Sunday October 19

Kate Douglass watched all the oxygen in the H2O go to Australians early in the session as Kaylee McKeown fended off Regan Smith for the 200 back World record and Lani Pallister wiped 7sec off her Commonwealth 1500m free mark to rise from 6th to 2nd on the all-time ranks:

Kaylee Puts Midas Back In McKeown With 1:57.87 WR, Smith 0.04sec Shy in 200 Back Thriller

Last day at the Westmont World Cup on the edge of Chicago delivers a sensational duel in the 200m back, Kaylee McKeown & Regan Smith both under the old WR; and a Commonwealth record of 15:13 from Lani Pallister in the 1500 free, the Dolphin up from No6 to No2 all-time

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Douglass then shifted the cheering back to the American hosts with a 50.19 blast in the 100m freestyle to confine to history retired Aussie Cate Campbell's 50.25 mark from October 2017. The World Cup record went down too: double Olympic sprint champion of Paris 2024 Sarah Sjöström had held the Cup standard for a touch longer than Campbell had held the global high bar, at 50.58 since August 2017.

The writing was on the half-way wall: 23.88, a chunk inside Campbell's 24.21 and Sjöström's 24.49. At the last turn, the American with a rare versatility and event range - Olympic 200m breaststroke champion, 200IM silver medallist and premier sprint freestyle, 50 and 100 - was still 0.12sec up on the Australian's pace from 2017. That halved on the way home but Douglass was still 0.06sec to the good, for a resounding victory and a pioneering moment in the vault.

Australia's Mollie O'Callaghan, the Olympic 200m free champion who yesterday became the first woman ever to race inside 1:50sec over 200m free, was closest, on 51.44, after having turned almost half a second down on the Douglass after just 25m, the bronze to Dutch ace Marrit Steenbergen in 51.56, Australia No1 Olivia Wunsch on 52.04:

Hubert Kos produced the sole men's World Cup record on the last day in Westmont, the Hungarian's 48.78 - 5th fastest all-time - out-reaching the standard that has been held at 48.84 by his now Texas Longhorns teammate Shaine Casas since 2022:

Casas took the first win of the day when he topped the 400IM in 3:57.41, to fall just 0.16sec shy of breaking the Cup record that has stood to Japan's Daiya Seto, a multiple World champion in the event over the past decade. Seto, now 31, was in the race today, finishing 9th in 4:10.

Casas was challenged by Carson Foster, another Longhorns medley ace and training partner of France's four-times Olympic champion in Paris last year, Léon Marchand. Foster's 3:58.18 was the last sub-4mins effort, Japan's Tomoyuki Matsushita win 4:02.28 for third place.

The other 950-points plus win among men on the day was Caspar Corbeau's dominant 2:01.68 in the 200m breaststroke, the Dutch ace piling on the speedy swims on this tour. Spain's Carles Coll clocked 2:03.61 for second 0.01sec ahead of Japan's Shin Ohashi. Also worth a line: After a much speedier 100m and another solid 50m swim, Adam Peaty (GBR) just missed the 200m final, in 2:06.

So ahead of the curve of her peers is Gretchen Walsh on sprint butterfly right now that a 53.72 that left her 1.02sec shy of her own World record in the 100m today delivered victory by almost 2sec over Australian Alexandria Perkins, Belgium's Roos Vanotterdijk third just over 2sec behind the winning American.

Also just shy off the 950-points mark, Ilya Kharun, of Canada, pipped World record holder Noe Ponti, of Switzerland 21.69 to 21.80 in the 50m 'fly:

There were also fine swims and wins from Luke Hobson in the 200m free, Alex Walsh, Gretchen's elder sister, in the 200IM, and Ireland's Mona McSharry in the 50m breaststroke.

The Cup now moves to Toronto for the concluding round of the 2025 series from Friday to Sunday next.

• Results in full at Omega

Also In the October Vortex and SOS Coverage:

• Regan Smith Snaps Her Own 100 Back WR To Put 10K in The Bank
• Midas-Touch McKeown Strikes Again + Cup Marks For Pallister, Smith, Walsh & Douglass
• Gretchen Walsh Limbers Up For Back Battle With Kaylee McKeown

Ariarne Titmus Finds Life Beyond The Black Line “Just a Little Bit More Important to Me”

Dolphin 778, Olympic 400m Free Champion and first Australian woman to retain an Olympic crown in the pool since Dawn Fraser in 1964 announces her retirement from swimming with immediate effect

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Wunderlich & Other ‘Swim Across America’ Wonders Up For Daytona Debut To Fight Cancer

Olympian and five-times Worlds medallist will join the fund-raising shoal at the Inaugural Swim Across America - Daytona Open Water 1-Mile Charity Swim on December 7 almost 30 years into his passion for raising money and awareness for cancer research, prevention and treatment

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

• Aussies Kaylee McKeown & Lani Pallister Top Day 3 World Cup Points Bill - 1 Round Down, 2 To Go
• Swim Ireland Severs Ties With Shane Ryan [plus, commentary]
• Australia Calls On Meta & X To Remove Fake Quotes Falsely Attributed To Mollie O'Callaghan
• Gretchen Walsh Whistles To Her 7th World S/C Mark With 23.72 50 'Fly
• Regan Smith Takes Down Liu's Shiny Suited Cup Mark & Gretchen Walsh Makes It 2 World Cup Marks On Day 1 Of 9
• Benedetta Pilato and Chiara Tarantino Land 90-Day Bans Over Singapore 2025 Shoplifting Arrest
• Walsh, Ponti, Marchand Top The Bill As World Cup Leaves Blocks; McIntosh Out Through Illness
• Australian Study Highlights Family Cost Of Junior Swimming
• No Aquatics Rules Broken But Indian Fed Facing Pressure In 'Controversy' Over Flag On Water Polo Bathers
• Hector Pardoe Is Athlete Of The Year At BBC Green Sport Awards
• Mum's The Word: Sarah Sjostrom Back In The Swim
• Three-time Irish Olympian Shane Ryan Retires From Fast Lane
• Two New Faces On Swimming Canada Board
• Cameron McEvoy Matches His 9.36 World Best In Aussie S/C 25m Exhibition
• Sam Short - Swiftest Aussie s/c 1500 Freestyler since Grant Hackett
• Sam Short On 3:36 in 400 Free As Aussie S/C Champs Get Underway in Melbourne

The SOS FORUM for subscribers

Deep Clean The Olympics, a 4-part mini-series:

Part 1:

FORUM - Honeymoon Over: Time For IOC Boss Kirsty & Aquatics Allies To Send Doping Shame To Coventry

The sporting crime of the 20th Century, and biggest recorded systematic fraud in the history of sport, hangs over the Olympic president, her allies in Aquatics & other IFs. If they want a legacy worth having they must - at last, and at the very least - reach for reconciliation. Here’s why…

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Part 2:

FORUM: Will Kirsty Coventry Break The Mould Of IOC Malaise On The Biggest Scam In Sports History?

No IOC president has ever found the courage & integrity to reach for reconciliation & recognition for those caught up in the GDR doping fraud. Can a woman reach for what the men who went before her failed to achieve, look Enhancement In the eye and wag her winning finger?

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord