Germany’s Leonie Beck (2:02:34.0) won by over four seconds ahead of silver medalist Chelsea Gubecka (2:02:38.1) of Australia, and Katie Grimes (2:02:43.2) of the United States as they each secured their spots for the 2024 Olympics. This will be Beck’s third trip to the Olympics.

“I am really grateful and really happy with the race,” Beck said. “I think I could manage the first half to save a bit of energy. The last lap, I was fighting for my life. It was really hard for me and I think this day is a really good day for me.

“I tried to stay calm in the beginning and not to lose the pack, but also not to swim very fast,” Beck said. “I was always somewhere in the top 20 and then the last lap I was fourth. I tried to catch Sharon (van Rouwendaal) and Chelsea and then I saw, ‘wow this is getting really hard.’ I was exhausted but I didn’t stop fighting, and I fought so much and didn’t stop, and at one point I caught them. The last 400 meters, I didn’t recognize I was passing them and I was just swimming and fighting to the end.”

Gubecka and Grimes will be making their second trip. Gubecka competed at the 2016 Games, but did not race in 2020, while Grimes will be making her Open Water Olympic debut in 2024 after finishing fourth in the 800m freestyle in the pool in Tokyo two years ago.

“It is exciting,” Gubecka said of qualifying for Paris. “Going into this race, that was a big goal to try to get (to the Olympics) and that was our whole preparation, building around that. I am very excited to have my ticket potentially ratified. I can’t wait to get back on the Olympic stage - this will be my second Olympic Games. I’m looking forward to the preparation to come.”

Grimes won in a nail-biting photo finish over the last two Olympic champions Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) and Ana Marcela Cunha (BRA), as those three were in a lineup to the finish. It appeared van Rouwendaal had the edge as they squared up to the finish line. But Grimes was able to get her last stroke to the touchpad by just 0.1 seconds over both Cunha and van Rouwendaal, who initially tied for fourth, before the timing was corrected to give van Rouwendaal a standalone fourth place, just a tenth behind Grimes, with Cunha in fifth.

“I was really just trying to not look over there at them,” Grimes said. “They were there, but I was trying to focus on having a perfect finish. That was something the past couple days, I would spend 15 minutes just working on timing it perfectly in case it is a three, maybe eight-woman finish. I wanted to make sure going into that chute I had the best position but I was a little scared to look over there because I knew it was going to be really tight. They are both incredible swimmers, I was just happy to be in the mix.”

The 10km open water race in Fukuoka served as the first bit of qualification for next year’s Paris Olympics. Traditionally, athletes can automatically qualify for the Olympics the year before at the World Championships by placing in the top ten.

This year in 2023, the medalists automatically qualify to race the 10K at the Games, as the next step to qualification will be to place in the top 13 at next year’s World Aquatics Championships in Doha in February in order to secure a spot for the NOC. Athletes qualified from Fukuoka 2023 will count as one quota spot for their NOC, so in case they finish in the top-13 in Doha, the next highest place eligible athlete will gain their NOC a qualification quota spot.

The Race

Race conditions were fair, with water temperature reported to be at 25.8 degrees Celsius at the start of the race and air temperatures at 29 degrees Celsius throughout the day.

Leonie Beck played to her strengths throughout the two hour race. During the Open Water Swimming World Cup this year, she would lay back on the field, sitting up to ten seconds behind the leaders only to make a move on the second half, and use her reserved energy to her advantage through the last 2,000 meters, and sprint to the finish and come out on top.

On Saturday morning at Seaside Momochi Beach Park in Fukuoka, Beck, coached by Fabrizio Antonelli, did just that, sitting about ten seconds behind the leaders for the first 5,000 meters of the race, before making her move on the last lap.

The race played out with Australia’s Maddy Gough and Chelsea Gubecka leading the race for the first 4000 meters, while the Italians Giulia Gabbrielleschi and Ginevra Taddeucci lingered amongst the lead pack.

17-year-old American Katie Grimes took control of the race at about 4500 meters and held a strong five-second lead over the field at the halfway mark. Van Rouwendaal and Cunha were within striking distance at this point as the rain started to come down briefly. Gubecka stayed close to the leader Grimes as the race really started to take shape at the halfway mark.

