US Swimming Team Was Suffering Heavily At World Championships With No Way Out, Says Olympic Star

“Is this the wake-up call USA swimming needed?” Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps questioned while US swimmers competed in Singapore at the 2025 World Aquatic Championships. The comment came as he shared a meme from fellow US swimmer Ryan Lochte. It was an AI-generated image of a tombstone reading: “In loving memory of United States Swimming. They set the bar high — until they stopped reaching for it.” All of this was to criticize the US team’s performance in Singapore. But now, weeks after the championship is over, another Olympic star has some inside information.

“A bunch of people woke up sick, and then as the day goes on, people start dropping like flies. I feel my stomach inflating like a balloon, and I’m like, ‘Oh God, I’m next.’ Yeah, it was brutal,” said Katharine Berkoff on the SwimSwam Podcast, who won her first world title (50 back) in the 2025 World Aquatic Championships.

Ahead of the competition, USA Swimming held a training camp in Phuket, Thailand. There, a troubling number of athletes fell ill with what was later diagnosed as acute gastroenteritis. Causes ranged from suspected food-borne illness to viral or bacterial infections. SwimSwam reported that about 10 U.S. athletes were too sick to travel to Singapore with the rest of the team. Originally, all swimmers were scheduled to travel together on July 22. The infection took its toll in Singapore.

Olympic champion Torri Huske and rising star Claire Weinstein pulled out of their events, while Gretchen Walsh had to abandon the 4×100m freestyle relay at the last minute. Sixteen-year-old Luca Mijatović struggled through the 400m freestyle, finishing far slower than his qualifying time as he battled illness. Meanwhile, Australia capitalized on the situation, winning both the women’s and men’s 4×100m relays, leaving the U.S. off the top of the podium for those events. But despite illness setbacks, Team USA rebounded.

Katie Ledecky extended her dominance by winning the 800m freestyle in 8:05.62 and the 1500m freestyle in 15:26.44, stretching her unbeaten run in the 1500m to 15 years. The crowning moment came when Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske shattered the women’s 4×100m medley relay world record in 3:49.34, sealing the team’s ninth gold and ensuring the U.S. topped the medal table with 29 total medals. And after that?

Phelps received certain responses…

US Olympic stars replied to the critics

Many of the US team members replied to criticism that came from Michael Phelps and others.

In the Unfilettered Waters Podcast, streamed in the third week of August, Bobby Finke said, “I’m proud of how we swam, we weren’t backing down, and of course, results didn’t for the most part didn’t go our way, but it’s going to happen every now and then. You can’t always be the most dominant country.” The only medal Finke won was the bronze in the men’s 1500m freestyle, touching the wall at 14:36.60. Then, there came some more…

Gretchen Walsh stressed the difficulty of the situation, saying that she has been trying to block out the criticism, which felt frustrating to her. Walsh added, “I think we’ve been dealing with a lot, so it’s hard to get the criticism in the first place because I don’t think people quite understand the magnitude of everything going on behind the scenes.” She delivered two individual titles other than the relay, winning the 100m butterfly in 54.73 seconds with a championship record, and adding the 50m butterfly in 24.63 seconds.

Jack Alexy said that this was just fuel to the fire. He added, “And the theme going into this meet was setting off the tone right for LA 2028. So I think we’re continuing to do a better job at that, especially after tonight, and I’m really excited for the future.” Alexy claimed silver in the 100m freestyle (46.92s), bronze in the 50m freestyle (21.46s), secured a bronze in the men’s 4×100m freestyle relay, and starred in the mixed 4×100m freestyle relay, helping set a world record of 3:18.48.

Now, knowing all that, do you think US swimming is not at its prime anymore?