Katharine Berkoff, Regan Smith go 1-2 at swim worlds; Summer McIntosh scares world record
In other finals Thursday, Canada's Summer McIntosh (200m butterfly), France's Léon Marchand (200m individual medley) and Romanian David Popovici (100m freestyle) swam the second-fastest times in history.
Berkoff earned her first individual world title, clocking 27.08 seconds to edge Smith by 17 hundredths. Smith won 200m fly silver an hour before the 50m back final.
It's the first U.S. one-two at swimming worlds since 2023, when Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh (200m individual medley) and Hunter Armstrong and Justin Ress (50m back) did so.
SWIMMING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Australian Kaylee McKeown, who won every backstroke title at the last two Olympics and at the 2023 Worlds, opted not to swim the 50m this year. She owns the world record of 26.86.
Back in April, it was announced that the 50m events in backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly were added to the Olympic program for the 2028 Los Angeles Games. Those events have been held at worlds since 2001.
Summer McIntosh closer to matching Michael Phelps
Also Thursday, McIntosh nearly broke the oldest women's swimming world record en route to her third gold of the meet.
McIntosh, an 18-year-old Canadian, won the 200m fly in 2 minutes, 1.99 seconds — just .18 off the world record set by China's Liu Zige in October 2009. It's the last women's world record remaining from the high-tech swimsuit era of 2008-09.
McIntosh won Thursday's race by three seconds over Smith. It's the largest margin of victory in that event since the first World Championships in 1973 when East German Rosemarie Kother-Gabriel prevailed by 3.01.
Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers held off 12-year-old Yu Zidi of China for bronze by 31 hundredths. Yu, the youngest finalist in worlds history, also took fourth in the 200m IM.
Nobody had swum within two seconds of Liu's record since she set it until McIntosh won Paris Olympic gold in 2:03.03 — still 1.22 seconds off Liu, though. Then last month, McIntosh went 2:02.26 at the Canadian trials.
McIntosh won the 200m and 400m IMs and the 200m fly at the Paris Olympics, then claimed the 400m free and 200m IM at worlds earlier this week.
She has two individual events left at these worlds in a bid to become the second swimmer to win five individual golds at a single edition after Michael Phelps.
First is Saturday's final in the 800m free — where McIntosh is the second-fastest swimmer in history behind Katie Ledecky, who is 10-0 in global finals in the event dating to 2010 (Olympics and worlds). Their head-to-head showdown is the most anticipated race of the meet.
In the 400m IM, on the last day of the meet on Sunday, McIntosh is 10.3 seconds faster than the world's second-fastest woman this year.
Léon Marchand broke the 200m individual world record for the second consecutive day, claiming his third world title in the event.
Leon Marchand wins 200m IM in No. 2 time in history
France's Marchand followed his world record in the 200m IM in Wednesday's semifinals by winning the world title in the event in the second-best time in history.
He clocked 1:53.68, one day after going 1:52.69 to break American Ryan Lochte's world record of 1:54.00 set at the 2011 World Championships.
American Shaine Casas took silver in 1:54.30, becoming the fourth-fastest man in history behind his training partner Marchand, Lochte and Phelps.
Marchand, who won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics, will bid to sweep the medleys at worlds for a third time with the 400m IM on the meet's last day Sunday. He dropped his other Olympic gold medal events from his world program — the 200m butterfly and 200m breaststroke — to concentrate on the medleys.
Popovici swam 46.51 to complete a sweep of the 100m and 200m frees, just as he did in 2022. Popovici reportedly considered withdrawing from worlds last week.
Jack Alexy took his second world 100m free silver medal after clocking the two fastest times in American history between the semis and final (46.81, then 46.92).
China's Pan Zhanle, who holds the world record of 46.40, was 10th in Wednesday's semifinals, missing the eight-man final.
Worlds continue through Sunday with preliminary heats at 10 p.m. ET and finals at 7 a.m., live on Peacock.
Friday's finals are expected to feature Paris Olympic gold medalist Kate Douglass in the 200m breaststroke.
