Adam Peaty, Chad Le Clos & Sarah Sjostrom Confirmed For 2023 World Cup Tour
Adam Peaty will return to racing at the 2023 World Cup in October with Chad Le Clos confirmed for the three-stop tour of European capitals.
The tour starts in Berlin from 6-8 October and moves on to Athens (13-15 October) before concluding in Budapest from 20-22 October with all three taking place in a 50m pool ahead of a 2024 that includes the Doha worlds and Paris Olympics.
Sarah Sjostrom and Kaylee McKeown – both of whom enjoyed historic World Championships in Fukuoka – are also competing.
Kristof Milak – the Olympic 200 butterfly champion – is also slated to appear although it’s unclear what his schedule will be.
The world record-holder withdrew from the 2023 World Championships in June because of physical and mental exhaustion and his focus is on his continued wellbeing and return to the water.
Contesting the 50s is one option and there is the allure for the Hungarian of competing in front of a home crowd in Budapest.
Peaty last competed at the Edinburgh International in March before he withdrew from the British world trials in April to focus on his mental health recovery.
The three-time Olympic champion made his last appearance in international waters at the 2022 World Short-Course Championships where he won bronze in the 100m breaststroke.
Qin Haiyang claimed an unprecedented breaststroke clean sweep at the World Championships in Fukuoka in Peaty’s absence, where the Chinese swimmer became the second-fastest man in history behind the Briton over 50 and 100m while also setting a WR in the 200.
Qin is set to compete in the Asian Games later this month.
Le Clos also missed the worlds because of illness and the World Cup represents an opportunity to return to racing ahead of February’s Doha worlds and then Paris 2024.
He said through World Aquatics:
“These world cups are important for me to get the momentum back for next year February and of course July.”
Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The South African is the World Cup all-time event winner and he recalled his first final from the 2022 season when he went 48.58 in the 100 fly in Berlin in October last year.
It was the 10th-fastest 100 fly in history and marked the start of his training partnership with Dirk Lange.
He said:
“It meant the world to me to win my first race in a long time with such a great time, 48.
“I knew I was back because I had changed a lot of things in my life. I was done with losing and that’s when Chad 2.0 was born.
“I was very proud of the way I carried my form through the (short-course) world champs.
“Winning in Melbourne felt a little like winning Olympics because I had been written off by the swimming community.”
Sarah Sjostrom and Kaylee McKeown are among the women’s field after both enjoyed a stellar worlds.
With victory in the 50 fly Sjostrom became only the second swimmer to win five straight world titles in one event before going on to take the 50 free, also lowering her WR to 23.61 in the semis.
The Swede became the most decorated athlete in World Championship history, her 21 medals outstripping the 20 of Michael Phelps.
Sjostrom said:
“I’m super happy with my races this summer at the World Champs.
“Afterwards, I took a well-needed break. Now, I’m back to light training now and, hopefully, I will be able to swim some solid races on the World Cup after this break. I think I will get faster and faster at each stop.”
McKeown became the first woman to claim the backstroke clean sweep in Fukuoka and she’ll be joined in the back events by four-time Olympic medallists Kylie Masse.
Also there will be 2022 World Cup overall winner Beata Nelson of the USA and Lani Pallister.