Top 5 Swimmers in the United States
Most people will only watch swimming in the Olympics; it is not a sport that most people tend to keep up with. Even though a lot of people don’t know that much or anything about the sport, these are a few of the names that people will know.
5. Simone Manuel
Simone Manuel is the first Junior swimmer to break the 25 split in the 50-yard freestyle. Before graduating high school, she had broken the 100-meter freestyle record. Manuel was a part of the Stanford swim team, the 2016 Rio Olympic team and has recently signed with TYR as a pro athlete.
During the 2016 Rio games, Manuel swam in the 4x100 Medley Relay, where her team set a new American record. She then went on to make history by being the first African American women to win a gold medal in swimming. At the end the games, Manuel went home with four medals: two gold and two silver.
While swimming for Stanford, she broke records and earned a few NCAA titles. In her first NCAA championship meet, she broke the record for the 100-yard freestyle, where her relay team also broke the record for the 4x100 relay. In her second year, she was a part of the gold medal 800 free relay, broke the NCAA, Meet, and Pool Record for the 50 free. To top it all off, Stanford won the NCAA Championship title.
After her 2018 season where Stanford won the NCAA title for the second year in a row, Manuel decided it was time to start her professional career as a swimmer.
4. Ryan Murphy
As a first year at the University of California Berkeley, Ryan Murphy was named the Pac-12 Newcomer of the Year. During his first year, he won the 100-meter backstroke, setting a new school record and the 200-yard backstroke, breaking the NCAA record in the 2014 NCAA Championships.
Not only did Murphy have an amazing first year at Berkeley, but he also had an even better second year, setting a new backstroke record at the NCAA Championship meet. He then was named NCAA Pac-12 and CSAA Swimmer of the Year.
Murphy was the backstroke champion at the NCAA Championships for the fourth straight year. After his college career, Murphy made his first Olympic team in 2016, where he set a new 100 yard-backstroke record after being behind for the first 50 meters. Then he won the 200 meters backstroke and a medley relay during the Olympic games.
To start off his professional career, he won three Olympic Gold medals and signed with Speedo USA.
3. Caeleb Dressel
Caeleb Dressel is known for his sprint events; he specializes in freestyle, breaststroke, and butterfly. Dressel is an Olympic swimmer who got his first gold medal during the 2016 Rio Olympic games, but is more well-known in the college swim world.
Dressel is a part of the University of Florida swim team. He won the 2015 NCAA title in the 50-yard freestyle. During the 2016 NCAA championship, he broke the American and U.S. Open 50-meter freestyle and 100-meter freestyle. In 2017, he broke the American and U.S. Open records in the 50-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle again.
During the 2018 NCAA championship, he broke the American and U.S. Open 50-meter freestyle. He won his first three individual races and won this first relay national title. Dressel is the first swimmer ever to break the 18 seconds 50 free barrier, the 40 seconds 100 free barrier, and the 43 seconds 100 fly barrier in the history of swimming.
He has just signed with Speedo, which has ended his college career but is the start of his professional career as a swimmer.
2. Katie Ledecky
Nobody has ever dominated races the way Ledecky does; once she is ahead, she never stops. The first time that the world saw her swim in a big meet was at the 2012 London Olympic Games, where she suspired everyone and won gold in the 800-meter freestyle.
At the age of 20 Ledecky holds fourteen world records, 31 medals (27 golds, three silvers, and one bronze). Five of which are Olympic Gold Medals.
In the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, she dominated every event that she competed in. She set a new record in the 400-meter freestyle. In the 200 meters freestyle race, she took the lead around the 60-meter mark and never lost it. Then in the 800-meter freestyle race, she swam an 8:04.79 and broke the world record by two seconds and beat the silver medalist by 11 seconds.
After the Olympic Games, Ledecky was a part of the Stanford Swim Team, who won the NCAA Championship in 2018. While swimming for Stanford, Ledecky beat the record for the 1000-yard freestyle by 35 seconds and set the new school records of 9:10.49.
Although she has been in the swimming world for a while, she is just getting started.
- Michael Phelps
The top swimmer in the United States is Michael Phelps, who made his Olympic Debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympic games. During the Sydney Olympic games, Phelps was only 15 years old, being the youngest male to make the U.S. Olympic team in 68 years.
Phelps has been a big name in the swimming world since then and became a well-known name to the rest of the world during the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. He collected eight gold medals and set seven World Records.
Phelps is the most decorated Olympic Athlete with 28 medals, 23 of them being gold. During his time swimming, Phelps has set 39 world records,29 individual and 10 relays.
