Traditionally, the United States has selected its pre-Olympic World Championships team the year prior with the intention that the team focuses the entire year on the Worlds rather than on the qualifying meet.

With the 2020 Olympics being pushed back an extra year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States simply could not select the same exact team they sent to Budapest last year.

Despite the fact that the 2022 team was so successful, USA Swimming decided to go through a full Trials meet three weeks before the World Championships to select its strongest team possible for 2023, which was the first time they followed this procedure in the Olympic quad since 1999.

With this year’s meet in Fukuoka, the United States historically hasn’t swam as well in international meets in Japan. At the latest Olympics in Tokyo, the team had its lowest gold medal count since 1992, and at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships that were also in Tokyo, the team won just two out of the seven relays against the best from Australia and Japan.

This year’s team for Fukuoka is different however than the ones that swam at the last two major meets in Tokyo. The time zone is certainly an adjustment to make, with Fukuoka being 13 hours ahead of Indianapolis, the host city for the Trials last week. But is something that the team has been prepared for all year, and this year’s Worlds team could exorcize some of those demons that showed out two years ago in Tokyo.

With that, here are the six American swimmers ranked number one in the world this year based on those who qualified for the World Championships in Olympic events.

Katie Ledecky Gearing up for a Historic Sixth Straight 800m Gold Medal, and the Race of the Century in the 400m

All conversations around the women’s 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyle start and end with Katie Ledecky, who qualified for her sixth World Championships this year in 2023. Leading into this year, she is in line for what would be a record sixth World title in the 800m freestyle, having not lost the race in over a decade, first winning the Olympic gold in 2012 at age 15. In the 1500m freestyle, she is an even bigger favourite, going for her fifth World title in the event as she is over 20 seconds faster than the next fastest swimmer in the world this year.

Ledecky has hardly been challenged in the last ten years in both the 800m and 1500m freestyle, and it will take perhaps the swim of a lifetime if another swimmer is to beat her to the wall. In the 800m world rankings, she is eight seconds faster than the second-ranked swimmer.

Ledecky has really redefined what is possible in distance swimming, having taken the sport to a new level with the 29 fastest times in the 800m freestyle all-time and the 15 fastest times in the 1500m. No man or woman has ever won the same event six times at the World Aquatics Championships, and Ledecky has a chance to do that in the 800m freestyle on July 29, as she became just the third pool swimmer to win the same event five times last year, joining the likes of Michael Phelps (200m butterfly) and Katinka Hosszu (400m IM). Now she has a chance to separate herself from everyone with a sixth title.

The 400m freestyle is a different story, however. Even though Ledecky won last year’s World title in Budapest, she finds herself ranked third in the world this year behind Canada’s Summer McIntosh and Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, who are also ranked number one and two all-time in the event. The 400m freestyle is being looked at as the race of the meet with the last two Olympic champions in Titmus and Ledecky going up against the 16-year-old phenom McIntosh, who has the capability of winning five individual events this year if she chooses to race all of them.

McIntosh broke Titmus’s world record in April this year and it would be a huge moment for her if she is to get a win over Ledecky and Titmus.

Ledecky has beaten McIntosh head to head, including at last year’s World Championships and at the US Open in December. Even though McIntosh sits two seconds faster than both Titmus and Ledecky this year, both the Australian and the American are incredible racers and will not go down without a fight. Expect an instant classic on July 23.

Regan Smith has her Mojo Back

Another one of the great races of this year’s World Championships will be the 100m and 200m backstroke duels between American Regan Smith and Australian Kaylee McKeown. This year has been a notable one for Smith, who changed her training base to Tempe, Arizona to train with the renowned coach Bob Bowman, who most famously coached Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Allison Schmitt among many others.

Smith gave the water a big slap when she swam a 2:03.80 to win the 200m backstroke at World Trials, having not swum that fast in the event since first setting the world record in 2019 as a teenager. Smith has since lost that world record to the hands of McKeown and also missed qualification for that event at both the 2020 Olympics and the 2022 World Championships. Now Smith is back in the action for the 200m backstroke, and ready to get her title back and perhaps her world record as she is in the best shape of her career at the moment.

