Regan Smith has spent the week doing what she needs to capitalise on "a big fat mental break, and physical break" post-Paris Olympics while, perhaps, keeping her power dry for a summer reunion with the likes of big beast of backstroke Kaylee McKeown. As such it's been silvers - three of 'em - all the way.

Not this night: on day 4 at U.S. Championships, the American clocked 57.69 in the 100m back to deliver the first gold and fourth ticket to a solo event at Singapore World titles this July.

Katharine Berkoff - who in record time in the 50 back was one of the three rivals and now USA teammates established and new, who got to the wall - was a closest, on 58.19 to ensure the U.S. has the same 100m force in the battle of Singapore as it had in Paris at the Olympics last year, when the race ended with two prizes for the Stars and Stripes and a golden one for the Dolphins:

• Kaylee McKeown (AUS) 57.33 OR, =OC; Regan Smith (USA) 57.66; Katharine Berkoff (USA) 57.98.

W100 back: McKeown Goes Back-to-Back, Double-Double In Sight

″ I knew it was going to come down to the last five meters. We’re both extremely good athletes, and both extremely good trainers, so it’s just who feels better on the day, and she pushed me the whole way through.” - Kaylee McKeown on Regan Smith

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

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State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

One of coach Bob Bowman's shoal of national teamsters at the Texas Longhorns, Smith has now qualified for four solo events in Singapore: 50,100, 200 backstroke and the 200 'fly - and was delighted with her latest achievement three years out from target. Speaking through USA Swimming, she said:

“Overall, I’ve never qualified for four individual events at Worlds before, so I’m psyched. I would say that’s positive, so I’m just going to choose to focus on the positives. Especially because it’s 2025, it’s not 2028.”

Smith also spoke to a facet of selection-seeking in the world No1 swim nation - and as the Americans have come to realise of late, a facet rippling through the competitive ranks of other nations who have Olympic and World champions who find themselves locked out in domestic waters these days:

“USA Swimming has so much talent, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this meet it’s that you can’t even really breath for a second because there are always going to be people who are so hungry, so talented, and so motivated. If you slack off for even a second, someone is going to grab your spot. It’s something to be cognizant of in the future, and I definitely got a taste of it this week, so it’s great. It’s motivating and it definitely lights a fire under me.”

Smith has come a long way since her big breakthrough at Gwangju 2019 World titles in 2019, when she broke the 100m back World record leading the U.S. 4x100m medley to gold and crushed the 200m back global standard with a pioneering sub-2:04.

After that, there was a psychological journey ahead, one grounded in the test of finding herself caught in the beam of unexpected super-troupers. Add to that the advent of McKeown, a swimmer - and founder member of the female Olympic back-to-back 100-200 double in Paris last year - who no-one has got past for the past five seasons on the ultimate occasions.

The Dolphin (who races at her own trials in the week ahead) and the Eagle are friends who respect each other's drive, determination, discipline and dedication on dryland but only respect survives transfer to the pool in the battle of leaping and soaring:

How McKeown & Smith Drive Each Other To New Heights In The Eagles Vs Dolphins Duel

Nicole Jeffery on the hidden depths of a great rivalry. “When I broke Kaylee’s WR she sent me the kindest, most genuine message over Instagram. I think that just speaks to how much we respect and really root for each other” while going for gold” - Regan Smith

State Of Swimming +Nicole Jeffery

Summing up her week in Indy, Smith concluded:

“This whole year has been about a big fat mental break, and physical break…In this nine-month season, I think I’ve honestly spent a combined six weeks of really intense or aerobic training. I was prepared for the meet to go something like this. At the end of the day, I’m a really competitive person, and it’s one thing to try and prepare yourself for a meet like this, but it’s another thing to live it. It’s definitely humbling, and I think it lights a little bit of a fire under me, but again I do think it’s great practice to recognize it’s okay if this happened because I spent this year doing what I did. I also think it’s good practice to not be super hard on myself when things don’t go the way I want them to, even if I spent all year preparing for something like this to happen.”

The penultimate finals session of the meet also witnessed the latest sub-4min win for living legend Katie Ledecky in the 400m freestyle, a 3:58 keeping her ahead of Claire Weinstein, on 4:00.05 to become the second fastest performer in U.S. swimming history - with the 42nd best performance by an American, the 41 above her all owned by Ledecky (see report below).

In the other women's final of Day 4, Kate Douglass made it a 100-200m breaststroke double inside 1:06, with Lilly King, on 1:06 flat, checking in for the 100m and a second solo swim at her swan-song Worlds in Singapore after her 50m victory yesterday. Race reports and results below...

On the men's side, there was more good news from the ranks of Smith's teammates in the Bowman stable in Texas, Rex Maurer's 3:43 U.S. Open record in the 400m free backed up by Campbell McKean's debut sub-59 for the win in he 100m breaststroke to add to his 50m victory yesterday.

