USA Swimming is sending one of its strongest teams in recent memory to the Olympic Games later this month in Paris. The team is coming off a fast Olympic Trials where two World Records were set in Indianapolis in front of record numbers at Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League.

Heading into these Olympics, the United States team is looking to redeem itself after winning 11 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, its lowest since winning that same number (with four less events) at the 1992 Barcelona Games. At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships last year, also in Japan, the team won seven gold medals. It was the first time since 2001 that the Americans did not win the most golds at a World Championships in swimming.

With Paris less than two weeks away, the United States has six individuals ranked number one in the world coming into these Olympics, and a chance to win many more.

Traditionally, the United States has done very well in international meets in Europe, as evident by their success at meets in London, Barcelona, and Budapest in the last 12 years. With the team set to begin training camp in Croatia this week, they are in the midst of fine tuning the details to swim at their best in Paris. The Americans are hoping to erase the demons from last year’s Worlds and the last Olympics by out-performing the rest of the world on the biggest stage.

Here is a look at the American swimmers ranked number one in the world this year.

Gretchen Walsh - 100m Butterfly

It had been a long time coming for 21-year-old Gretchen Walsh when she broke the world record in the semi-finals of the 100m butterfly on the first night of the Olympic Trials. Walsh had been a rising age group phenom in the United States since she was the youngest competitor at the 2016 Olympic Trials at age 13.

After swimming eye-popping times in short course yards this past year, Walsh seemed poised for a big swim at the Olympic Trials, and she delivered with the fastest 100m butterfly in history. Her 55.18 destroyed Sarah Sjostrom’s 55.48 that had stood since 2016, and Walsh will head into Paris as the favorite alongside 2022 World champ Torri Huske, who moved to third all-time in Indianapolis with her 55.52.

Despite holding the world record, Walsh is a bit unproven in big finals, finishing eighth at last year’s World Championships in this event that was won by China’s Zhang Yufei. However, Walsh is nearly a full second faster than any non-American this year, with Germany’s Angelina Kohler (56.11) and China’s Zhang (56.36) sitting third and fourth globally behind Walsh and Huske.

Walsh has tremendous front end speed, and will need to set the pace against Huske, who looks to be her strongest adversary in this event.

Huske was fourth in the 100m butterfly final three years ago, while Walsh did not qualify for the team. If they can go 1-2 in Paris, it would be a nice redemption arc for the pair. It won’t be easy, as no Olympic final is, but they have proven to be in great shape to win medals in the French capital.

Regan Smith - 100m Backstroke

The women’s 100m backstroke will be one of the most anticipated races in Paris with the presence of the five fastest performers in history, as four of the five have done their best times in the last 12 months. Fresh off a world record at the Olympic Trials, 22-year-old Regan Smith is coming into the 100m backstroke with a lot of confidence after swimming her first best time in that event in five years.

At the 2019 Worlds, Smith broke both backstroke world records and was all of a sudden the heavy favorite to win both at the 2020 Olympics. But the pressure got to her, and she only managed bronze in the 100m, and didn’t even make the team in the 200.

Now in 2024, the world record is attached to her name again, thanks to the 57.13 she swam June 18. Her biggest challenger will be the defending Olympic champion in Australia’s Kaylee McKeown as well as fellow American Katharine Berkoff and defending Olympic silver medalist in Canada’s Kylie Masse all of whom have broken 58 seconds this year.

Smith and McKeown have been rivals in the backstroke events since they were juniors in 2017, and have traded World titles and world records since 2021. In 2024, the stars have aligned for an exciting showdown between the two where it could take a world record to win. Smith was the first woman inside 58 seconds five years ago at the World Championships and could be days away from being the first to crack a 56 on the scoreboard.

McKeown won’t go down without a fight, by virtue of her 57.33 from last year’s World Cup on the back of three World titles in Fukuoka in 2023. McKeown is the defending champion in both backstroke races, and Smith is hungry to challenge that throne.

This won’t be the last time we talk about these two at the top of their game as they look to take women’s backstroke to places it has never gone.

Carson Foster - 400m IM

Twenty-two-year-old Carson Foster is entering his first Olympics this summer with the fastest time in the world in the 400m IM this year where he will go up against two-time World champion and world record holder Leon Marchand of France. Much has been written the last two years about Marchand’s star-power ahead of these Olympics in Paris and rightfully so, but if anyone can take down the French superstar, it could be Foster.

Foster, similarly to Walsh and Smith, was an age group phenom growing up in the United States. In 2016 at age 14, he swam at the Olympic Trials as one of the youngest male competitors. At age 17, he won his first World Junior title, and he seemed poised to make his first Olympic team at age 19. He didn’t, and it became a fixation for him - why couldn’t he step up in big finals?

With the help of a mental performance coach, he was able to make his first Olympic team this year, swimming the world’s fastest time this year in the 400m IM.

The favourite for the 400m IM final will still be Marchand, based on the world record he set last year and the flag on his cap. When he lines up behind the blocks at the La Defense Arena on July 28, it will be one of the hottest tickets of the entire two weeks at these Olympic Games. But Foster seems poised for a big swim in Paris based on how he performed at the U.S. Trials.

With the hard part out of the way of just making the Olympic team, Foster could fly under the radar and pull a surprise on Marchand. If he does, it would be one of the biggest upsets in Olympic swimming in recent memory, and would launch Foster into stardom that he seemed poised for at a young age.

