Pallister, Smith, Walsh break World Cup records to open second stop in Westmont

Australia’s Lani Pallister, long one of the rising stars in swimming, has risen as one of the best distance freestylers in the world. On Friday night, she broke the World Cup record in the 400m freestyle at 3:52.42 aged 23, taking down the 3:52.80 mark that Summer McIntosh set in 2022.

The time for Pallister is a new Australian record and the third fastest time in history as Pallister beat her own national record of 3:53.73 from last year’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m). McIntosh’s 3:50.25 world record remains - does Pallister have another drop in her next week in McIntosh’s home country?

“Any time you set records and some best times, you have to be happy,” Pallister said. “I think for me, I’m going to get in trouble for a couple of my skills in that race. That’s something to work on moving forward which means I just have room for improvement.

“As much as racing is important, I want to keep my volume relatively normal in a training week. So, I think the main thing is just keeping things up and relatively low intensity and use this as the hard part of the week.”

With the recent retirement announcement of two-time defending Olympic champion Ariarne Titmus, Pallister is now taking the reigns as the top distance freestyler in Australia and is having a career year, fresh off a silver in the best race of the World Aquatics Championships in the 800m freestyle and a bronze in the 1500m freestyle.

“I know there has been a lot of talk about her coming back and it’s nice she’s made a decision for her,” Pallister said on Titmus. “She seems really happy at the moment, which I think is the nicest thing. She’s done so much as an athlete, so much for swimming, international swimming and setting the standard for middle distance swimming internationally."

If Pallister can take that world record next week, it would certainly be prophetic after she was poised for a big future with three gold medals at the 2019 World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships. It’s not surprising she’s swimming so well at the moment and she is another piece in a powerful Australian women’s team that is looking to set up the next generation of Australians for the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane.

The other two gold medal winning Australians at this meet were Kaylee McKeown and Mollie O’Callaghan. McKeown won the 50m backstroke at 25.63 ahead of teammate O’Callaghan, who was third at 25.72.

O’Callaghan, racing in some off events on Friday, was also third in the 50m freestyle behind champion Kasia Wasick (23.30) and fellow Aussie Alexandria Perkins (23.45).

This is the second straight win for McKeown, who has been dealing with a nagging shoulder injury, in the 50m backstroke as a triple crown and a USD $10,000 bonus is up for grabs next week. She has two big races tomorrow and Sunday in the 100m and 200m backstroke with American Regan Smith.

“I love Regan, I think without someone like that pushing me in the sport, I wouldn’t be the athlete I am,” McKeown said. “I have said that so many times in interviews and she said the same thing. We’re just two people trying to do the best we can. If she wins or I win, who cares. At the end of the day, I just want to do myself proud. I’ve said that the next four years is going to be for me and only for me. I don’t care what media says, friends or family say, I just want be happy in the sport I’ve been doing since I’ve been 8 years old.”

Regan Smith sat out the 50m backstroke to win the 200m butterfly at 2:00.20, breaking her own mark from last week that was 2:00.28. The time is the third fastest in history as Smith nearly became the third woman to break 2:00 in the event after McIntosh and Rio Olympic champion Mireia Belmonte.

“I wanted it to be a 1:59,” Smith said.

"I am assuming that means I took it out faster, I hope I did, that’s what I have to do, in order to go under. I just didn’t feel like I quite had it, on the last 50 especially, the last 25 I started to fall apart. I’m annoyed honestly, but I’m grateful for a PB, always.”

Smith, who has been a star on the American national team since she was a teenager in 2017, has been hearing the cheers from the American crowd in Chicago.

“I love racing in front of a home crowd,” Smith said. “This is just a very small taste of what we will get in three years from now. I will never take the opportunity to race at home for granted, because there isn’t anything really like it. The fans here are amazing, they know us, they care about us, and they want us to succeed. It’s not the same with international fans; there is no place like home.”

Smith will have another opportunity next week to join that sub-2:00 club as well as a $10,000 USD bonus for the triple crown as she won tonight by four seconds over Ireland’s Ellen Walshe (2:04.38).

Gretchen Walsh took her second win of the tour in the 100m Individual Medley at 55.77, just off her own world record of 55.11, but it was the third fastest time in history and a World Cup record as she inched closer to a $10,000 USD bonus next week. Walsh, perhaps the best short course swimmer in the entire world based on her kick power, took down teammate Kate Douglass at 56.42.

“She makes me nervous. I really love that event. It’s always a good time swimming it and racing it even though it’s not one you think you’re training for all the time. We really do a lot to gear towards a really fast medley, I’m always ready whether or not I know it. That was a great progression from Carmel," Walsh said.

Both Walsh and Douglass swim for Coach Todd DeSorbo at the University of Virginia, as he made the trip to Illinois to be on deck.

“It’s nice for both of us to have him here,” Douglass said.

“(He told me) don’t breathe as much on the last 25,” Walsh said of DeSorbo’s advice. “We’re really trying to work on my breaststroke. He wanted me to put my best racing foot forward. Go out there and push myself.”

We knew the 100m IM was going to be a race to watch and it lived up to the hype as these two will do battle one more time next week. The time was a new World Cup record for Walsh, who swam 55.91 in Carmel last week. Between them, Walsh and Douglass own eight of the top ten times in history in this event.

Douglass and Walsh are also in a battle for the overall World Cup crown, along with Smith and McKeown, as Walsh held the lead after last week over the defending champion Douglass.

Douglass collected her second straight win in the 200m breaststroke at 2:14.57, the fifth fastest swim in history. Douglass, the Olympic and World champion, has been so dominant in this event that she was over two seconds off her best time but tied the second fastest swimmer of all-time Rebecca Soni in the process. Douglass won tonight’s race by nearly four seconds over Alex Walsh (2:18.54).

