US swimmers battling outbreak of ‘acute gastroenteritis' at world championships

The Guardian

6 days ago

The United States swim team is battling an outbreak of acute gastroenteritis that has affected several athletes at the start of the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
Team officials confirmed the illness originated during a pre-meet training camp in Phuket, Thailand, and has compromised multiple performances as competition got under way on Sunday.
The schedule
The swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships takes place from 27 July through 3 August at the Singapore Sports Hub.
The heats start at 10am local time (2am GMT). The semi-finals and finals start at 7pm local time (11am GMT). The full schedule is available in PDF format or on the World Aquatics website.
How to watch
In the United States, coverage will be available on NBC and streaming service Peacock.
In the United Kingdom, Aquatics GB holds the UK rights to stream events.
In Australia, the Nine Network will provide broadcast coverage throughout the championships.
In Canada, events will be broadcast live on CBC, with streaming options via CBC digital platforms.
For other countries and full international broadcast listings, visit the World Aquatics broadcast page.
Additionally, the World Aquatics Recast channel will re-air all sessions of the meet, heats and finals for a fee.
USA Swimming spokesperson Nikki Warner told reporters that all team members traveled to Singapore, but declined to specify how many were impacted by the infectious condition. At least three swimmers were clearly affected: reigning Olympic 100m butterfly champion Torri Huske, 18-year-old Claire Weinstein and 16-year-old Luca Mijatovic.
Huske was withdrawn from the heats of her signature event on Sunday. While the team initially said the move was to focus on relays, it's now clear her withdrawal was illness-related. Weinstein was also pulled from the 400m freestyle. Mijatovic did compete in the men's 400m freestyle prelims, but swam nearly 15 seconds slower than his entry time, appearing visibly unwell during the race.
Katie Ledecky, the most accomplished member of the American squad, showed no signs of illness and posted the fastest qualifying time in the women's 400m freestyle prelims at 4:01.04.
She'll face off in that final with Summer McIntosh, the 17-year-old Canadian phenom who began her quest for five gold medals on Sunday. McIntosh, who won three golds at the 2024 Paris Olympics and holds the world record in the 400m freestyle at 3:54.18, is the favorite alongside Ledecky. The American holds the year's second-fastest time at 3:56.81.
Though McIntosh owns the world record, she has yet to win gold in the 400 free at an Olympics or world championships. She is also targeting gold this week in the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 200m butterfly. Only Michael Phelps has ever claimed five individual golds at a single world championship.
The men's 400m freestyle final is also on Sunday's schedule, with Germany's Lukas Märtens – the new world record holder at 3:39.96 – entering as the favorite. The day concludes with both the men's and women's 4x100m freestyle relay finals.
The championships mark an important test for Team USA as it looks to rebound from a disappointing performance at the Paris Games, where the Americans won just eight golds – their fewest since 1988 – though still enough to lead the medal table. The US men claimed only one of those titles and arrive in Singapore with what head coach Greg Meehan described as the youngest American team in recent memory.