Maurer & McKean Hook Tickets To World Titles As Podium Contenders

“This season, I’ve been really focusing on jumping on it a little earlier ... trying to push around the 200 ... I really tried to put my legs into it more” - Rex Maurer after his 3:43 win; + victories for Campbell McKean, on 58.9 in the 100 breast, and Tommy Janton in the 100 back

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The USA Swimming Certs for the 2025 World Aquatics Championships in Singapore July 27-August 4:

 Other race reports and results - Day 4 - women:

Women's 400m freestyle

It's a long list, of course, but odd that USA Swimming don't remind us of the count when it comes to the list of Katie Ledecky's national titles with each passing amazement after another but suffice it to say, she won another national 400m free crown, this time in 3mins 58.56.

That granted her the 42nd fastest efforts ever by an American on a list now boasting 32 sub-4min efforts, three former World records and an Olympic record. The closest any American had come to her was the 4:00.65 of Leah Smith in 2016, the year Ledecky claimed Olympic gold and Smith shared the podium with bronze behind Jazz Carlin, Britain's double silver medallist in the 4 and 800m finals adrift the fledgling legend.

Smith was overhauled as American No 2 this evening when Claire Weinstein stopped the clock in 4:00.05, a frustrating 0.06sec shy of joining Ledecky in an American sub-4min club she's owned alone since 2013, the season of her World-title debuts over 400, 800 and 1500m:

• 3:59.82 American record; 8:13.86 WR; 15:36.53 WR - Barcelona 2013

In all that time, I believe - but can't say for sure, so please let me know if you know - Ledecky has won the 400m U.S. title every year - for 11 crowns (?) Meets were cancelled in 2020 and I can't recall if the national championships were wiped out by Covid, too. In a sport floating on a sea of asterisks and explainers, forgive me - and, as said, let me know if you were paying more attention than me.

Whatever the count, it's all part of an epic so deep in dominance at the deep end of distance that it's all too easy to take for granted. The 2025 season, whatever comes to pass in Singapore is it's very own chapter: it features a stunning few days in Fort Lauderdale at pro Sim last month: a 3:56.61 that brought Ledecky closer to her 3:56.46 Olympic gold pace than she's ever been before, an 800m World record (8:04.12) and her second-swiftest 1500m (15:24.51), that event to come tomorrow as nationals conclude in Indy.

Speaking through USA Swimming, Ledecky said her meet had "been good. A lot of fun and feeling good about my races, so I can’t complain.”

Nor can the rest of us. She added, after the 400 free today:

“I felt really good in warmup so I just wanted to go for it, swim it as similarly as I could to Fort Lauderdale. I was out a little fast tonight, and definitely paid the price in the last 100, but still pretty happy. I was able to hold it together even through the pain.”

And then Ledecky had this to say of teammate and fellow Rio 2016 Olympic champion Lilly King, who will head to Singapore for a Swan-song World titles in the 50 and 100m breaststroke:

“Lilly is awesome. It just means so much to the team and so many swimmers on the pool deck. You know, the ones that have been around a while and some of the up-and-coming swimmers, she’s always someone who is going to cheer you on and make you feel welcome on Team USA. All of those things. I’m really excited to get one last World Championships with her and be by her side for some of her last races. It’s just so great to see her having so much fun with this and she just seems so at peace with the end of her career, and that’s what you want to see in a pro and your friends.”

King didn't win this day - the champion in the 100m was Olympic 200m champion Kate Douglass, 1:05.79 to 1:06.02 - but the golden charge of 2016 was the queen of hearts in Indy as she waved farewell to her last team trials in domestic waters at the tail end of stellar career that's included this lot:

• Three Olympics.
• Gold in the 100m breaststroke at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
• Gold with 4x100m medley teammates in Brazil.
• Tokyo 2020ne: silvers in the 200m, the medley relay and a bronze in the 100m. Paris 2024: a last gold, as a member of the 4x100m medley relay.
• King is an 11-time long-course and seven-time short-course World Champion, with 27 total medals at Worlds level.
• As she enters her final major trials, King remains the World record holder in the 100m breaststroke with her 1:04.13 from 2017 World titles in 2017.

On her last domestic race, King, speaking through USA Swimming, said: “It was good…I was hoping tonight would be a little special, and it was an awesome crowd. It was fun to say goodbye. This isn’t my last meet, we still have Worlds in seven weeks, so there is still time to get back to work. It was just my last meet here.”

Looking back on longevity she added:

“I’m really fortunate I’ve hardly ever had an injury, but I think a lot of that credit goes to taking care of myself. I take really good care of my body. I take pride in taking care of my body. I try to teach all of the younger athletes on the team to make sure you are stretching, make sure you are foam rolling. If you can get body work done during the week, do that. Make sure you are Normateching. I think that’s been a big thing I’ve credited it to, and I think I also just got lucky…and I like to race. Racing is always good.”