Smith, the defending World champion in the 100m backstroke will also line up alongside McKeown, who did not race the 100m backstroke in favour of the 200m IM last year. Smith has been as fast as 57.71 this year in the event while McKeown has been 57.50. With the world record sitting at 57.45 by McKeown in 2021, it may take the fastest time ever to win the World title. Both Smith and McKeown are in the prime of their careers and producing the best in-season times of their lives this year, all leading to a showdown in Fukuoka on July 25 in the 100m final and July 29 in the 200m final.

Smith has also had a very strong year in 2023, swimming a 2:03.87 in the 200m butterfly a few weeks prior to the US Nationals at her home pool in Arizona as she leads the world rankings for that event as well. She won silver in Tokyo but missed the podium in Budapest and will be the gold medal favourite for Fukuoka alongside McIntosh, who is just behind her in the world rankings. Smith has yet to do both backstrokes and the 200m butterfly at a major meet, but nothing seems to be stopping her at the moment as she is on a mission this year to do something special.

Bobby Finke and the Chase for the 1500m Freestyle World Record

One of the most anticipated races on the men’s side will be the 800m and 1500m freestyle finals as the current state of affairs for both events is stronger than it has ever been. Currently, American Bobby Finke leads the world rankings in the 800m freestyle with his 7:40.34 on the final night of Nationals, while he is ranked fifth this year in the 1500m at 14:42.81.

Finke has won the last two major titles in the 800m, winning the inaugural Olympic gold in 2021 and last year’s World title thanks to his last lap that has become a trademark for the 23-year-old and an expected part of his race plan. Finke will run down anyone in front of him if given enough room, and will again be the guy to beat in the 800m freestyle this year as he is ranked ahead of Australia’s Sam Short and Germany’s Lukas Martens in the 2023 world rankings. Both Short and Martens specialize in the 400m freestyle while Finke swims up to the 1500m and has had the most success in the 800m.

An interesting note about this year’s World Championships is that it will serve as the first step towards qualification for open water at the 2024 Olympics, and with the open water races occurring the week before swimming in 2023, Finke will be a little bit more refreshed than his rivals Florian Wellbrock, Mykhailo Romanchuk and Gregorio Paltrinieri who will go through the intense Olympic qualification process the week before.

However, four years prior at the 2019 Worlds, both Wellbrock and Paltrinieri qualified for the 10K in the open water venue and then won gold in the 1500m and 800m freestyle the following week. It’s a challenge, but it has been done before.

Many have noted that we are in the golden age of men’s distance swimming with the likes of the last two 1500m Olympic champions Paltrinieri and Finke at the top of their game, along with 2019 World champ Wellbrock, 2022 European champ Romanchuk, and rising star Daniel Wiffen out of Ireland. On the all-time top ten list for the men’s 1500m freestyle, half of the top ten will be racing the event in Fukuoka, where Sun Yang’s world record of 14:31.02 will be under threat by a number of people.

Finke will find himself in the middle of a lot of those conversations due to his closing speed and his ability to race with anyone in the world. Finke has won at every level but has one thing left to chase, and that’s the world record.

Torri Huske leading the fastest 100m butterfly field ever

Speaking of world record alert, Torri Huske is knocking on the door of the world record in the 100m butterfly, putting up the fastest time in the world for 2023 with her 56.18 to win the national title over Gretchen Walsh (56.34) last week. Huske had to fight for all she was worth to win that title as Kate Douglass and Claire Curzan also broke 57 seconds in the final to put themselves third and seventh in the world rankings for 2023.

At the World Championships this July, Huske will again have a tough race on her hands alongside 100m Olympic champion Maggie Mac Neil and the 200m Olympic champion Zhang Yufei as well as the American rookie Walsh. Huske is the defending champion in the event and is not afraid of anybody. She was leading the Tokyo final for about 75 meters before falling to fourth and responded last year by putting herself fourth on the all-time list to win the World title.

Among the ten fastest women ever in the 100m butterfly, seven of them will be racing the event in Fukuoka, including the Olympic bronze medalist Emma McKeon, last year’s Worlds silver medalist Marie Wattel and the 2018 Pan Pacific champion Rikako Ikee. Sarah Sjostrom’s world record of 55.48 from 2016 looks to be holding on for dear life as Mac Neil, Zhang, Huske, and McKeon have all broken 56 in the last two years.