Ryan Murphy - 100m, 200m backstroke

Ryan Murphy qualified for his third Olympic team and became the first American man to make the team in both backstroke events at three Olympic Games. Murphy, age 29, is ranked number one in the world in both the 100m (52.22) and 200m backstroke (1:54.33) and will be looking to win back the gold medals he won in 2016. Murphy was favored to repeat in both in 2021, but came away from the Japanese capital with silver in the 200m and bronze in the 100m.

This year, his biggest challengers will be his own teammates he shares the lanes with at the University of California, Berkeley. Spain’s Hugo Gonzalez is second in the world in the 200m backstroke (1:54.51) after Murphy and was the World champion earlier this year in Doha, while their teammate Keaton Jones, is ranked third (1:54.61). If an American does not win the 200m backstroke in Paris, it could be Gonzalez, who would win Spain’s first Olympic medal in swimming on the men’s side 1992.

Hunter Armstrong, who is the other American representative in the 100m backstroke, is ranked fifth in the 100m at 52.68.

If one of the fellow Golden Bears doesn’t take down Murphy, look no further than Greece’s Apostolos Christou in the 100m, as the European champion this year was 52.23 just before the entry deadline in Belgrade. Christou has been lurking the last few years since he was 11th in Tokyo. The 27-year-old is having a career year and could win Greece’s first Olympic swimming medal since 1896.

In the 200m, along with the likes of Gonzalez and Jones, the 2023 World champion Hubert Kos will be looking to be one of the guys to beat in France. Swimming out of Bob Bowman’s Arizona State crew last year, Kos upset Murphy at last year’s World Championships to win the 200m backstroke. He hasn’t swam as fast this year, recording a 1:56.46 at a domestic meet in the United States earlier this summer, but he has vastly improved in his other events, which could allow him to show off a huge swim in this event come Paris.

Murphy will have his hands full, but he has been a mainstay on the United States team since 2014, and will be looked at as one of the leaders on this Olympic team. He has taken on a lot of responsibility as the best male backstroker in the United States, and has held that title with grace since 2016. With the target on his back in 2024, he will be looked at by a lot of eyes in his home nation and if he shows up and swims big, it would be a huge morale boost for the rest of the team and the rest of his country.

Katie Ledecky - 800m, 1500m freestyle

There’s few certainties in life, and Katie Ledecky dominating the distance freestyle events is one of them. This year at age 27, she will be going for an unprecedented fourth straight Olympic gold medal in the 800m freestyle. Only four swimmers in history have won the same event four times at the Olympic Games - Dawn Fraser, Krisztina Egerszegi, Michael Phelps and Ledecky. And only Phelps has won the same event four times. If she can win the 800m final on August 3, she will launch herself into the stratosphere as one of the best athletes of all-time in any sport.

The list of people who have beaten her head to head is sparse, but Australia’s Ariarne Titmus is one of them, and is less than two seconds behind the American in the world rankings in the 800m. Ledecky (8:12.95) has never lost to Titmus (8:14.06) in an 800m, with the Aussie taking two wins over her in the 400m at last year’s Worlds and the Tokyo Olympics.

Titmus is still figuring out the 800m, but her 8:14 in June was promising. If Titmus is to beat Ledecky, it would have to be done on the front half as she has a lot of speed, as evident by her world record in the 200m in June. Ledecky has the upper hand on endurance, and is also one of the best racers in the entire world. She won’t go down without a fight, and the 800m is her baby that she won’t want to let go.

Ledecky is the heavy favorite to win the 1500m as well, after the event made its debut in Tokyo 2021. Since winning her first World title in 2013, she’s hardly been challenged in this event, with her closest pursuer this year being Italy’s Simona Quadarella, who is the only active swimmer to win a 1500m World title in her career. Ledecky swam 15:37.35 back in June to lead Quadarella (15:46.99) in the world rankings, and looked as if she had more to give. Ledecky is one of just nine American swimmers to qualify for four Olympics and is already considered one of the greatest female swimmers of all-time.

If she could add these two gold medals to her collection, she would tie Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most Olympic gold medals by a woman in history.

Matt Fallon - 200m breaststroke

The United States hasn’t won the men’s 200m breaststroke at the Olympic Games since 1992 when Mike Barrowman put on a masterclass of the event to set the world record that would last for 10 years. It’s one of the longest gold medal droughts for the American men, and this is the first Olympics since 2004 that an American man has the number one time in the world heading into the Olympics. 21-year-old Matt Fallon swam 2:06.54 in June to lead the world rankings ahead of Japan’s Ippei Watanabe (2:06.94) and Yu Hanaguruma (2:07.07), as well as defending champion Zac Stubblety-Cook (2:07.40) of Australia.

Fallon has been steadily rising the last few years, and had a big breakthrough at last year’s World Championships where he won the bronze medal. This year’s swim at the Olympic Trials was the best we have ever seen Fallon, and showed his foreseen potential tabbed by the American coaching staff last year. If there is someone to break the gold medal drought, it could be Fallon, who has one of the best back halves in the entire world.

The last few years, the 200m breaststroke final has been won by the one who swims the most tactical race, and Fallon is one of the best racers in the world, and swims similarly to the way Barrowman attacked his races in the early 1990s. Fallon doesn’t quite have as large of a profile as the aforementioned Ledecky, Murphy, and Smith, but he is a dark horse to win this 200m breaststroke gold medal, which could be one of the top races of the swimming program in Paris.