2024 World Aquatics Championships
It’s time to talk about Italy.
Through five days of competition at the 2024 World Championships, they won eight medals, three more than they won at this point in Fukuoka last summer. This puts them on pace for their biggest medal haul since 2001, when they won 12 overall.
Italian medalists by day 5:
Yesterday they started to regain momentum and added three medals during the final session. Alberto Lazzettis 200 fly silver (1:54.65)Nicolo Martinenghi50 Breasted Silver (26.39), and Gregorio Paltrinieri‘s Freestyle 800 bronze medal (7:42.98). As a result, they now led once in a total of four times from Fukuoka on this day.
That was impressive considering they weren’t Thomas Ceccon At this meeting. Ceccon is always under threat for a medal in the 100 back and 50 fly, which take place in the first half of the world championship schedule. In 2023, these two individual medals were added to the medal count up to the fourth day.
We’ve been tracking the impact of Doha’s lack of star power on medal wins throughout the tournament. 14 countries won gold medals across 23 different competitions. Countries such as Ireland, Portugal, New Zealand and Bosnia and Herzegovina won their first ever World Championship medals.
Well, that reality is certainly a factor in Italy’s medal win. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. The opportunity is there, but the swimmers still need to step up and take advantage of it.Lazetti beat home in competitive 200 IM field, topped by a touch Daiya Seto and duncan scott. Paltrinieri continues to improve after finishing eighth in the 800m freestyle at the 2023 World Championships (7:53.68). The men’s breaststroke competition is as competitive as ever thanks to the return of the Olympics. adam peaty And then the appearance Sam Williamson.
Italy has followed a steady improvement curve in medal totals from 2013 to 2022, with Italy winning two medals this year. Since then, they have won more gold medals at each world championship, jumping to five in 2015, six in 2017, eight in 2019, and nine in 2022. . These World Championships in Budapest were a breakthrough moment for them as they won five gold medals and finished third in the medal standings. .
In 2023, he took a slight step back, winning six medals and ranking 10th in the medal standings. However, even with the big names missing, the team bounced back after just eight months.things will have to move on perfectly For them to break the 2001 record. When tied together, it looks like a ceiling. But the path is there and the swimmers showed throughout the first five days that they are ready to make the most of it.
quick hit
- Two Dutch records were set during today’s final session. beginning, marit steenburgen She scored 52.53 points in the women’s 100 freestyle semifinals.she reset Femke HeemskerkIt broke the previous record of 52.69 points since April 2015. This swim of hers also elevated her to 10th place on the all-time top performers list. Tess Schouten Next, he beat the national record for the 200m chest by 0.02 seconds. Schouten swam 2:21.50, surpassing the standard he set at the 2023 World Cup and putting himself in position to upgrade from his 2023 bronze medal.
- British women’s athletes are competing in the World Championships. In recent years, it has been the men’s team that has received the most attention, and is responsible for most of the medals at the world championship level. But here in Doha, the women were strong throughout the first half of the tournament.They won two more medals in this session laura stevens He won a gold medal in the 200 fly and a silver medal in the 4×200 free relay.
Other continental and national records
- Apostolos Ciscos During the preliminaries he broke the Greek record for the 200 backstroke. The 18-year-old Ciscos swam a time of 1:56.64, earning her the top seed from the preliminaries and breaking the record of 1:56.72 set in 2022. Apostolos Christ. Siskos was a few tenths slower in the semi-finals, but advanced to the final in sixth place and will look to add to his record tomorrow night.
- Cornelia Fiedkiewicz Broke Poland’s 100 free record Kasia Wasic On the first day of the competition, she led the women’s 4×100 freestyle relay. Fiedkiewicz swam in 54.01 seconds, beating her Wasic’s record by 0.11 seconds. It was a difference of 0.26 seconds for the 22-year-old, who entered the final in seventh place.
European medal table through day 5
| nation | Money | Silver | bronze | total |
| Italy | 1 | Five | 2 | 8 |
| England | 1 | 1 | 2 | Four |
| Netherlands | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Germany | 1 | 3 | Four | |
| Portugal | 1 | 1 | ||
| Ireland | 1 | 1 | ||
| Spain | 1 | 1 | ||
| Lithuania | 1 | 1 | ||
| Denmark | 1 | 1 | ||
| Sweden | 1 | 1 | ||
| Greece | 1 | 1 | ||
| Austria | 1 | 1 | ||
| Hungary | 1 | 1 | ||
| Bosnia-Herzegovina | 1 | 1 |