Nick Zaccardi,
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
22 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Pauline Ferrand-Prevot wins final stage to become first French winner of Tour de France Femmes
Olympic champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot became the first Frenchwoman to win the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, pushing through three punishing climbs to clinch the final stage ahead of 2023 champion Demi Vollering, who finished second overall. The 33-year-old of team Visma-Lease a Bike - who only returned to road racing this year after a seven-year hiatus - held steady through the 124.1km ride from Praz-sur-Arly to Chatel, before countering a move by Vollering and launching a decisive attack in the last seven kilometres. She fell to the ground in tears after crossing the finish line and celebrated with her parents, while compatriot Jeannie Longo - a three-time winner of a previous incarnation of the Tour, in the 1980s, and the last French champion - made an appearance at the roadside on a great day for the host nation. 'I'm so, so happy,' Ferrand-Prevot told reporters. 'I was a bit scared with the pressure of this jersey... I had to stick to the front and just stay there.' Vollering, of FDJ-Suez, stayed in a group with Ferrand-Prevot for the majority of the ninth stage, but could not break away to make up her deficit of more than three minutes coming into the final day. The Dutch rider finished second in the race for the second year in a row, and secured a podium spot for the fourth year running, losing out on the yellow jersey by three minutes and 42 seconds. Defending champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) finished third overall, four minutes and nine seconds back. Ferrand-Prevot, who won gold in the cross-country mountain biking at last year's Paris Games, had taken the yellow jersey from Kimberley Le Court on Saturday. Australia's Sarah Gigante, who was second overall coming into the final stage, tried to get ahead of Ferrand-Prevot on the hors-categorie Col de Joux Plane, but the Frenchwoman stayed on her wheels. Gigante's poor descending cost her in the latter stages of the race. She fell behind as Ferrand-Prevot and her rivals caught up with the lone breakway rider Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) on the way to Col du Corbier, the final major climb of the 1,168.6km race, and slipped to sixth overall, losing four minutes. The exhausted leading group was unable to keep up when Ferrand-Prevot launched her final attack and crossed the finish line 20 seconds before Vollering to huge applause from the crowd in Chatel. Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), who has led the points classification since stage three, cemented her position to deny Dutch compatriot Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) a third green jersey. Vollering's teammate Elise Chabbey won the Queen of the Mountains jersey and 21-year-old Dutchwoman Nienke Vinke secured the best young rider award. Additional reporting by Reuters
New York Times
an hour ago
- New York Times
The story of the 2025 swimming world championships in 15 photos
The swimming program of the 2025 World Aquatics Championships concluded Sunday in Singapore, ending an unusual stretch of four straight years of swimming worlds, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic's disruptions to the Olympic schedule in 2020 and 2021. We won't see the world's best swimmers all in the same pool again until the 2027 worlds in Budapest, Hungary, with the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics to follow. Advertisement There were notable absences from these worlds, with some swimmers taking time off after last year's Olympic grind. Team USA dealt with a stomach illness that forced some top swimmers to withdraw from their events and likely affected the performance of others. And with three years to go until the next Olympics, plenty can change. Still, there was a lot to take away from the week. Here's the story of the 2025 world championships in photos, with an eye forward to the L.A. Games. In the first of two showdowns between Summer McIntosh and Katie Ledecky, the 18-year-old Canadian won the 400-meter freestyle last Sunday on the meet's first day, with Ledecky slipping to bronze behind China's Li Bingjie. Ledecky has inched down the 400-meter ranks over the years, going from gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics to silver in Tokyo behind Australia's Ariarne Titmus, to bronze in Paris behind Titmus and McIntosh. She's also still one of the fastest at the distance, posting the ninth-best time ever at a meet just three months ago. As the Olympics near, she'll have decisions to make on managing the load alongside her two stronger distances, the 800 and 1,500. The 22-year-old Gretchen Walsh is a decorated short-course swimmer who is starting to find her way in the long-course, 50-meter pools. She won two golds at the world championships, starting with the 100-meter butterfly last Monday (pictured). Those were her first two individual gold medals in long-course international competition. She's on track to be a top contender for multiple golds in Los Angeles. Much of the focus this week was on how McIntosh had passed Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle and might catch her in the 800, too. In between, Ledecky left no doubt she still dominates at the 1,500-meter distance (which McIntosh doesn't race). She took gold Tuesday with the fifth-best time in the event's history, 15:26.44, and has now won the 1,500 all eight times she's contested it in an Olympics or world championships. It was a little closer than normal, though, thanks to a stellar swim from Italian Simona Quadarella, whose 15:31.79 made her the only swimmer besides Ledecky to finish it in under 15:38. Ledecky has done that 25 times. There's every reason to think she'll still be the clear favorite when the L.A. Games arrive. Advertisement The Australian keeps winning gold medals and being a thorn in American Regan Smith's side. She beat Smith twice in individual events at these world championships, taking the title in both the 100- (pictured) and 200-meter backstroke in Singapore. Smith is the world-record holder in the 100, and also held the 200 mark for nearly four