The United States finished top of the swimming medal table at the World Aquatics Championships on Sunday, overcoming a slow start to its campaign in which several of its swimmers battled an outbreak of “acute gastroenteritis.”
The team capped its championships with a world record in the women’s 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday, marking its ninth gold and 29th total medal as it consolidated first place ahead of Australia’s eight gold and 20 total medals.
The late surge meant that American swimmers had one more gold and nine more medals in total than they did in last year’s championships, even if their overall haul was significantly less than the 38 they won in 2023 and the 45 they claimed in 2022.
The team’s eventual success came after it had seemed diminished in the opening days, with its spokesperson telling the Associated Press that many of its swimmers were battling “acute gastroenteritis” they had contracted at a training camp in Thailand.
The USA’s initial struggles at the championship – it won only five gold medals in the opening six days – drew criticism from some of its former stars, particularly as it came a year after the Paris Olympics where it won its lowest tally of Olympic gold medals in the pool since 1988.
Six-time Olympic champion Ryan Lochte posted an image on social media of a tombstone with the epigraph: “In loving memory of United States Swimming. They set the bar high – until they stopped reaching for it,” which 23-time Olympic champion Michael Phelps reposted with the caption: “Is this the wake-up call USA Swimming needed?” according to Reuters.
The US team wasn’t immune to the criticism – Gretchen Walsh, who won three gold medals in Singapore – said she was “trying to block it out.”
“I think we’ve been dealing with a lot so it’s hard to get the criticism in the first place because I don’t think people quite understand the magnitude of everything going on behind the scenes,” she said.
In the last two days of the world championships, the US won four gold medals, including Katie Ledecky’s thrilling victory in the women’s 800m freestyle, which she claimed with a championship-record time.
That came a day after Kate Douglass clocked in with her own championship-record time in the women’s 200m breaststroke.
“I wanted to just get a gold for Team USA to help our medal count there and I think with the rough week that we’ve had, I think we’ve done a great job of coming back and showing that we are here to race,” Douglas said afterward according to World Aquatics.
Meanwhile, Canadian sensation Summer McIntosh capped one of the greatest world championships performances of all time on Sunday, winning the women’s 400m individual medley to claim her fourth gold medal of the week.
The 18-year-old finished in a championship-record 4:25.78, not quite enough to beat her own world record of 4:23.65, but more than seven seconds ahead of her nearest challengers.
McIntosh joins Katie Ledecky as the only women ever to have won four individual golds at a world championships, according to NBC Sports. The Canadian was attempting to join Michael Phelps’ record of winning five individual golds, but lost to Ledecky in Saturday’s 800m freestyle final.
In Sunday’s 400m individual medley final, Australia’s Jenna Forrester and Japan’s Mio Narita were tied in a dead heat for silver with times of 4:33.26, while 12-year-old Chinese phenom Yu Zidi was half a second further back and finished in fourth place.
