Swimming & Diving News
Compatriot Kyle Lee takes bronze in men’s 10km race in Singapore
Events were postponed multiple times due to water quality concerns
Moesha Johnson has won Australia’s first 10km open water world title as compatriot Kyle Lee opened the team medal tally with bronze in the men’s race.
It is Australia’s fifth open water world title over all distances with Johnson and Lee in the quartet that will defend the mixed-team title at the Singapore world aquatics championships.
Continue reading...Penn settles Title IX case over Lia Thomas’ wins
School will ban trans women from female sports
Feds call it a victory for women and girls’ rights
The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to ban transgender women from its women’s sports teams to resolve a federal civil rights case that found the school violated the rights of female athletes.
The US Education Department announced the voluntary agreement Tuesday. The case focused on Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer who last competed for the Ivy League school in Philadelphia in 2022, when she became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title.
Continue reading...McIntosh breaks 400m IM world record in 4:23.65 time
Third record broken in five days for Canadian teenager
18-year-old matches Phelps’ 2008 mark for single meet
Summer McIntosh broke her third swimming world record in five days on Wednesday night, clocking 4:23.65 in the women’s 400m individual medley at the Canadian Swimming Trials in Victoria, British Columbia.
The 18-year-old from Toronto lowered her own world record of 4:24.38, set earlier this year, and became the first swimmer to break world records in three different individual events at one long course meet since Michael Phelps at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Continue reading...Schoolgirl wins 100m breaststroke to qualify for world championships
Toohey only started swimming as she wanted to play water polo
A 16-year-old schoolgirl is being hailed as the future of Australian swimming after earning world championship selection. Sienna Toohey left seasoned campaigners including Kaylee McKeown in awe with a stunning swim at Australia’s selection trials in Adelaide on Tuesday night.
The Albury teenager, who only started swimming because she wanted to play water polo, triumphed in the women’s 100m breaststroke. Toohey’s victory, in a personal best time of 1:06.55, secured her berth at the world titles in Singapore from 27 July to 3 August.
Continue reading...18-year-old adds 200m IM record to 400m freestyle mark
Olympic champion also recorded third-fastest 800m freestyle
Summer McIntosh set a world record for the second time in three days at the Canadian swimming trials on Monday with the 18-year-old eclipsing Hungarian great Katinka Hosszu’s 200m individual medley mark set 10 years ago.
Three-times Olympic champion McIntosh, who set a world record in the 400m freestyle on Saturday, touched the wall in two minutes, 05.70 seconds to knock 0.42 off Hosszu’s time from the 2015 world championships in Kazan.
Continue reading...‘I was in a really dark place mentally,’ says Kaylee McKeown
Mollie O’Callaghan speaks of ‘immense pressure’ during Games
Kaylee McKeown was in a dark place and Mollie O’Callaghan suddenly realised she had no friends outside of her sport. They were two lost souls after swimming in the fish-bowl of the Paris Olympics.
“Coming off the Olympics, I was in a really dark place mentally,” McKeown said. “When you go from such a high, straight back to such a low, and you’re left scrambling for ideas on what you’re going to do next, it is hard to find your feet once again.”
Continue reading...Governing body bars athletes tied to Enhanced Games
Vegas event allows PED use, offers $1m record bonuses
Critics call it a ‘dangerous clown show’, not real sport
Swimmers, coaches and officials who compete in or support a controversial new sports event allowing performance-enhancing drugs will be barred from elite competition, World Aquatics announced on Tuesday.
The move targets the Enhanced Games, a privately funded, Olympics-style event set to debut in Las Vegas next May, which explicitly permits – and encourages – the use of substances banned under global anti-doping rules. Athletes will not be drug-tested and may follow personalized pharmaceutical regimens, provided they disclose their use to organizers.
Continue reading...King announces final US race at nationals in Indiana
Olympic champ says she feels ‘fulfilled’ by her career
Breaststroke star to retire after 2025 season ends
American three-time Olympic swimming star and world record holder Lilly King has announced the upcoming Toyota National Championships in Indianapolis will be her final meet on US soil as she prepares to call it a career at the conclusion of the 2025 season.
The meet will run Tuesday through Saturday. A longtime breaststroke stalwart, King announced her plans Saturday on Instagram and said swimming her final race in the US in her home state and a pool she’s known since her youth “has always been important to me”.
Continue reading...A controversial new Olympics-style sporting event where athletes will be permitted – and even encouraged – to use performance-enhancing drugs is set to debut in Las Vegas next May, organizers announced on Wednesday.
The inaugural Enhanced Games will take place 21–24 May 2026 at Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip. Over four days, competitors will race, lift and swim with full access to drugs and therapies banned in virtually every other elite athletic setting.
Continue reading...Katie Ledecky broke new ground once again on Saturday, shattering her own world record in the 800m freestyle with a time of 8min 4.12sec at the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale.
The 28-year-old American improved on the 8:04.79 mark she set at the 2016 Rio Olympics, notching her first long-course world record since 2018 and reaffirming her dominance in the distance freestyle events.
Continue reading...US freestyle great Katie Ledecky posted the second-fastest 400m free time of her storied career on Thursday, clocking 3min 56.81sec to run down Summer McIntosh for a second stunning victory in as many days at the TYR Pro Swim Series meeting in Florida.
Ledecky, who posted the second-fastest 1,500m free time in history on Wednesday, overshadowed the return to action of Paris Olympic star Leon Marchand, who posted a personal best in finishing third in the men’s 400m free in his first competition in four months.
Continue reading...Daughter confirms swimming great broke four ribs and required a hip replacement after accident last week
Dawn Fraser’s family has spoken of their fear of losing the Australian swimming great after she fell on the driveway of her home and sustained a broken hip and four broken ribs.
Fraser, 87, is convalescing in hospital after the “scary” incident last week that initially prompted fears she had suffered internal bleeding.
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Continue reading...US Olympic champion Gretchen Walsh continued her sparkling year by shattering the 15-year-old world record for the 50m butterfly on Tuesday.
The 21-year-old set a mark of 24.02 in the heats of the 50m butterfly on the opening morning of the Short Course World Championships in Budapest. The previous record was held by Sweden’s Therese Alshammar, whose time of 24.38 came during the so-called “shiny suit” era in 2009 when records fell regularly.
Continue reading...Emma McKeon, Australia’s most decorated Olympian, has announced her retirement from competitive swimming, bringing to a close a glittering career during which she won 14 Olympic medals, including six golds.
The 30-year-old, who said earlier this year that the Paris Games would be her last Olympics, said she had given her all throughout her career, and was proud of her numerous successes in the pool.
Continue reading...The double Olympic champion on why the shorter sprint could drive him to another Games, the lack of support for his female coach and what needs to change in anti-doping
“I think the 50m sprint is a great opportunity for me,” Adam Peaty says with a glint in his steely gaze as he reveals that, after winning two golds and a silver medal in the 100m breaststroke at three successive Olympic Games, he is ready to keep swimming until 2028. After a bid from World Aquatics, the sport’s governing body, to persuade the IOC to include more sprint events at the Los Angeles Olympics, the greatest breaststroke swimmer in history could resist retirement.
“If the 50 metre is part of that I will 100% dedicate myself to getting there,” Peaty continues. “If the 50 metre isn’t part of that then it’s a big question mark. It’s a 50-50 decision.”
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