And Grimes held on to that lead for about 2500 meters as she stayed long with her stroke, holding one of the lowest stroke counts amongst the entire 61-person race. Grimes had begun to grow her lead as France’s Anastasia Kirpichnikova had briefly entered the fray to sit up in the top three, while van Rouwendaal and Cunha stayed in the first chase group about seven seconds behind Grimes.

At 7500 meters, the Italian Taddeucci took the lead with a very fast stroke rate, with van Rouwendaal and Gubecka in second and third. At this point, Cunha and Beck were well back of the leaders, and it almost seemed strategic. As soon as the last lap commenced, both Beck and Cunha breached the lead pack to sit in fourth and fifth, as Gubecka and van Rouwendaal had taken control and started to distance themselves.

The Finish

The race intensified going into the final lap - with only three spots at the Olympics up for grabs, the women scratched and clawed throughout the last 1600 meters. It was evident on the final lap that the medals were going to be decided by the top six.

At the start of the last lap, Gubecka lost her cap, but this did not deter her even as the waves started to swell a little as the race intensified.

“On lap five the cap did come off. That is why I tend to double cap,” Gubecka said. “Luckily enough there were some photographers that were under the water around there that hopefully picked up the cap.

“The race itself - the conditions were great. We staged in Saga for a week about an hour south of here. We had mixed weather conditions so we were looking at the forecast and were hoping to have a nice day and it turned out lovely. Water temp was great - it got a little choppy at the end of the race. In Australia we are surrounded by water so we practice in conditions similar to this so I was very lucky to draw on that today.”

At this point, Grimes had fallen back as the experienced field started to swallow her up. Last year at the Budapest World Championships, Grimes could not keep pace with the lead pack on the final lap and wound up finishing fifth in the 10K after looking like she could win the gold medal. This time around, she was able to find something else as she was in the fight for the final spot on the podium.

As they reached the finish line, Beck had emerged from the pack on the final straightaway and held a relatively comfortable lead to the finish, winning by four seconds.

“I think today I was not so much in the back than I used to be,” Beck said of her race strategy. “I would have races where I lost too much and I had to catch them. Today I managed to stay close, I don’t think it was more than ten or 15 seconds maybe. Sometimes when I am so far behind, it’s not planned. I didn’t want to stay this much in the back, but I tried to keep calm. I knew at one point if I wanted, I could really push hard and fight and catch the group.”

Gubecka was solidly in second, and the battle for third was between Grimes, Cunha and Van Rouwendaal, to which it appeared the Dutch swimmer had the upper hand. But Grimes was able to get her last stroke over the two of them and won the bronze medal.

“This is my first time getting on the podium (for open water),” Grimes said. “It was really just trying to do better and better each race that I had. I knew this was where I was going to really need to get it done. I am one step closer to my goals and this is really big for me. I am really honoured to represent the USA in Paris.”

Beck qualified for her third Olympic Games after she was fifth in Tokyo two years ago in the 10K and was 25th in the 800m freestyle in Rio in 2016. Beck was also the first German to win the women’s 10K at the World Championships since Peggy Büchse in Fukuoka in 2001.

“I am super grateful. My old training partner (seven-time World champion) Thomas Lurz is my idol. He taught me to stay humble and train hard and to fight. I feel honoured to give this title to my home and I feel really blessed.”

Australia’s Chelsea Gubecka solidified her second trip to the Olympic Games after finishing 15th at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. She did not compete in Tokyo two years ago, but has fought her way back to the Games, securing silver in Fukuoka.

Gubecka was consistently among the lead pack throughout the entire race as no matter who was leading the race, she was lingering, and she ended up winning her first-ever World Championships medal in the process.

Grimes qualified for her second Olympics after finishing fourth in the 800m freestyle at the Tokyo Olympics two years ago.

Beck is entered in the 5K race on Tuesday, as Gubecka will not be racing the 5K later in the week. Beck will also take part in the 6K team relay on Thursday where Germany is the defending champion.

Grimes will stick around in Fukuoka to race the 1500m freestyle and 400m IM next week at Marine Messe, where she won silver medals in both those events last year at the World Championships.

Italy’s Taddeucci finished sixth ahead of Germany’s Lea Boy and the United States’s Mariah Denigan, while Hungary’s Bettina Fabian and Italy’s Gabbrielleschi rounded out the top ten.