Virginia swimming and diving solidified its dynasty over the weekend, winning a fourth consecutive national title. 

They’re just the third team to win four-straight national titles in swimming, joining Texas and Stanford, and the first to do so since 1996. The Cardinal won five straight team championships from 1992 to 1996. 

“I’m not sure I can put it into words. It’s really hard to digest even that we won,” coach Todd DeSorbo said. “I told the girls before the session tonight that there are only nine teams, I think, that have ever won one national championship, and we are one of nine. And when you have 70 teams at a national championship, you know, that’s pretty impressive in and of itself. 

“So it’s just wild. I really can’t put words to it. I’m just really proud of them and happy for them. And this one was a lot of fun.”

Gretchen Walsh won three individual titles, setting American, US Open and NCAA records in all three of them. Her sister, Alex, also won three individual titles. 

“It’s wild, right?” DeSorbo said. “Just to have two sisters to be Division I athletes period is pretty impressive. And then to be at the top and to be at the pinnacle and as elite as they are, both of them winning three individual titles, both of them setting NCAA records, [is incredible] …  It’s just mind-blowing to have one athlete that good, and then to have two that are sisters, I think it’s just unheard of.”

In total, Virginia won eight titles at the meet to finish with 360.5 points to Texas’ 319. Florida came in third at 267.

Both Walsh sisters feel confident in the team’s abilities to go for a fifth title next year, too. Gretchen Walsh noted that she doesn’t “see the end in sight” for Virginia while Alex called it “cool” to be part of history.

“I think realizing that only three teams in the whole nation have been able to achieve a feat like this really kind of puts it into perspective,” Alex Walsh said. “It feels really cool to be a part of history and to be a part of UVA’s history, considering that our first national championship ever was [in 2021], and now we’re at four consecutive and are probably gonna go for a fifth next year.”

History was made on Wednesday as Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh became the first woman to go under 20 seconds in a 50 freestyle.

Walsh swam a 19.95 in the second leg of Virginia’s 200-yard freestyle relay. It’s the first time any woman has gone under 20 seconds in a 50 free.

Walsh would go on to swim a 20.57 in the individual event, resetting the NCAA and US Open record that she had set earlier that morning in prelims. The junior now owns the top-three times in the event, having also tied Maggie MacNeil with the third-fastest time.

She had previously gone a 20.19 split on a relay last month, although that time was unsuited. That time marks the second-fastest relay split ever.

Before Walsh, Anna Hopkin had been the closest to a sub-20 split, going 20.27 on a relay for Arkansas in 2020. The fastest that both Abbey Weitzeil – the first woman to go sub-21 in a 50 free split – ever went was 20.44.

Summer McIntosh continues to make waves, ending Katie Ledecky’s 13-year unbeaten streak in the 800-meter freestyle.

It’s Ledecky’s first defeat in a finals race in the 800 since 2010. She did lose a preliminary race to Leah Smith in the prelims of the 2019 World Championships, although Ledecky would go on to win in the final.

McIntosh was nearly six seconds faster than Ledecky, in a time of 8:11.39, which would have won gold at the Tokyo Olympics. The time makes her the second-fastest woman in the distance behind Ledecky, although Ledecky still owns 15 faster times ahead of that – including the world record.

The defeat is the latest by McIntosh, who became the first person to beat Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle on U.S. soil in 11 years. The 17-year-old Canadian star also held the world record in the 400 for three months before Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took it back.

In March of 2022, she snapped Ledecky’s nine-year domestic win streak in the 200 free. Now, Ledecky only remains undefeated in the U.S. in the 1500 freestyle.

Summer McIntosh has been named the Canadian Press female athlete of the year for 2023 after defending her world titles in the 200-meter butterfly and 400-meter individual medley at the world championships.

The 17-year-old said she is “honored” to receive the award and called it “just really cool.” She is expected to build on her successful year at the Paris Olympics in 2024, but she is keeping a level head.

“What I’m most proud of is just how much I’ve learned about myself and kind of how much I’ve gained from each experience,” McIntosh told CBC. “Going into big meets like a world championship, I don’t really have exact expectations of myself especially when it comes to placement or medals, but I definitely tried to just reach my full potential in each one of my races and I think I did that for the most part.”

After a disappointing 400 freestyle at the world championships, McIntosh rebounded to earn bronze in the 200 freestyle before winning gold in her next two events.

She also helped anchor Canada’s medley relay team to bronze, helping the team qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. McIntosh also set two world record at the Canadian trials in March in the 400 IM and 400 freestyle.

She became the first swimmer in history to hold both of those world records at the same time.

“This time last year, I wouldn’t have ever thought I’d break two world records or previous world records. I think it’s still a bit surreal to be honest,” she said. “That just kind of comes back to trying to just keep my head down and keep working and not focus too much on records like that, but it’s a really cool part and kind of a timestamp in history.”

