Pickrem adds to Canadian medal haul
Clearwater native splashes to bronze in the women’s 400-metre individual medley
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Sydney Pickrem won Canada’s fourth medal of the FINA world championships, earning bronze Sunday in the women’s 400-metre individual medley.
Pickrem, of Clearwater, secured third place with a personal-best time of four minutes 32.88 seconds.
“It’s the first 400 IM international-level final I’ve ever made. I knew when I didn’t make the final in Rio I had so much left, so to finally be able to get in at night and give it all I’ve got, a result like that means the world,” said Pickrem, the youngest competitor in the final at age 20.
Later Sunday, Canada narrowly missed the podium in the women’s 4x100-metre medley relay. The team featuring Penny Oleksiak, Kylie Masse, Kierra Smith and Chantal van Landeghem finished fourth in a Canadian-record time of 3:54.86.
Earlier, Rachel Nicol of Lethbridge, Alta., finished eighth in the women’s 50 breaststroke in 30.80 seconds. American Lilly King won gold in 29.40.
This year’s highlight for Canada was Masse’s world-record swim to 100-metre backstroke gold on Tuesday. The mixed 4x100-metre freestyle and medley relay teams also won bronze.
Canada made 17 appearances in finals with an additional 20 Top 16 finishers.
“(Seventeen) finals ... is the best since the 1978 world championships,” Swimming Canada high-performance director John Atkinson said.
Meanwhile, Caeleb Dressel won his seventh gold medal of the world championships Sunday, putting the U.S. team ahead to stay with another dominating swim in the 4x100-metre medley relay.
One night after becoming the first swimmer to win three golds in one night at a major international meet, Dressel joined Michael Phelps in another elite club: Seven golds at the second-biggest meet after the Olympics.
Phelps set the record at the 2007 worlds in Melbourne, Australia — a prelude to his unprecedented eight golds the following year at the Beijing Olympics.
Dressel matched the feat along the banks of the Danube, emerging as America’s next great swimming star.
The 20-year-old University of Florida student won three individual golds and was part of four winning relay teams.
It was a big night all around for the Americans.
King set her second individual world record of the meet in the 50 breaststroke, again besting Russian rival Yulia Efimova, then returned as part of the women’s 4x100 medley relay that also broke the world record.
Chase Kalisz completed a sweep of the individual medleys to carry on the tradition of American dominance, even after Phelps’ retirement and Ryan Lochte not being allowed to compete in Budapest because of his shenanigans at the Rio Olympics.
Kalisz romped to victory in the 400 IM on the heels of his victory in the 200 IM.
The U.S. finished with 18 golds and 38 medals overall — a huge improvement over the previous worlds two years ago in Kazan, Russia, where the Americans managed just eight golds and 23 medals.
The home crowd had no complaints, either.
Katinka Hosszu, the “Iron Lady,” finished off her third straight 200/400 IM sweep at the championships to go along with a pair of golds from Brazil last summer.
But this meet will be remembered as Dressel’s coming-out party.
He won the 50 and 100 freestyles and nearly took down Phelps’ world record in the 100 butterfly. Dressel was a beast on the relays, swimming both the free and fly.
Phelps’ feat still stands supreme since five of his seven golds were in individual events and he didn’t have the benefit of the mixed relays. Dressel won a pair of golds in that relatively new event, which he was quick to point out after his three wins on Saturday.
But the comparisons to the winningest athlete in Olympic history are sure to pick up steam heading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Dressel swam the fly in the final event of the meet, taking over for the third leg with the Americans facing a slight deficit after world record-holder Adam Peaty pushed Britain ahead on the breaststroke. No worries. Dressel surged to the front with a down-and-back time of 49.76 — the only butterfly swimmer to break 50 seconds. Nathan Adrian took over for the freestyle anchor with a comfortable lead, pulling away to win in 3:27.91. Britain settled for the silver, more than a second behind.
When Adrian touched, Dressel hugged his other teammates Kevin Cordes and Matt Grevers. As everyone else walked off deck, Dressel lingered a bit, watching a replay of the race on the video board.
It must have seemed more than a little surreal.
To the surprise of no one, Dressel was named the top male swimmer of the meet. The female award went to Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom, who capped off a stellar performance of her own with a bit of redemption in the 50 free.
After setting a world record in the semifinals, Sjostrom completed the furious dash from one end of the pool to the other in 23.69 — just two one-hundredths of a second off her mark the previous evening.
Sjostrom set two world records in the meet, also getting credit for a record in the 100 freestyle when she swam a blistering first leg of the 4x100 free relay.
Sjostrom now holds four world records overall including the 50 and 100 fly.