USA Swimming prides itself on bringing elite swimming to the global stage, and doing so in each event.
The governing body of swimming in the U.S. released its review of 2023 times done by The Sports Examiner, analyzing the top top-10 in the world in each event and the U.S. is on that list in 33 of 34 individual events in 2023.
From the report:
In the men’s individual events – 14 Olympic events and three 50 m events added for the World Championships – the U.S. had at least one top-10 performer this year in 13 of 14 and 16 of 17 events. And the American men had by far the most top-10 swimmers among all countries (counting all 17 events):
● 1. United States, 33 top-10 performers
● 2. Australia and China, 14
● 4. Russia, 12
● 5. France and Germany, 11
● 7. Japan, 10
● 8. Great Britain, 9
● 9. Hungary and Italy, 8
The only event in which the U.S. did not have a performer was in the 400 m Freestyle, where David Johnston ranked 14th at 3:45.75.
Among the women, Australia is a stronger competitor to the U.S., but the American women also scored a top-10 performer in all 17 events and averaged more than three top-10 performers in each event. The numbers:
● 1. United States, 52 top-10 performers
● 2. Australia, 30
● 3. China, 18
● 4. Canada, 14
● 5. Italy and Japan, 6
● 7. Netherlands, 5
● 8. Great Britain, Russia, South Africa and Sweden, 4
The U.S. depth was so strong, there were two events – the 200 m Backstroke and 100 m Butterfly – where Americans held five of the top-10 rankings.
Added together, the U.S., Australia and China are the world’s strongest swimming nations by depth of performers (34 events total):
● 1. United States, 85 top-10 performers (in 33 events)
● 2. Australia, 44 (in 26)
● 3. China, 32 (in 25)
● 4. Canada, 17 (in 14)
● 5. Russia, 16 (in 14)
● 6. Japan, 16 (in 12)
● 7. Italy and Germany 14 (both in 9)
● 9. France, 13 (in 12)
● 10. Great Britain, 13 (in 9)
These power rankings correspond well – but not exactly – with the medal count at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships for swimming, where the U.S. led with 38 medals (7-20-11), followed by Australia (25: 13-7-5), then China with 16 (5-3-8). Great Britain (8), France (6), Canada (6) and Italy (6) came next. Russia was not allowed to compete and Japan (two medals) and Germany (one) did not perform as well at the Worlds as their seasonal results showed.