At swimming worlds, Luca Urlando and Jack Alexy make loud statements for U.S.

New York Times

30-07-2025

With Katie Ledecky getting the day off and Caeleb Dressel not competing, the future of U.S. swimming was in the spotlight Wednesday at the swimming world championships in Singapore. And Luca Urlando, Jack Alexy and Claire Weinstein all made a mark.
Urlando, 23, delivered the American men their first gold medal at these championships, winning the 200-meter butterfly in a personal-best time for the biggest achievement in a career that once looked in jeopardy due to a shoulder injury.
Urlando won in 1:51.87, holding off a charge in the last 50 meters from Poland's Krzysztof Chmielewski, who took silver in 1:52.64. Australia's Harrison Turner won bronze in 1:54.17.
Luca Urlando dominates the 200m butterfly for his FIRST world title! #AQUASingapore25
📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/H4HvgNYhbS
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 30, 2025
French sensation Léon Marchand, the Paris Olympic champion in the 200 fly, opted not to contest the event at worlds. Hungary's Kristóf Milák, the Paris silver medalist who owns seven of the top 10 times in the event, is also not competing in Singapore. But that's not going to matter to Urlando, who has worked his way back from a 2022 shoulder surgery to secure his first medal on the senior international stage. His time Wednesday is the ninth-best ever in the 200 fly. Only Marchand, Milák and American legend Michael Phelps have ever done it faster.
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'It has felt like a six-year process to get back to this moment,' Urlando, who had multiple shoulder issues, said in an interview on Peacock after the race. 'A lot of doubt, a lot of really hard times, a lot of things that people don't see on an everyday basis. … Obviously, doing it on a world stage like this is just absolutely amazing.'
Not long before, the 22-year-old Alexy swam a 46.81 in the 100-meter freestyle semifinals, setting a new American record and topping a scorching-fast field heading into Thursday's final. Dressel had the previous U.S. record, a 46.96 set at the 2019 worlds.
What a swim by Jack Alexy!
A NEW American record in the 100m free to move on to the final. #AQUASingapore25
📺 Peacock pic.twitter.com/jpxX5EicmN
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 30, 2025
The time would've won gold at the Paris Olympics, where Alexy finished sixth in the fastest 100 free final in history. All eight swimmers there finished in under 48 seconds.
The semifinals of any event are typically slower than the final, with the top swimmers trying to conserve as much energy as possible for the medal race. But in the short 100-meter races, the margin for error is smaller. On Wednesday, all eight swimmers in Alexy's semifinal went under 48 seconds, and the last qualifier for the final posted a 47.64. Pan Zhanle of China, the world-record holder and defending Olympic champion, missed the final with a 47.81.
'I was pretty surprised with that for a semifinal race,' Alexy said on Peacock. 'That was probably the most fun I've had (racing). The job's not finished. Obviously, really happy with the time, the American record. But the job's not done. I'm really excited for tomorrow.'
In the women's 200-meter freestyle final, Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan passed American teenager Claire Weinstein with a strong turn at the 100-meter mark and went on to win gold by over a second in 1:53.48. China's Li Bingjie took silver, 0.15 ahead of bronze-medalist Weinstein.
It was the second time in two days Weinstein, 18, had posted a personal-best in the event as she secured her first individual medal on the world stage. She was among the U.S. swimmers affected by the stomach flu that has impacted the team this week.
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'I definitely wanted a better time than that,' Weinstein said on Peacock. 'I think the training that I've put in this year, I really wanted to get 1:53. Considering how I was a week ago, I didn't even know if I was going to be able to swim in this meet.'
In other action Wednesday, Tunisia's Ahmed Jaouadi turned in the third-best time ever in the men's 800-meter freestyle final at 7:36.88 to win gold. The 20-year-old just missed the podium at last year's Paris Olympics. A pair of Germans, Sven Schwarz and Lukas Märtens, rounded out the podium.
Ireland's Daniel Wiffen and American Bobby Finke, who topped the Olympic podium, both struggled Wednesday. Finke faded in the second half of the race and took fourth, nearly 10 seconds behind Jaouadi. Wiffen, who posted an Olympic-record time to win gold in Paris, finished in last, almost 22 seconds back.
The final medal event Wednesday will be the mixed 4×100 medley relay, but the Americans won't be in it. Missing three swimmers from their Olympic champion squad in the event, the U.S. struggled to a fourth-place finish in their heat in Wednesday's morning session (Tuesday night, Eastern time) and missed the final.
Marchand and Canadian star Summer McIntosh were both scheduled to race semifinals later Wednesday. Marchand had the best time in the men's 200-meter individual medley heats, while McIntosh topped the women's 200-meter butterfly field in prelims.
(Top photo of Luca Urlando after his gold-medal swim Wednesday: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)