5 Thoughts, Standings From Stockholm World Cup

The level of competition stepped up significantly at the Stockholm stop of the World Cup over the weekend, and that showed in the results. Here’s 10 things I noticed when peeling through the results of the meet.

1. Chad Le Clos Making Bank – Swimmers often lament the inability to make money as a professional within the sport. Young South African Chad le Clos disagrees. He has already racked up $16,000 in meet checks from two weeks worth of work, including wins in the 400 IM (4:03.10), 200 back (1:54.33), the former of which was rouglhy a second-and-a-half better than he was in Dubai. If he continues his performances, and participation in all of the stops, he’s well on his way to a big paycheck.

2. Hidemasa Sano Upsets – Though le Clos had a great meet, he didn’t sort of waltz his way to 6 wins like he did in Dubai. He was challenged at just about every stop in Stockholm, and most surprisingly was the 200 fly, which is his premiere event. There, he was beaten by a 1:51.33 from Japan’s Hidemasa Sano, who is a short course specialist. That time from Sano is the fastest in the world so far, and Le Clos’ runner-up mark of 1:51.88 is the 2nd-fastest.

3. And McGill Stands Alone – Former Auburn Tiger Tyler McGill was the lone American to compete in Stockholm (though he will be joined by a huge group of friends in Moscow tomorrow), but he held the banner up proudly for the United States. In his best event, the 100 fly, he took home a win in 51.04 to hold off Australia’s Geoff Huegill (51.36) and Le Clos (51.15). Le Clos was faster in Dubai, but he seemed to really wane in his performances on the second day of this meet (the 200 IM, and the 200 back), as he was probably pushing a lot harder through a big schedule than he did at the last stop.

McGill was a few tenths slower than that at the Short CourseWorld Championships last year, but is second in the world this season.

4. Alshammar’s Triumphant Return – Sweden’s Therese Alshammar is a consistent force on the FINA World Cup circuit. She’s an excellent sprinter, which allows her to swim a lot of events in a day, and is also very good at short course swimming. Her wins in the 50 free (23.80), 50 fly (25.23), and 100 fly (55.99) paced her country to 9 event wins on home turf.

The most impressive of the swims was the 100 fly, where she outraced China’s Lu Ying (56.44) and her countrymate Sarah Sjostrom (56.95), who finished 3rd and 4th, respectively, in this event in Shanghai.

5. Alexander Dale Oen – Norwegian breaststroker Alexander Dale Oen won the World Championship over the summer in one of the fastest swims ever done. He’s never really been one for short course swimming (his teammate Alex Hetland has been the star there), but Dale Oen still put up a very good 58.30 to take the win here and sit 2nd in the World Rankings. That’s within a few tenths of his personal best, and National Record, in the event. He was able to just outtouch Glenn Snyders (58.47) of New Zealand, who had a huge summer where he seemed to break a National Record every time he entered the water.

If Dale Oen continues to swim like this in short course, added to what we saw him do in long course, he’s going to be very, very tough to beat at the Olympics.

Full meet results available here.

Below are the updated standings through the Stockholm meet, where you can see that chad le Clos has taken a dominant position through the men’s meet. Remember that at the end of the 7-meet series, these standings will determine the recipients of the $360,000 in prize money that will be handed out as follows, to each the men and women’s placers:

1st – $100,000
2nd – $50,000
3rd – $30,000

Men’s Scoring

Women’s Scoring