Top Five Swim Meets for 2023: World Championships Return to Fukuoka
After a year which featured a World Championships, a European Championships and then a Commonwealth Games in short succession, the global swimming calendar returns to a mostly normal schedule in 2023. Even though it has been only 17 months since the Tokyo Olympics, it is already the pre-Olympic year, and while results, medals and records surely still matter for their own value, an eye will be looking ahead to the Olympic Games next year in Paris. Nearly every elite performance will be viewed through the lens of building up to 2024.
But as for this year’s calendar, the world’s top swimmers will all gather in July for another long course World Championships, and after many top performers skipped the 2022 edition of Worlds in Budapest, this will be the first time in two years that a swim meet will not be missing any key players. Here are the top five most anticipated meets of the year.
1. NCAA Championships: Women’s — March 15-18, Knoxville, Tenn.; Men’s March 22-25, Minneapolis
Kate Douglass will lead the University of Virginia’s national title defense — Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The annual college swimming championships consistently provide one of the most competitive environments of any meet around the world, and this year’s edition should be just the same with plenty of top American and international athletes racing for individual and team titles. The top women’s teams will race in Knoxville this year with the University of Virginia seeking a third consecutive title behind returning national champions Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh. Can Douglass match her incredible feat from 2021 of scoring three individual titles and three American records in three different strokes? Could a Stanford team led by Torri Huske and Claire Curzan challenge the Cavaliers? How about a balanced team from the University of Texas? Look for some really competitive individual races and another assault on the record books.
When the men race one week later, the California Golden Bears will aim to fend off the Texas for a second consecutive national title (and a 13th consecutive top-two finish). Reigning national champions Hugo Gonzalez and Destin Lasco will lead Cal’s pursuit along with sprinter Bjorn Seeliger while Texas counters with the country’s deepest contingent of 200 freestylers and emerging IM specialist Carson Foster. Florida graduated Kieran Smith and Bobby Finke, but Canadian World Championships medalist Josh Liendo brings a huge boost to the Gators’ already-strong sprint group. Arizona State’s Leon Marchand, who returns to the college scene as a two-time world champion, will aim to elevate his team beyond last season’s impressive sixth-place finish.
2. Australian Swimming Trials — June 13-18
Selection meets for the World Championships will begin in earnest in April, but the two must-watch competitions will be in June, beginning with Australia’s meet. The Aussies should send a full-strength squad to Fukuoka this time after Olympic gold medalists Emma McKeon and Ariarne Titmus skipped the 2022 edition of the meet. They will join a women’s squad that saw backstroker Kaylee McKeown and teenage freestyler Mollie O’Callaghan win individual world titles in 2022. We will get a sense of the strength of Australian relays as well, with the Aussie women continuing to dominate the 400 freestyle relay and setting a world record in the 800 free relay at last year’s Commonwealth Games.
Australia’s men are led into 2023 by Zac Stubblety-Cook and Elijah Winnington, both returning from world-title-winning performances in 2022, while Kyle Chalmers will return to individual events this year in pursuit of an individual 100 free world title while continuing to spearhead Australia’s men’s relays.
3. U.S. Nationals — June 27-July 1, Indianapolis
Katie Ledecky will try to qualify for her sixth World Championships in 2023 — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Staccioli / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
The top U.S. selection meet returns to the IUPUI Natatorium in June for the first time in six years as Indianapolis prepares to host Olympic Trials across town at Lucas Oil Stadium in 2024. The status of Caeleb Dressel is still up in the air since he has not competed since June 2022, but the other biggest names in U.S. swimming — Katie Ledecky, Ryan Murphy, Finke, Lilly King, Regan Smith and many more — are all expected to be in attendance. For the swimmers entering as established international veterans, the job is simply to qualify, with performances unlikely to match their World Championships peak, but there is plenty more to sort out.
Who will jump onto the scene as sudden contenders? Hunter Armstrong and Leah Hayes were among those to emerge suddenly at last year’s selection meet. What will we learn about American relay potential for the upcoming World Championships? Times from the 100 and 200 freestyle events will surely be compared to the results from Australia’s Trials and other national-level meets to determine relay favorites for Worlds. And with less than a year in between this meet and the U.S. Olympic Trials, we’ll get a good sense of who is on track to qualify for Paris and who has work to do.
4. World Championships — July 23-31 (Swimming), Fukuoka, Japan
David Popovici will try to defend his world titles in the 100 free and 200 free — Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
There has not been a completely normal world-level meet since 2019, not with the Tokyo Olympics delayed due to COVID-19 and then heavily impacted by the pandemic and the 2022 World Championships missing plenty of big names. But this meet should be full-go, with plenty of highly-anticipated contests. On the women’s side, there’s Titmus vs. Ledecky vs. Summer McIntosh in the 400 free, Huske vs. Maggie Mac Neil in the 100 fly and McKeown vs. Smith vs. Kylie Masse in the backstroke events. For the men, David Popovici will be on world-record hunt while racing Chalmers (and potentially Dressel) in the 100 free while Thomas Ceccon and Kristof Milak try to return to last year’s historic form. Will Adam Peaty be back to his best? Can Marchand secure his first world record?
Basically, this is the peak for a swimming fan, and we will find out who are the swimmers to beat heading into 2024. The relays? Look for another set of United States vs. Australia clashes on the women’s side while Italy looks like the biggest competition for the U.S. men in the 400 free and medley relays. Can Great Britain return to the gold-medal podium in the men’s 800 free relay and mixed 400 medley relay? All of that is in store as elite swimming returns to Japan two years after the Olympics and Fukuoka joins Perth, Rome, Barcelona and Budapest as cities to host the World Championships twice.
5. Asian Games — Sept. 24-29 (Swimming), Hangzhou, China
The final major long course meet of the year will take place in late September. The Asian Games were originally scheduled for 2022 but postponed due to COVID-19. This event usually marks the main focus competition for swimmers from China, Japan and other Asian nations in the middle year between Olympics, but this time, focus will be split with the World Championships two months prior. China should be represented by 200 fly Olympic gold medalist Zhang Yufei and 200 free world champion Yang Junxuan while veteran IMers Daiya Seto and Yui Ohashi plus 200 fly specialist Tomoru Honda will be in the mix for Japan. South Korean freestyler Hwang Sunwoo also figures to compete.