World Championships: U.S. National Team Director Greg Meehan Impressed With Team’s Resilience Amid Illness
The American contingent at the World Championships has gone through a difficult week after after most of the swimmers became sick with acute gastroenteritis. The symptoms began at their training camp in Phuket, Thailand, and have made a significant impact on the team’s results during the first two days.
During the first morning prelims session, Torri Huske (100 butterfly) and Claire Weinstein (400 freestyle) were unable to contest their events. That night, Gretchen Walsh was taken out of the 400 freestyle relay when her sickness worsened following the 100 fly semis.
Among the team members who did make it to the blocks, Luka Mijatovic swam almost 14 seconds off his best time in the 400 free while Jack Aikins was nearly four seconds off in the 100 backstroke, the illness having significantly zapped their strength. Both 400 freestyle relays reached the podium, but the results were not what they might have been with the team at full health.
Photo Courtesy: Emily Cameron
Momentum started turning for the Americans in Monday evening’s session. Walsh captured gold in the 100 fly and her older sister Alex Walsh took silver in the 200 IM. Four of the five finals scheduled for Tuesday will have Americans as the top seed — Luke Hobson in the men’s 200 free, Katie Ledecky in the women’s 1500 free, Regan Smith in the women’s 100 back and Kate Douglass in the women’s 100 breaststroke — and the team is favored to capture five total medals between those swimmers and Katharine Berkoff alongside Smith in the 100 back.
Count U.S. National Team Director Greg Meehan among those who is optimistic about the remainder of the meet. Speaking to NBC Sports during the Peacock broadcast of Monday’s finals, Meehan said that each day of the competition would give the swimmers more time to recover and return to full strength. He credited the team for remaining positive amid the adversity.
“Just the overall vibe of the team has been great,” Meehan told NBC Sports. “If you were in our team area, you would never know that the vast majority of the team has gone through something over the past few days. Just really proud of how they’ve handled it, how they’re continuing to handle it and staying positive amid all that.
“I think we started to see some folks turn the corner here the last 24-36 hours, and hoping we’re going to be really good as we go. It’s an eight-day meet, so a lot can happen. There’s still plenty of time for us to get going.”
Meehan said that he expected no further lineup changes “at this point, and that is particularly notable with Weinstein scheduled to race the 200 free Tuesday. Meehan also passed credit to the team’s doctors and trainers. “You don’t want your medical staff working overtime, but if they do, you want them to handle it the way our group has handled it,” he said.
Meehan also gave special credit to Erin Gemmell, who stepped onto the 400 free relay squad at the last moment and swam well under her career-best flat start time on the third leg. If not for Gemmell’s split, the women would have had no chance at challenging Australia for the gold down the stretch.
“Along with the staff, we put plans together for our relays, and yesterday, with the 400 free relay on the women’s side, we had a plan, we were ready to go, but we had somebody on backup just in case. Erin Gemmell, to her credit, prepared as though she was going to be on it, even though the likelihood was very small that she was going to be on it,” Meehan said.
“She stepped it up and had an incredible split. I think that’s the spirit of Team USA and USA Swimming. When called upon, they’re going to give their absolute best. I’m proud of how the staff has continued to stay focused on having plans and backup plans and backup plans to the backup plan.”