To end the year, McIntosh beat Katie Ledecky in the 400 freestyle at the U.S. Open in early December, marking the first time that Ledecky had lost the event on U.S. soil in 11 years.

For the first time in 11 years, Katie Ledecky lost a 400-meter freestyle race in a U.S. pool, with Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh taking the title at the U.S. Open on Thursday.

At just 17 years old, McIntosh is no stranger to the international swimming circuit. She even held the world record in the 400 free for three months – before Australia’s Ariarne Titmus took back the crown.

In July, McIntosh entered the world championship as the record holder but placed fourth in the event, while Titmus took the world title and the world record.

“After that race, I learned a lot about how to get back out after it,” McIntosh said Thursday. “I had so many races after that that I was really happy with. No matter how bad one race is, you really get back up and get back into it.”

At the U.S. Open final, she swam a time of 3:59.42, beating Ledecky by 2.96 seconds.

It’s the first time that Ledecky has lost the event in the United States since placing third at the 2012 Olympic trials at 15 years old.

The 2024 Olympics are looming, and McIntosh’s rise has made what seemed to be a two-person race between Titmus and Ledecky much more intriguing. Last March, McIntosh snapped Ledecky’s nine-year domestic win streak in the 200 free.

Ledecky remains undefeated in the United States in the 800 and 1500 free races, and she has been for 13 years.

Katie Ledecky’s world dominance knows no bounds.

On Saturday, Ledecky cemented her status amongst the swimming’s greatest for good, surpassing Michael Phelps for the most individual world titles with 16. She did so in the 800 freestyle, the same event that introduced her to the world stage at the 2012 Olympics in London when she won gold as a 15-year-old.

“I never dreamt of even coming to meets like this,” Ledecky told reporters in Japan. “To be here and having a bunch of world championships now – it is amazing.”

But even in the midst of history, Ledecky was still Ledecky, showcasing a bit of disappointment that her time wasn’t as fast as U.S. nationals last month (8:07.07) and last year’s world championships in Budapest (8:08.04).

“I wanted to be a little bit better, but I’ll take it,” Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, told reporters. “I was probably out a little too fast. It hurt on the back half. But I knew it was my last race. I wanted to leave it in the pool. So I just wanted to trust my back half and see if I could get out [fast] and hold it.”

The Paris Olympics are fast approaching, and for Ledecky, this week provided a “great stepping stone” into the next year of training.

“Having improvement off the blocks in pretty much all my events and feeling like we’re progressing really well in training and in racing,” her coach Anthony Nesty said. “We get back to work in just a couple of weeks.”

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus broke the women’s 400m freestyle world record — and defeated American rival Katie Ledecky and previous world record-holder Summer McIntosh of Canada — at the 2023 World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, on Sunday.

Titmus, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the event, led from 100 meters and ultimately clocked 3:55.38, cutting seven-hundredths off McIntosh’s world record and touching the wall more than three seconds ahead of Ledecky (3:58.73). New Zealand’s Erika Fairweather claimed bronze, while the 16-year-old McIntosh placed fourth.

Titmus, Ledecky, and McIntosh are the three fastest women to ever swim the 400m free and the event was billed as the ‘Race of the Century’ heading into this week’s world championships.

Ledecky owned the world record in the event from 2014 until last year, when Titmus claimed it for herself at Australian Championships. McIntosh then took it over at Canadian Trials in March.

“It wasn’t something (breaking the record) that I had my mind on for this meet,” Titmus told reporters in Japan. “I just wanted to come here and try and swim the way I know I’m capable of. I knew the only way to win — I believed — was to try to take it out (fast) and whoever had as much fight left at the end was going to win it.”

By taking silver, Ledecky claimed the 23rd world championship medal of her career, extending her mark as the most decorated female swimmer in world championship history.

“I think you could just see the world record coming. It’s been a very fast year of swimming and it was kind of predictable that it would be a really fast field,” Ledecky said. “I can’t really complain. My stroke feels good. I feel good in the water. I think all year my 800 has felt better than my 400, so I’m excited about the rest of my week.”

Those that thought the Paris 2024 Olympics would feature a second showdown between Ariarne Titmus and Katie Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle may be wrong. 

The rivalry in that event has new blood, with 16-year-old Summer McIntosh breaking Titmus’ world record in the event Tuesday. Her time of 3 minutes, 56.08 seconds bested Titmus’ 3:56.40, which the Australian set last May. 

With the swim, the Canadian teenager became the youngest swimmer to break a world record in an Olympic event since Ledecky did so a decade ago. 

McIntosh, whose previous best time was a 3:59.32 from last summer’s Commonwealth Games, was surprised at the world record. While she long has been approaching the ranks of Titmus and Ledecky, the record is her first senior world record. She holds many world junior and Canadian national records. 

“It’s absolutely incredible. I’m not an emotional person, but I was hit with so much emotion. Pure euphoria right now. I’m just so grateful for everyone who got me to this point,” she told CBC Sports.

“Over the past few years, I’ve put my life into this. To be the best I can be. To achieve something like this, it was very unexpected. It was never in my dreams to do this tonight or even a few years ago. This just blows my mind.”

March Madness might refer to basketball, but Australian swimmer Kaylee McKeown got in the spirit Friday with her world record-breaking swim in the 200-meter backstroke. 

The Olympic gold medalist broke the world record in a time of 2 minutes, 3.14 seconds, at the New South Wales State Open Championships in her home country. The previous record was set by Regan Smith with a time of 2:03.35 at the 2019 World Championships.

McKeown had a career-best time of 2:04.28 entering the meet. And, according to McKeown’s older sister Taylor McKeown, the backstroker “was not even rested” for the swim.

While McKeown found it difficult to stay motivated after her successful Tokyo Olympics in 2021, where she won gold in the 100 backstroke, the 200 backstroke and the 4×100 medley relay. But she has “found a new love for the sport,” she said after the race.

“After the Olympics I found it hard to get up behind the blocks again,” McKeown told The Advertiser. “… I found a new love for the sport and it just goes to show that a happy swimmer is a fast swimmer. I haven’t necessarily changed anything in my program or training wise. It’s just that I’m happier.”

That shined through even though she didn’t have her typical level of preparation.

“The race was actually swum 20 minutes earlier than it was scheduled on the time line – I was so rushed,” McKeown said. “I actually like sitting in marshaling and kind of gathering my thoughts before my race, but I had no time for that… So I just pulled up my straps and went for it really.”

The first Black woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming, Simone Manuel stepped away from competition entirely in 2022.

The 26-year-old swimmer had been diagnosed with overtraining syndrome — also known as burnout — ahead of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She continued to compete, and though she failed to qualify in the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, she did qualify in the 50 free. Still, she knew some onlookers doubted her struggle.

“People didn’t believe that I actually was overtrained,” Manuel said in a new documentary produced by TOGETHXR. “People said that I was distracted by all my other sponsor obligations, and that’s why I didn’t perform well. That I became lazy and my success went to my head.

“It’s really hard to be vulnerable in that space because it’s so easy for people to say they don’t believe me. I don’t get the empathy or understanding that I deserve.”

She opened up about her diagnosis, and her decision to take a break from elite swimming, in the documentary. The release coincided with her return to competition at Knoxville Pro Swim, her first elite-level competition since the Tokyo Games. She placed third in the 50 free in her return.

Prior to her diagnosis, Manuel dealt with the pressures of Olympic preparation, the COVID-19 pandemic and the weight of expectation as a groundbreaking Black swimmer.

“My training was going pretty well until the pandemic hit,” Manuel said. “Pools got shut down fairly quickly just like everything else. What are we doing? What’s the solution? Are the Olympics happening? When is it going to happen?

“I think I had maybe two or three days off before we found that backyard pool, and I just continued to train.”

At the same time, she started to receive even more spotlight as a leading Black athlete.

“I was then being asked to speak on these panels: ‘How can we support our Black community?’ ‘How can we diversify the sport of swimming?’” she continued.

“Being an athlete who was trying to focus on the Olympics, it was my job to work and continue to train. But also then be asked to continue to put my emotions on the line for other people to somehow be entertained by it. It was just a really tough time for me. Because I was training so hard and never took a break, I think my body just ended up crashing.”

As someone who “has a high swimming IQ,” Manuel knew something was wrong with her swimming, she said. She first felt it in January 2021, and she brought her concern to her coach at the time. He was dismissive of her concerns, she said, telling her that she was training “really well.”

“My stroke wasn’t feeling the same. My rhythm was off,” she said. “And I remember having conversations with my coach and asking him, ‘Well, how do you think I’m training?’ ‘Oh, you’re training really well. This is the best training I’ve ever seen you have.’ And I’m like, ‘But my times are slower.’

“I wish I would have just told him, ‘No, I’m not going to come in.’”

By March 2021, she wasn’t able to compete in a full lineup of events. After a meet that month, a doctor diagnosed her with overtraining syndrome. Still, she kept training until her doctor mandated a break, or else she might not have been able to compete at the Olympic trials.

“It really was just about damage control,” she said. “I continued to train for a while per my coach’s instructions and my progress continued to decline.”

While Manuel wound up making the Olympic team, she described her experience in Tokyo as “not fun at all.” She says it was difficult watching people compete in the 100 free, the event in which she had won gold at the 2016 Olympics.

She placed 11th in the 50 free semifinals in Tokyo, falling short of a spot in the final race.

After her absence from the sport, she returns with a new outlook, though with her eyes still looking toward the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

“Going into the next chapter of swimming would be trying to block out all the noise,” Manuel said. “I just want to swim with no pressure or expectations from anybody, even myself. Which I don’t know what that looks like, but I think that’s what’s next for me and that’s definitely going to be the focus: falling back in love with this sport and just being happy doing it.

“And then get back to competing on the highest level and hopefully winning some more medals.”