years, but McKeown keeps winning on the biggest stages. The American has now taken silver behind McKeown in both events in each of the last three major meets involving them — two world championships and the Paris Olympics. The 24-year-old Aussie now has six world championship golds to go with her five Olympic titles. This rivalry should be simmering throughout the lead-up to L.A. Ryan Lochte's 14-year-old world record in the men's 200-meter individual medley was in big trouble the moment French sensation Léon Marchand said he was dropping his other two specialty events to focus on the 200- and 400-meter IM. And Marchand didn't even wait for the final to break the mark. In his semifinal swim Wednesday, he finished in 1:52.69, shaving more than a second off the longstanding record. The winner of four gold medals in his home Olympics last summer, Marchand won both IMs in Singapore and appears well on his way to similar feats in L.A. It's tough luck for Regan Smith that she keeps running into Kaylee McKeown. It's been even tougher for Katharine Berkoff, Smith's U.S. teammate, who has had to deal with both of the sport's best backstrokers. Berkoff has finished in bronze position behind them in major meets a few times, but on Thursday, she got her breakthrough, winning her first major individual gold in the 50-meter. McKeown was not in the field, but Berkoff beat Smith to get the title. The 50-meter events in the backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly all took on extra meaning at these worlds — they'll be included in the Olympic program for the first time in Los Angeles. At just 12 years old, China's Yu Zidi became the youngest swimmer to win a medal at the world championships as part of the country's 4×200-meter freestyle relay team. She swam in the preliminary rounds, and the team went on to win bronze. Yu had a busy week, swimming both individual medleys (pictured) and the 200-meter butterfly, and just missed the podiums, finishing fourth in all three. Swimmers normally need to be at least 14 to compete, but an exception was made for Yu, whose times were strong enough to meet the event's top standards. American Kate Douglass added to her growing resume with an American record in the 200-meter breaststroke on Friday. She's now won individual golds in each of the past three world championships and the Paris Olympics. She was also a crucial part of two gold-medal-winning U.S. relay teams. At 23, she's tracking to be a key piece of any U.S. success at their home Olympics. Advertisement The 800-meter freestyle was everything swimming fans hoped it would be — with an unexpected twist. The race, billed as a showdown between Ledecky and McIntosh was certainly that, but it was Australia's Lani Pallister who ended up taking silver and nearly dethroning the American legend. Ledecky held on, while McIntosh faded into bronze position. Ledecky is 11-for-11 in Olympic and world championship finals in the 800, and perhaps the most intriguing question going forward to L.A. is whether McIntosh and Pallister will be able to catch her by then. It was a great week for Jack Alexy, the 22-year-old American freestyler. He set an American record in the semifinals of the 100-meter and ended up taking silver. He also won three bronzes, including in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay on Sunday, when his huge anchor leg was just enough to put the U.S. in a medal position. But Saturday may have been the highlight, when he teamed with Douglass, Torri Huske and Patrick Sammon to lower the world record in the mixed 4×100-meter freestyle relay. U.S. men's swimming continues to be in a down cycle — Luca Urlando was the only individual gold-medal winner, in one of the events Marchand skipped — but Alexy's five-medal showing was the highlight of the week and a good launching point into the L.A. run-up. Maxime Grousset won two gold medals, in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly, and produced this excellent picture. Quite a week. He was one of five men to win multiple individual golds, along with Romania's David Popovici (100 and 200 freestyle), Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi (800 and 1500 freestyle), China's Qin Haiyang (100 and 200 breaststroke) and Marchand. McIntosh, Ledecky, McKeown and Walsh did so on the women's side. The woman who won over fans with her finger-waving gold-medal run in 2016 said goodbye to competition on Sunday. Now 28, King was 19 when she went toe-to-toe with Russia's Yulia Efimova in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Rio Olympics and won. She just missed a medal in the 50-meter breaststroke on Sunday, then picked up one more gold for the road when the U.S. women's 4×100-meter medley relay team won gold — she swam that in the prelims. McIntosh finished 4-for-5 in her quest for five individual gold medals in Singapore. Only Michael Phelps (2007) has ever won five at a single world championships, and only Ledecky (2015) and fellow Americans Ryan Lochte (2011) and Caeleb Dressel (2019) have ever won four. McIntosh joined the club Sunday with her win in the 400-meter IM. Just 18, she's likely going to be even better in 2028. The U.S. and Australia were tied atop the gold-medal count with one event to go. Fortunately for the Americans, it was one of their strongest events. Smith, Douglass, Walsh and Huske posted a dominant swim in the women's 4×100-meter medley relay to set a new world record and be sure the U.S. has bragging rights for another cycle. But the Australians are right on their heels as we head into a home-and-home series of Olympics; the 2032 Games are in Brisbane. On Sunday, McIntosh and Marchand were honored as the best swimmers of the meet. Here's an easy prediction: Be ready for them to be the stories of the L.A. Olympics as well. (Top photo of Léon Marchand celebrating his 200-meter IM world record: Manan Vatsyayana / AFP via Getty Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Should Ottawa Senators Winger Drake Batherson Have Been Considered For Team Canada's Orientation Camp?
Hockey Canada has invited 42 NHL players to attend its national team's orientation camp, set for August 26th to 28th in Calgary. It's the first step on the road to creating our Olympic men's hockey team, which will feature NHL players for the first time since 2014.
