motivation.
“The good news is the Olympics are coming soon and we’ll be able to see the results,” Phelps said.
For the first time in a long time, it was hard to know what to expect. Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Ledecky is expected to win gold in the 800m and 1,500m freestyle events. Beyond that, the competition is too competitive to predict with confidence. Ledecky’s opponent, Australian Ariane Titmus, is expected to win the 400m freestyle event, while fellow Aussie Molly O’Callaghan headlines the 100m and 200m freestyle events.
American sprint star Dressel will have the opportunity to defend his 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics. He looked strong at the trials but is still returning to the sport after an eight-month hiatus from swimming from mid-2022 to early 2023. Qualifying Bobby Finke will be expected to win the 1,500m freestyle event, while Ryan Murphy is expected to compete in both backstroke events. But overall, the trio are not clearly locked in repeating their success in Tokyo.
Caleb Dressel returns as the face of the U.S. men’s team, with a chance to defend his gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter butterfly. (Sarah Steele/Getty Images)
Gretchen Walsh, Regan Smith and Kate Douglas will join Ledecky as leaders on the women’s team, but those three bring far less Olympic experience than she does. Walsh (100 fly) and Smith (100 back) set world records at the trials and will compete in their respective meets in Paris, but this will be Walsh’s first meet and Smith has two silver medals ( 200 fly, medley relay) and a bronze medal in Tokyo (100 back). These events are also loaded. Australia’s Kaylee McKeown will be tough to beat in both backstroke events, with Canada’s Maggie Mac Neil and Summer McIntosh Becoming a top competitor in the 100-meter fly competition, the same goes for Chinese player Zhang Yufei.
Douglas won bronze in the 200m individual medley in Tokyo, but will compete in a more comprehensive event after qualifying for the 200m freestyle and 200m individual medley trials. (She also qualified for the 100 freestyle, but later gave up.) Although she set several championship records at the trials, she was beaten by Canadian phenom McIntosh and Mai in the 200 freestyle. Keown (and her teammate Alex Walsh) have a tough road ahead of them.
Many of Team USA’s best-known players have the potential to win medals at the Olympics, though probably not gold. Two-time breaststroke gold medalist Lilly King, versatile distance swimmer Katie Grimes and men’s breaststrokers Nic Fink and Matt Fallon have Possible medals. So can Carson Foster, although he likely won’t win gold in any of the IM races as Frenchman Léon Marchand is heavily favored.
The relay races will also be extremely competitive. The U.S. team will gain an advantage in the men’s 4×100m freestyle relay and the women’s medley relay, but the U.S. women are lagging behind the Australian team in both freestyle relays, and the men’s medley will face teams from China and Great Britain. The fierce competition is in the 4×200m freestyle relay. Team GB has won gold for the first time in the Tokyo Olympics relay race. This is the first time a U.S. team (men or women) has failed to win a medal in an Olympic relay event.
But perhaps most strikingly, the team looks a lot different than it did two games ago, with Phelps and Ryan Lochte dominating the lineup in Rio and Ledecky at the top of his game Status, schedule from 200 free to 800 free. Even if Ledecky and Dressel head to Paris, the roster doesn’t have the star power that USA Swimming typically has, especially on the men’s side. Dressel will swim competitively in multiple events, but he has long been an enigma and doesn’t want the world to know every detail about him. Both Phelps and Lochte were charismatic figures who were on nearly daily television in their heydays due to the breadth of the game.
Still, USA Swimming president and CEO Tim Hinch III said the organization’s goal is to win both the medal total and the gold medal total. But is this possible? Americans will soon find out.
“Before the trial, I thought we were in a good position relative to the rest of the world, and after the trial, I think we were in a better position,” DeSorbo said. “We’re just getting ready to go to the (Croatian) camp, go to Paris and get the Olympics started.”
deeper
U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials Highlights: Caeleb Dressel is back, Katie Ledecky is still here
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb/ Competitor; Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel Photo: Tom Pennington and Al Bello/Getty Images (Getty Images)
