Stacked Lineup Wading into Short Course Meters Racing at Virginia Pro Am
No active American swimmer has ever competed in a national qualifying meet in short course meters. In recent quads, USA Swimming has selected its teams for the Short Course World Championships based on long course results, but that changes later this month when many of the country’s best swimmers descend on Westmont, Ill., for a four-day event with tickets to Beijing on the line.
Two weeks out from that meet, the University of Virginia is hosting a tune-up event in short course meters, inviting a hoard of big names to Charlottesville for a two-day Pro Am. The meet will include sessions, Thursday evening, Friday late morning and Friday evening, and no event has more than nine entries. But those swimmers are accomplished ones, including the entire training group based at UVA plus the best American swimmers of this generation.
That includes Katie Ledecky, who has raced short course meters sparingly in her career and never at the Short Course World Championships. She is scheduled to race the 1500 freestyle during the day session Friday as well as the 200 free that evening. On the men’s side, Caeleb Dressel returns to competition for the first time since his rebound performance in August at U.S. Nationals. Dressel will race his regular slate of sprint freestyle and butterfly plus the 100 IM, an event in which he still holds the world record.
As for the locally-based swimmers, Kate Douglass will contest the 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 IM in her first meet since obliterating the long course world record in the 50 free at the Pan Pacific Championships. In the 25-meter format, Douglass holds the world record in the first two of the events she will race this week, and she ranks No. 2 all-time in the 200 IM.
Gretchen Walsh returns to her main events, the 50 and 100-meter races of free and fly. She won gold medals in all of those events, three in world-record time, at the 2024 Short Course Worlds. Older sister Alex Walsh, meanwhile, will swim the 100 breast plus the 200 and 400 IM. Claire Curzan, in the midst of a strong start to the college season, has the 100 fly and 100 back, while Sara Curtis will swim the 100 free, 50 back and 50 free. Aimee Canny, a South African swimmer based at Virginia, competes in the 400 free, 400 IM and 200 free.
Regan Smith will be in town to race the 100 and 200 back and fly, facing off against Katharine Berkoff, Isabelle Stadden and Phoebe Bacon in the backstroke races before challenging Douglass and Gretchen Walsh in the 100 fly. Simone Manuel, who trains in the same group as Smith under Bob Bowman at the University of Texas, will be part of the highly-anticipated women’s sprint freestyle races. Luke Hobson is the other big-name swimmer in town from Austin as he prepares to defend the short course world title he won in the 200 free two years ago.
A pair of experienced sprinters will race for the first time after long layoffs. Jordan Crooks, who has been absent from competition since wrapping up his collegiate career, is set for the 50s of free, back and fly plus the 100 free. Crooks is the reigning short course world champion in the 50 free, having become the first man ever under 20 seconds in 2024. Also returning is Abbey Weitzeil, a three-time U.S. Olympian who has not raced since the Paris Games. In her first meet since giving birth to her first child, Weitzeil is part of the field in the 50 free.
Following this Pro Am, Virginia’s college team will compete against Florida in a Saturday dual meet. Some Gainesville-based professionals will be in town for this Pro Am, with Ledecky joined by 1500 free Olympic champion Bobby Finke, IMer Emma Weyant and mid-distance veteran Kieran Smith. The women’s breaststroke events, meanwhile, will feature Olympian Emma Weber, Pan Pacs medalist Skyler Smith and 2016 Olympian Molly Hannis, returning to competition after several years away at age 34.
The entries for the meet are available below:
