The Most Anticipated Women’s Swimming Matchups of 2023: Titmus vs. Ledecky vs. McIntosh is Coming
With the Short Course World Championships and the entire slate of December midseason and championship meets complete, it’s time to start anticipating what is to come in 2023 when a mostly normal competition calendar will return after years of COVID-19 postponements followed by a packed schedule of events in 2022. The top swimmers in the world will all have the World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, circled on their calendar as the year’s focus meet.
Here are some of the showdowns that look most enticing in 2023, beginning with the women’s slate. Many of these rivalries center around swimmers from the top-three nations in women’s competition over the past few years, Australia, the United States and Canada. While many of 2022’s most decorated male swimmers hail from Europe, it was a down year for European women.
1. Ariarne Titmus vs. Katie Ledecky vs. Summer McIntosh, 400 Freestyle
Ariarne Titmus — Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
Without a doubt, the matchup between these three swimmers will be the signature race in women’s swimming in 2023. The last time Titmus, Ledecky and McIntosh were all in the pool together was the 2021 Olympic final of the 400 free, the race where Ledecky swam the second-quickest time of her career but fell just short of the surging Aussie. McIntosh, 14 at the time, was in bronze-medal position for much of that race before fading to fourth on the last 100. In 2022, Ledecky and McIntosh raced at the World Championships, again at the FINA World Cup (in short course meters) and at the U.S. Open while Titmus edged McIntosh for Commonwealth Games gold.
When the three swimmers meet in Fukuoka, Titmus will enter as the world-record holder while McIntosh looks ready to ascend to the level of her veteran rivals after breaking 4:00 for the first time in 2022. And perhaps China’s Li Bingjie will be in the mix as well after she broke the world record in the short course meters 400 free in November. Titmus’ world record of 3:56.40 will surely be pushed in this World Championships final.
2. Kaylee McKeown vs. Regan Smith, 100 & 200 Backstroke
McKeown vs. Smith was another rivalry to take a pause in 2022 after McKeown skipped the 100 back at the World Championships despite entering as the world-record holder and Olympic gold medalist while Smith did not qualify to represent the U.S. in the 200 back after finishing behind Phoebe Bacon and Rhyan White at the U.S. International Team Trials. It should be game on in 2023 after both swimmers finished 2022 in strong fashion: McKeown won gold in the 100 and 200 back at Short Course Worlds while Smith swam her fastest 200 back in three years during an impressive U.S. Open, a sign that her move to training with Bob Bowman is paying off.
Having these two swimmers racing at their peak would be quite a spectacle, and you can also expect Canada’s Kylie Masse, the third member of the sub-58 club in the 100 back along with McKeown and Smith, to be in the mix. Bacon pushed McKeown all the way to the wall in the 200 back final at the 2022 Worlds, so expect another hotly-contested affair just to qualify for the U.S. team in the event, with whichever two swimmers make it entering the World Championships as medal favorites.
3. Tatjana Schoenmaker vs. Lilly King vs. Kate Douglass, 200 Breaststroke
Kate Douglass (left) and Lilly King — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
Schoenmaker, the only swimmer in history to break 2:19 in the 200 breaststroke, skipped the World Championships this summer, and in her absence, King overcame illness to pull away from Douglass and Australia’s Jenna Strauch to claim gold. Schoenmaker should be back at Worlds this year, and we’ll see how her American rivals can keep pace. King went under 2:20 in claiming silver behind Schoenmaker in the 2021 Olympic final while Douglass’ potential in the long course 200 breast might be still untapped. She lowered the American record in the 200-yard breast twice in 2022, and she won the short course world title in the 200-meter breast last week. Meanwhile, Russian swimmers are still banned from international competition, but we can expect teenager Evgeniia Chikunova to be a major factor in this event when she returns. Chikunova recently finished just off the short course meters world record in the event.
4. Mollie O’Callaghan vs. Veteran Australian Freestylers
After earning three Olympic medals as a prelims relay swimmer in 2021, O’Callaghan stepped into the spotlight on her own in 2022 as she became the top 100 freestyler in the world. She posted the top time of the year at Australia’s selection trials in May (52.49), and then she moved from sixth at the halfway point to come all the way back and claim the 100 free world title. She also won Worlds silver in the 200 free, and just over a month later, O’Callaghan added gold at the Commonwealth Games in the 100 free and silver in the 200 free behind Titmus in a time of 1:54.01 that moved her to No. 6 all-time in the event. In 2023, O’Callaghan will again look for individual gold medals on the world stage, but first, she must get through Australia. Could she overcome Titmus in the 200 free? And in the 100 free, can she keep pace with Olympic champion Emma McKeon, particularly if McKeon can get back to her 51-second form from the Olympics? These should be exciting clashes to watch at Australia’s Trials.
5. Kate Douglass vs. Torri Huske vs. Maggie Mac Neil, 100-Yard Butterfly
Maggie Mac Neil — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The top race on the NCAA level this year will surely be the 100 fly as history’s three fastest performers match up again after only 0.14 split them last year. Douglass is the defending champion and American-record holder while Huske won the world title in the 100-meter fly in dominant fashion over the summer. Mac Neil, the Olympic champion in the long course event in 2021, looks to be back in top form after she crushed the world record in the short course meters 100 fly at Short Course Worlds, and she is already the only swimmer in history to break 49. Of course, given recent results, it would be no surprise if all three of these women move into 48-second territory this year, and Huske’s Stanford teammate Claire Curzan would have a very good chance to join them if she chose to swim the 100 fly.
The 800 free relay is gonna be the story line between austrilia and the American women (sims gemmell and ledecky)