Swimmers with NCS connections contributed to a medal count record for Team USA at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Budapest.
On the meet’s final day, Justin Ress (formerly with NC State and MOR) won the men’s 50m back, out-touching teammate Hunter Armstrong to win the gold medal. Erika Brown (formerly with SwimMAC) earned a bronze medal in the women’s 50m free. Ryan Held (formerly with NC State) added to his relay medal collection with a silver in the men’s 4×100 medley relay and Claire Curzan (TAC Titans) anchored the winning women’s 4×100 medley relay, earning her second relay gold. On Friday, another NCS swimmer, Katharine Berkoff (NC State) won silver in the women’s 50m back. Click here for complete meet results.
The final day’s haul brought the United States’ team-leading meet medal count to 45–17 of them gold–and set a new record for medals at a World Championships. The previous record of 38 pool medals–also by the United States and also in Budapest–came in 2017.
Ryan Murphy, who’s been a member of the past four World teams, credits strong teamwork for this unparalleled feat.
“It was an incredible eight days with this team,” said Murphy, who swam the opening backstroke leg of the silver-medal-winning 400 medley relay with teammates Nic Fink, Michael Andrew and Ryan Held. “I feel like we just put our heads down, handled business, and when we looked up at the end of the meet, it was, by at least one metric, our most successful team ever.
“I think that’s something really special. That’s not one person. That’s not one performance. That’s a collective as a whole, and that comes down to people executing session after session, and that’s really hard to do over an eight-day meet.”
How deep and dominant was the United States this year in Budapest? Not including relays, 26 different swimmers won medals. Second-place Australia won 17 total medals.
On Saturday, Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong started the final session with a bang, going 1-2 in the 50-meter backstroke. Originally disqualified, Ress and the United States appealed, and he was reinstated as the victor.
Ress won in 24.12, while Armstrong was a close second in 24.14. Armstrong even donned the medal to Ress after the swim happened.
In the 1500m freestyle–an event he won last summer in Tokyo–Bobby Finke won silver, his second medal (gold in the 800 free) of the meet.
He and the rest of the field chased gold medalist Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy from start to finish – but Finke’s time of 14:36.70 set a new American record by almost three seconds.
“In the beginning, I was just trying to keep up with him, but he just kept getting further and further ahead,” Finke said. “Hats off to Greg. I wasn’t able to run him down. He had a great race, and I’m really proud of him.”
In the last sprint of the meet, newlywed Erika Brown of the United States touched in 24.38 to tie for bronze with Australia’s Meg Harris.
Brown’s medal marked the third-straight Worlds where a U.S. woman stood on the podium, following Simone Manuel’s bronze in 2017 and gold in 2019.
“I was in shock,” Brown said of learning she won bronze. “I was really just trying to focus on having my own race and getting my hand on the wall. I can’t even explain how excited I was when I saw that.
“I have gotten to swim on a lot of relays (at Worlds), and that really got me even more excited for the 50.”
Tokyo Olympians Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant also added to the United States’ medals Saturday with silver and bronze, respectively, in the women’s 400m individual medley. Grimes’ time of 4:32.67 was just eclipsed by fellow teenager Summer McIntosh (4:32.04) of Canada.
Weyant, who won silver in this event on the first day of the Tokyo Olympics last summer, finished third in 4:36.00 despite the long wait to compete on the final day of the meet.
“It was definitely a difficult feeling (having to wait),” she said. “I got to watch the meet for a good part of it, but I was ready to race today and was happy I walked away with a medal, especially against this field.”
Grimes, the silver medalist in the 1500 freestyle earlier this week, said she’s sees good things for herself and the United States in this event in the future.
“Last year, there were still some bumps in the road with that race (400 IM),” she said. “But I think this year, I’ve gotten a little bit stronger, and my coach and I have worked on my weaknesses, so it’s coming together really nicely.
“I went in knowing my strengths and weaknesses. I went over everybody’s splits and kind of learned how they swam the race. I just knew that if I got to the breaststroke turning into the freestyle with them, then I could have a chance at a medal. I was just having a good time racing.”
The final two events of the meet– the men’s and women’s 400m medley relays–both finished in exciting fashion.
A strong favorite for gold, the U.S. men were out-touched by the Italian team – 3:27.51 to 3:27.79. Ryan Held, who won gold as a member of the 400 freestyle relay, made a furious dash over the final 50 meters but couldn’t catch the Italian swimmer.
In the women’s final, despite swimming in lane 1, the U.S. women won their second relay (800 freestyle relay) of the meet by outpacing silver-medalist Australia. The United States won in 3:53.78.
“We have crushed it this whole week,” said Regan Smith, who won the 100m backstroke earlier in the meet and started the United States off strong in the relay with teammates Lily King, Torri Huske and Claire Curzan.
“I really just wanted to go out and do my best for Team USA on this relay, and I know these girls wanted to do the same. And I think we really did that, and we went out on a good note.”
