The 2025 World Aquatics Championships are underway and few teams appear to be having as bad a time as some of Team USA’s swimmers.
SwimSwam reported earlier this week that a significant chunk of Team USA had come down with food poisoning at its pre-world championship training camp in Thailand. The team declined comment, but one coach with an athlete on the team described the amount of swimmers affected as “almost half” the roster.
It was later reported by both SwimSwam and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde that 10 swimmers were deemed too sick to travel with the rest of the team. The issue is also apparently hitting Great Britain’s team, which used the same Thanyapura Phuket resort to prepare for worlds.
That was a grim omen, and it has so far not played out well for some Americans.
In the first day of action in Singapore, three-time Olympic gold medalist Torri Huske and rising star Claire Weinstein both pulled out of events. USA Swimming announced Huske was pulling out of the 100-meter butterfly, the event she won in Paris, to focus on the 4×100-meter freestyle relay.
No reason was given for the 18-year-old Weinstein pulling out of the 400-meter freestyle, where she was expected to be competitive. As Forde noted, the American men also struggled in the heats for the 400-meter freestyle. All of them missed out on the final after failing to finish in the top 8.
It wasn’t a complete disaster for Team USA, as Alex Walsh finished third in the 200-meter individual medley heats and her sister Gretchen Walsh topped out qualifiers in the 100-meter butterfly without Huske. Katie Ledecky also kept doing her thing, leading the field in the 400-meter freestyle.
The swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships are scheduled to take place from Saturday to next Sunday.
