Four American men - Hobson, Alexy, Urlando and Finke - are leading the world rankings in 2025 for the United States after the team had its lowest gold medal count at the Olympics last summer in 36 years.
Last year wasn’t the bright coloured spectacular showing that the United States swim team had long been accustomed to experiencing in the history of the Olympic Games. At the Paris 2024 Olympics last July, the men’s team didn’t win its first individual gold medal until the last night behind a World Record from Bobby Finke in the 1500m freestyle.
Following that swim, the men’s medley relay team was beaten for the first time ever at the Games by a surging Chinese team. It was a valiant effort behind Ryan Murphy, Nic Fink, Caeleb Dressel and Hunter Armstrong, but ending the Games with a silver in a relay that the team had never lost was a shock. It left a lot of American fans with a concern over the future of the team four years ahead of a home Games in Los Angeles 2028.
The lack of star power on the men’s side has been a muted concern for American fans for the better part of ten years. Since the retirement of Michael Phelps in 2016, only four different men have won individual golds at a Worlds or Olympics in non-50 events.
Dressel and Finke have broken World Records, while Murphy and Chase Kalisz remained steady forces for eight years. Nic Fink, Hunter Armstrong and Justin Ress won World titles in 50m events, which have since been added to the Olympic lineup for Los Angeles 2028, but the dominance in men’s swimming has been evenly spread throughout the world.
Entering this week’s Nationals in Indianapolis, Finke is the only Olympic or World champ for the US men racing for a spot at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The majority of the men’s team from last summer is still intact, but the entire medley relay from last summer is out, leaving a lot of star power out of the picture with a new identity to be found.
After three days at the Nationals in Indianapolis, the American men have four real individual gold medal potentials for the World Championships.
It started with Luca Urlando’s 1:52.37 in the 200m butterfly from two months ago, good for number one in the world. After one session at Nationals, Jack Alexy put up a 46.99 in the heats of the 100m freestyle, also a world-leading time.
On Wednesday night, Luke Hobson swam 1:43.73 in the 200m freestyle, becoming the first American since Phelps to break 1:44 in the event to sit first in the world and fifth all-time.
“That’s a crazy stat,” Hobson said. “It’s something that hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s definitely cool and it feels a little crazy because that world record is so fast but I’m definitely chipping away at it and going in the right direction.
“That’s the spot I want to be in at the end of the summer,” Hobson said of being number one in the world. “It’s still kind of early, but it’s a good spot to be in.”
Add in two-time Olympic champion and world record holder Bobby Finke, who won the 1500m on Tuesday with a 14:48, ranked fourth among those qualified for Worlds, and the U.S. has four legit gold medal favourites right there.
There were real doubts over what this US men’s team could do, but the team has taken it in stride thus far at Nationals.
“Those people can say whatever they want. They don’t go in the pool for 20 hours a week and work their butts off,” Alexy said of the “doubters” after his 100m freestyle win. “They’re going to see what Team USA has in store in seven weeks. We are already starting the night off with a lot of great swims on the men’s and women’s side so they’re going to have to wait and see what we got.”
Paris 2024 was a serious wake-up call for USA Swimming. Behind eight gold medals in the pool, it was the lowest gold medal count for the Americans since 1988 when four less events were on the Olympic programme.
Although hardly anyone wanted to bring up the United States’ relatively disappointing showing, the results were hard to ignore and changes needed to be made, not just for 2028, but for 2032 and beyond.
In April of this year, USA Swimming hired Greg Meehan as the new National Team Director, taking over for Lindsay Mintenko, who held the job for seven years. Yuri Suguiyama joined shortly after in a newly created position of National Team Senior Director with a job description of “guiding performance strategies and aiding the country’s top swimmers through the Olympic quad.”
Sugiyama guided 15-year-old Katie Ledecky to an improbable gold in the 800m freestyle in London 2012, while Meehan coached the likes of Simone Manuel, Maya DiRado, and Torri Huske to Olympic golds of their own in 2016 and 2024, along with Ledecky in 2021.
Meehan is hoping to build a “team-first culture” in the lead-up to Los Angeles 2028. The first task will be to lead a successful World Championships campaign in Singapore in seven weeks. The United States traditionally hasn’t been as strong in meets in the eastern hemisphere, but has for years taken its training camp to Singapore, so the team has history with the city.
With a home Games looming, last year’s team doesn’t want to go anywhere. Many of the ageing stars from last year dismissed any retirement rumours, as the home Games opportunity proved enticing. After a less-than-stellar Games, there’s a quiet consensus that that won’t happen in 2028.
Why exactly? Well, based on 2025, the team is motivated.
“To win (Olympic) gold on home soil, I saw Leon (Marchand) do it a couple times last summer and that inspired me,” Hobson, fresh off his 1:43, told reporters Wednesday night. He was a stroke away from winning the 200m freestyle in Paris last year, winning the bronze medal. “It’s definitely something I’m working towards and something that motivates me every day.”
The United States has always been the standard of excellence in swimming, and the team wants to keep it that way. After numerous races where they were touched out in 2024, the team has a strong nucleus in place to be good at the next global stage in Singapore.
Contributing: Greg Eggert