By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
World Aquatics has posted a list of expected entries for the opening stop of the 2024 Swimming World Cup Series, and among them are a number of Olympic medalists from the Paris Games.
The US is scheduled to send an unusually-loaded team to the meet of nine members of the National Team.
That includes Regan Smith, who won two relay gold medals in Paris along with three silvers to bring her career total to eight Olympic medals.
This will be Smith’s first trip to the World Cup series since 2017 when she swam two stops of a much longer series as aprt of the U.S. Junior Team attending the meets. She also attended two meets in Asia during the 2016 season.
The team will also include short course stars like Michael Andrew and Beata Nelson, double Olympic medalist Kieran Smith, and the Paris 2024 Olympic champion in the 200 breaststroke Kate Douglass.
Andrew was 5th on the men’s side of last year’s series, earning $43,000 in total prize money.
US Team Scheduled for 2024 Swimming World Cup – Shanghai
- Michael Andrew
- Charlie Clark
- Jack Dahlgren
- Jack Dolan
- Kate Douglass
- Trenton Julian
- Beata Nelson
- Regan Smith
- Kieran Smith
The U.S. isn’t the only country sending a big squad. Australia has a roster of 17 scheduled to swim that is a mix of young talents and Olympians. Among the latter list are Isaac Cooper, Matt Temple, Joshua Yong, and Kaylee McKeown, who just broke another World Record at the Australian SC Championships. Shanghai is about an 11 hour flight from Australia, though doesn’t require crossing many time zones.
Frenchman Leon Marchand is listed as one of two Frenchmen, as promised, along with Guillaume Guth, who like Marchand is from Tolouse.
Great Britain is scheduled to send a quartet of name swimmers: James Guy, Ben Proud, Duncan Scott, and Mark Szaranek. The latter three all competed at the Olympic Games in Paris, while Szaranek hasn’t raced since April’s Trials meet, where he finished 7th in the 200 IM to miss the British team.
China is predictably sending a big squad to the Games, including Olympic champion and men’s 100 free World Record holder Pan Zhanle, who has indicated to SwimSwam that he’s putting some focus into this series. Qin Haiyang, Li Bingjie, Ji Xinjie, Tang Qianting, Zhang Yufei, and Wang Shun are also among the Chinese members of the delegation. China performed well in last year’s World Cup Series, with Qin winning the men’s title and Zhang finishing 3rd on the women’s side.
Other big names from around the world:
- Siobhan Haughey from Hong Kong, who won double bronze in Paris in the 100 and 200 free
- Italians Thomas Ceccon and Nicolo Martinenghi, who won Olympic gold in Paris in the 100 back and 100 breast, respectively.
- Italian breaststroker Benedetta Pilato
- Eneli Jefimova and Kregor Zirk from Estonia
- Marius Kusch from Germany
- Danas Rapsys from Lithuania
- Caspar Corbeau, Arno Kamminga, and Nyls Korstanje from the Netherlands
- Five Neutral Individual Athletes from Belarus who will be competing under the World Aquatics flag
- Lewis Clareburt from New Zealand, the 2024 World Champion in the 400 IM
- Kacper Stokowski, Jakub Majerski, and Kasia Wasick of Poland
- Four South Africans: Pieter Coetze, Chad le Clos, Rebecca Meder, and Matt Sates
- Olympic bronze medalist in the 100 fly Noe Ponti of Switzerland
- Sweden’s Sophie Hansson, Louise Hansson, and Sara Junevik
- World Cup star Dylan Carter of Trinidad & Tobago
- Mary-Sophie Harvey, Ingrid Wilm, and Sophie Angus of Canada
While none of these athletes are guaranteed to compete, the scheduled field should be an exciting meet on the road to over $1 million in prize money.
The Shanghai meet will be October 18-20 before the tour shifts to Incheon, South Korea from October 24-26 and finally to Singapore from October 31-November 2.
Athlete lists for Incheon and Singapore are not yet published on the World Aquatics website.
See the full list of athletes named by World Aquatics on the official event site here.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: 9 Americans, Including Regan Smith, Listed for Shanghai Stop of Swimming World Cup