2022 FINA SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, December 13 to Sunday, December 18, 2022
- Melbourne Sports and Aquatics Centre, Melbourne, Australia
- SCM (25m)
- Prize Money
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- Psych Sheets (Updated)
- Live Results
- Day 2 Prelims Live Recap
The American men had another flat prelims session on day 2 of the World Short Course Swimming Championships, with only one of their four individual performers qualifying through to semifinals.
In the 100 free, Drew Kibler finished 17th in 47.05, while Hunter Armstrong finished tied for 19th in 47.11. Aruba’s Mikel Schreuders was the 16th qualifier in 47.03.
For Armstrong, that was a second missed semifinal in two individual events so far, after the same happened in the 100 backstroke on Tuesday.
Then, in the 100 breaststroke, 2021 bronze medalist Nic Fink qualified 5th in 57.02, while Michael Andrew was 25th in 58.22.
The American men as a group just feel flat. Without their ‘Captain America” Caeleb Dressel, without a lot of surefire medals, the snowball seems to be rolling downhill (uphill?) fast.
The American women have continued to swim well overall, with some real standouts like Kate Douglass, Alex Walsh, and Torri Huske, and most of the rest holding serve, the men have some soul-searching to do to find a spark and energy to get back on track for the last four days of the meet. On Wednesday, a bad day became a trend for the American men.
A few thoughts come to mind in wake of the results. The selection procedures, omitting short course World Record holders for swimmers who have publicly declared that they don’t like short course swimming, has and will continue to be a topic for discussion. But that’s not the end of the discussion here, because even by their own personal standards, there are a lot of bad results here.
Should there be more funding tied to results at these secondary international championships? Maybe. Does USA Swimming need to reframe its national team culture, re-emphasizing the importance of all international opportunities, and not just the one every four years? Perhaps.
But something isn’t working. It didn’t work in Tokyo, though Dressel’s individual brilliance helped atone for that. It’s not working here.
Some of this is individual. Kibler has changed training and is back home in Carmel. Michael Andrew seems to have meandered a bit in his focus, and my opinion (which is only worth the paper it’s written on in this case) is that he would benefit from joining a proper team for some structure and focus. Armstrong is just not excited by short course. But it has not been a good performance for Team USA, regardless of those individual circumstances.
There is one big opportunity looming for the American men and specifically Ryan Murphy in Wednesday evening’s men’s 100 backstroke final.
It would be a redemption story both for Murphy and the US men at this meet. At the 2019 World Championships, he won a silver medal and had two fourth-place finishes in three individual tries, and got in some hot water for making comments that he was already looking ahead to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (which were supposed to be the next year, but because of COVID wound up being two years later).
That 100 back final, where Murphy is the top seed, is his chance to validate his captaincy at the Olympics, last summer’s World Championships, and now these short course championships. A win in the 100 back would go a long way toward energizing this team. A win and a fast swim (he was a best time of 49.17 in prelims) would go even further.
Excitement matters, energy matters, and momentum matters. We see it every year at the NCAA Championships. Murphy’s swim tonight could be crucial to setting the team back on the right track toward Paris.
Here’s my opinion on Michael Andrew.
Either way he is kind of screwed. His little T-Rex arms catch no water in freestyle (other than the 50)
No way MA trains with a pro group that doesn’t exclusively use USRPT. I think he’s physically ready for the challenge of training with a sprint group, but mentally, I think dropping his ego (and potentially his dad as a coach) will prove the most difficult part.
Dang , kinda messed up to suggest MA needs to replace his dad as a coach.
Hes not coming off a bad summer. I think most people would be happy with a summer LC worlds and olympics like he had. Hes been off, ill reserve judgement until this summer.
I think they have proven themselves with their track record already and deserve a little bit of credit.
I don’t think I ever said he needs to replace his dad. I suggested that he needs a team to train with.
There are a lot of different scenarios where he could continue to train with his dad and have a team to train with. There are also scenarios where he could train with a team and not continue to train with his dad. The team is the crux of the statement, not the coach.
Generally when one switches teams they switch coaches so i felt it was kind of implied
“switches teams.” Michael is not currently on a team. He’s a solo artist. Again, I never said anything about “switching,” I said “joining.”
Most coaches are employed by a team, so yeah, when their athletes leave, they usually don’t follow those athletes. Sometimes athletes follow coaches, but rarely the other way around. Michael Andrew and his dad are a 1:1 coaching scenario. That’s a whole different story. Peter could join a coaching staff. They could figure out how to attract more athletes into a training group. A coach of 1 athlete has a lot more flexibility than the average coach, and that would give this change a lot more flexibility. MA could also decide he wants to try a different… Read more »
Besides that i think its still kind of obtuse to suggest he needs to alter his program off of one bad showing when he has been transparent about not being in form. I mean hes fresh off of winning gold medals at the olympics and world championships with that same program. Some people go with traditional training and never secure those things
After reading all of the horrible comments made about the USA men’s team today, I’m simply stunned.
Does America not believe their team can have an off-day? That’s all it is. Give these guys a break, they’re always bringing it home for you and you constantly belittle them.
There was ridiculous talent at the Junior Nationals, give them a year
I agree with you on MA. His training progression has stagnated. It worked for OTs. It worked not as well in Tokyo. Less so for WCs in Budapest. It is working even less than ever now. I am not sure what changed but maybe that’s the problem. Change itself is what he needs. Maybe he should stay in Australia and find a sprint group to train with there.
We’re short a couple of sprinters and a jack of all trades guy. Urlando appears to be made of muscles connected by scotch tape, and we only have our 4th/4th/7th guys from trials in the 100 free.
Ultimately, we’ve just got a bit of a lost generation of athletes who didn’t develop. Carson and Bobby are the only two from the high school class of 2015 onwards who won individual medals at world championships (EDIT: Forgot Andrew got second in the 50, so 3), and the stalling of guys like Whitley and Matheny and Rooney (other than the one summer) has resulted in some weaker teams at events like these. All of this stuff is cyclical. The next generation appears… Read more »
FINA needs to open up entries to all swimmers ranked in top 25 and then offer entries into the next worlds to everyone who finishes in the top 8
Then what’s to stop Australia and USA from just not selecting their best in events and having 10 entries each?
The problem is (in this case) not FINA.
Any nation can enter any swimmer under the qualifying times … and it is up to the national Federation to define their respective selection criteria. No trials need to be held – you could simply select the two fastest short course (or even yards) swimmers from this fall, the past 12 months, … or whatever you chose to.
The fact that some nations make ridiculous decisions in the selection process for a world championship meet is just sad.
What’s up with Murphy’s left arm in the photo?