2024 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
- 10-15 December 2024
- Duna Arena, Budapest, Hungary
- SCM (25m)
- Meet Central
- Roster Index
- SwimSwam Preview Index
After confirming Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh as the American team’s entrants in the women’s 100 IM at the upcoming Short Course World Championships on Monday, USA Swimming revealed further updates to its roster for the competition which will begin in less than two weeks in Budapest.
Hunter Armstrong, a two-time relay medalist at the 2022 Short Course Worlds, has withdrawn from the competition, leaving vacant spots in his two individual entries, the men’s 50 and 100 back.
Michael Andrew, originally only entered to swim the men’s 50 and 100 breast individually, is now entered in the 50 back, 50 fly and 100 IM, giving him five individual events, the most of any male swimmer on the team.
USA Swimming is potentially looking at moving another swimmer already on the roster into the 100 back, but has not made an official move as of yet. The only swimmer currently entered in the event is Jack Aikins.
Updated U.S. Individual Entries For SC Worlds
Armstrong is coming off a busy year that included representing the U.S. at both the 2024 World Championships in February and then the Olympic Games in July. The 23-year-old won seven medals in Doha, including individual gold in the 100 back, and followed up with a pair of relay medals in Paris, including gold on the U.S. men’s 4×100 free relay.
At the 2022 Short Course Worlds in Melbourne, in addition to his two relay medals, Armstrong was a semi-finalist in the 50 back, tying for eighth in the semis before losing a swim-off for a spot in the final. He also placed 17th in the 100 back and 19th in the 100 free.
His withdrawal from the meet not only is a blow for the Americans in the men’s backstroke events, but also hurts the relays, with Armstrong being capable of contributing 50 and 100 free relay legs in addition to backstroke lead-offs.
Andrew has found plenty of success in the 100 IM in the past, winning the 2016 SC world title in the event and then claiming silver at the 2018 edition. In 2022, he qualified first out of the semis before taking fifth in the final.
On this year’s World Cup circuit, he placed eighth in Shanghai (52.66 in prelims) and sixth in Incheon (52.54).
Andrew has never raced the 50 back in SC World Championship competition, with his best time of 23.11 stemming from the 2018 World Cup stop in Singapore. This year on the World Cup, his fastest time came in at 23.58 (Shanghai).
In the 50 fly, he was 14th at the 2022 SC Worlds, having set a best time of 22.32 at the 2018 World Cup in Singapore.
Maybe realized that training at OSU wasn’t going to get him ready for worlds.
The hits keep on coming for the male contingent of USA Swimming.
Men’s meet is worse than a pro swim series that’s crazy
At this rate this meet’s gonna be empty by the time it starts
Mixed Medleys are going to be interesting and losing Hunter and Torri will impact them heavily. I know other countries have potentially even worse options so I’m not too worried about results regardless. What I don’t like is that swimmer availability doesn’t point to MMFF or FMMF options. It seems to point to FFMM. I’m guessing it will be a FMMF line-up though.
100 back, 50 fly finals and 100 free, 100 breast semi are Day 2 with 4×50 Mixed Medley. Also women’s 800 free but that shouldn’t have any overlap.
100 fly, 400 IM finals and 50 free, 50 breast semi are Day 5 with 4×100 Mixed Medley. Also men’s 800 free but that shouldn’t have much overlap.
I’m… Read more »
Pouch was 59 in semis and his swim off at trials. So not as fast as MA’s best 100 time but definitely a contender for the spot if his SCM swimming doesn’t look bad
There has never been more words written about a 4×50 Mixed Medley at SC Worlds than this
Give casas 1IM plz
Did they take Leon’s spot open?
Is Hunter dead set on training until the 2028 Trials?
There isn’t much else for him to prove and training that long for only a shot at something could be having some effect on his mentality towards training and/or swimming in general.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him retire before next summer. No shame in that
Here’s what he said when he went back to Ohio State:
https://swimswam.com/hunter-armstrong-returns-to-train-at-ohio-state-toward-la2028-olympics/
We need to find a summer league for MA to compete in….