The men’s World Cup race is currently led by Hungary’s Hubert Kos, who remains undefeated in backstroke races this tour as he won tonight’s 200m backstroke at 1:47.51, a full second ahead of 100m Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon (1:48.76).

“My 200 back was interesting, the time was pretty decent, but I made a lot of errors that I probably shouldn’t have made,” Kos said. “My breakouts were not very good. I haven’t looked at my splits yet but that doesn’t look good either on paper. That was a rough start but happy with the outcome.”

Kos, the Olympic and World champion, has still yet to achieve a world record in his already storied career as that 1:45.63 from Mitch Larkin is going to be under threat next week. Kos missed the record by 0.02 at last year’s World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in his home nation and has been a force every time he enters the pool since making the move to swim with coach Bob Bowman in 2023.

Kos’s biggest adversary in the World Cup standings is Canada’s Ilya Kharun, who won the 50m freestyle tonight at 20.72 and was second in the 100m butterfly at 49.00 to Switzerland’s Noe Ponti (48.47).

Kharun and Kos used to train together at Arizona State University before Bowman took the job at the University of Texas last year. Kos followed him to Austin while Kharun stayed in Tempe with coach Herbie Behm. Both of them didn’t miss a beat, as Kharun was able to out touch fellow Canadian Joshua Liendo in the 50m freestyle final in a minor upset as Liendo was 0.15 behind at 20.94.

“Me and Herbie work on it a lot over time because I do (the 50 free) in college,” Kharun said. “The biggest thing on those are the details, I was pretty happy to hit those. I really wanted to get first on that because I knew I could.”

Last week’s 50m champion Chris Guiliano of the United States finished fifth at 21.03.

Kharun is aware of his placing in the World Cup standings as the 200m butterfly awaits him tomorrow.

“I know who is going to be up there. It’s all very exciting, I’m happy to be here," Kharun said.

“I’m kind of hesitant to see how tired I’ll be,” Kharun added of the 200m fly tomorrow. “I think it will be good, I just must take it out nice tomorrow morning.”

Kharun finished second to the aforementioned Ponti in the 100m butterfly as Ponti swam the seventh fastest time in history at 48.47, backing up his win from last week when he was 48.53.

“I think I swam it much better than last week,” Ponti said. “It felt better, I didn’t struggle as much as last week. Last week, after 100 fly, I was very tired. Today, I was of course tired, but not as bad as last week.”

“(I) Trained a little bit, aerobic work,” Ponti said of his adjustments in between. “During the workouts, you race. You go 3-4 days to train a little bit, then try the first couple days to do something more. You always go down a bit on the last day. That’s what I did. I tried to be better than last week because last week was very bad. I didn’t eat well; I was ordering stuff. In the U.S., I’m not used to this food. It’s never easy to adjust.”

Ponti nearly took a second win in the 100m IM, but he was beat to the wall by American Shaine Casas, who won for the second week in a row at 50.45. Casas moved up to fifth all-time with the swim, as he won from lane one over the likes of Ponti (50.76), who was charging home on the freestyle, and Kos (50.99), who trains with Casas in Austin.

“I was expecting to be fast,” Casas said. “I wanted to be under 50. I need to find 0.4 to be satisfied with that race specifically. It was good.”

Casas is looking to be the third swimmer to go sub-:50 in the 100m IM, something only Leon Marchand and Caeleb Dressel have done.

Casas has long been one of the most talented swimmers in the United States, but hadn’t quite shown that on the biggest stage. This summer, he swam to silver in the 200m IM at the World Championships, proving that he belongs amongst the world’s elite after missing many podiums and finals in 2023 and 2024.

This year, he’s finally having a career year, showing off the promise he showed in 2019 and 2020.

“I had a couple of down years when the swims went away and the interviews were gone, a bit quieter and less of a presence in the sport,” Casas said.

"I feel like the exact same person, I think that’s what helping me out with all of this. It’s giving guidance on how to navigate it and I’m just confident to take what I’ve learned and keep pushing forward.”

Australia’s Sam Short took the win in the men’s 400m freestyle at 3:36.27, moving himself up to 19th all-time and the fifth fastest Australian, as he won ahead of the American duo of Carson Foster (3:37.93) and Kieran Smith (3:38.79). Short got a bit of revenge over Foster, who beat him last week in Carmel, as Short helped Australia sweep the 400m freestyles.

“We have to keep up the strong reputation in the 400m freestyle,” Short said. “I was much happier with that swim than last week. I was way too tense last week so I was just trying to relax. I focused on being relaxed and not over-swimming it against good quality swimmers.”

Ilya Shymanovich also won the men’s 100m breaststroke at 56.41 as the 31-year-old world record holder took down last week’s champ Caspar Corbeau (56.43). Long course world record holder Adam Peaty just missed the podium in fourth at 57.00 in his second competition since the 2024 Olympics at age 30.

How to Watch

The second stop of the World Cup will continue from Westmont on Saturday, October 18 at 10:00 a.m. local time with finals following that night at 6:00 p.m. local time.

Where to Watch

Catch all the action live and watch on demand through our broadcast and streaming partners here.

• Carmel Day Three: Kaylee McKeown nears 200m backstroke World Record to close first stop of Swimming World Cup in Carmel
• Carmel Day Two: Gretchen Walsh slams world record on day 2 of World Aquatics Swimming World Cup in Carmel
• Carmel Day One: Regan Smith, Gretchen Walsh break World Cup records to open Swimming World Cup in Carmel