It will be a very fast final on July 24 and Huske will certainly be one of the favorites. She did not qualify to swim any other events for Fukuoka, so she will be all-in on the 100m butterfly which could be doomsday for the rest of the field. Huske has a lot of opening speed but has had some problems closing in the past.

Regardless, no one has swum faster than Huske has this year, and she will certainly have a chance at that world record in Japan. 

Lilly King and the Pursuit of History

History will be on the line for Lilly King as she looks to be the first swimmer ever to win all three distances of the same stroke in the same Worlds. Since the 50m events of butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke were introduced in Fukuoka in 2001, no individual has ever won the stroke hat trick, and perhaps that could change this year at the hands of King.

Amongst those qualified for the World Championships in Fukuoka, King is ranked first in both the 100m and the 200m this year, thanks to her 1:04.75 in the 100m final last week and her 2:20.95 in the 200m final, taking down the Olympic champion Lydia Jacoby in the 100m and the World short course champion Kate Douglass in the 200m. King has proven time and time again she is the best breaststroker in the world, but hasn’t been able to put that together at the last two major meets.

At the Olympics in 2021, she won bronze in the 100m as the heavy favourite and won silver in the 200m behind South Africa’s Tatjana Schoenmaker. Last year, she battled COVID in the lead-up to Budapest where she won gold in the 200m but was off the podium completely in the 100m and 50m.

Despite this, she put up her second-fastest 200m breaststroke of her career, and her fourth-fastest 100m of her career last week in Indianapolis. In the 50m, she is ranked second in the world behind South Africa’s Lara Van Niekerk, who was last year’s bronze medalist.

King has proven to be at her best when the pressure is at its highest and has stepped up time and time again in big spots. Now at age 26, she is in line to win all three breaststroke distances and will have to play her cards right across all nine rounds. The breaststroke field internationally is no joke and each distance takes a different game plan, but King has won World titles in all three distances - winning the 200m last year and the 50m and 100m in 2019. King has just never won all three at the same long course meet, and if she can put together three great swims across the week in Fukuoka then she will make history.

Ryan Murphy trying to keep his throne as the backstroke king

Ryan Murphy was the king of the world in 2016 when he won both the 100m and 200m backstroke finals at the Olympics in Rio. However, since that year he has yet to win both finals in the same meet again. Last year, Murphy won his first-ever World title with gold in the 200m backstroke and is ranked number one in the world this year in that event.

Murphy swam 1:55.03 to win US Nationals last week as he is ahead of teammate Destin Lasco (1:55.63) in the world rankings. Murphy has been a mainstay on the US team, making his fifth Worlds team this year, and could be in line to win back-to-back World titles in the 200m.

Murphy appears to be head and shoulders above the rest of the field based on his lifetime best of 1:53.57 from 2018 as he and China’s Xu Jiayu are the only swimmers ranked in the top ten all-time to be racing this event in Fukuoka. There is no such thing as an easy path to a World Championships gold medal but Murphy has been one of the top backstrokers in the world since 2016 and has consistency on his side. He just hasn’t broken 1:54 since 2018, which could be his motivation to win this event - with gusto.

The guys in the field will know what Murphy is capable of come the final on July 28, but the big test for him will be the 100m final three days prior on July 25.

The 100m will be a different animal for Murphy, however, as he is ranked third in the world this year amongst those qualified for Fukuoka. There is no clear favourite at the moment as Xu is ranked number one in the world this year, while Hunter Armstrong is second and Murphy is third. But Murphy has been a leader for the United States for a number of years now and understands his role on the team, and if the team needs a big swim, he will deliver.

Last year, Murphy took silver behind Thomas Ceccon in one of the fastest 100m backstroke fields ever assembled, as it was his fastest time since setting the world record in 2016.

Murphy has had a lot of pressure on him being the top male backstroker for the United States and certainly felt the disappointment of an entire nation when he was third in the final of the 100m backstroke at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago. But Murphy seems reinvigorated in 2023 and seven years after winning at the Rio Olympics, he is still in the conversation for both 100m and 200m gold medals. Oddly enough he has never won a 100m back final in long course since 2016, but was the World short course champion in all three backstroke distances in December, giving him a lot of momentum heading into 2023.