Who Leads the World Rankings With Less Than 90 Days To Paris? (Men's Edition)

30/04/2024 23:19

By Sophie Kaufman on SwimSwam

There are less than a 100 days until the start of the 2024 Olympic Games. There are still plenty of big meets between now and then, including Olympic Trials for the U.S, Australia, Canada, and France. From the season opening World Cup circuit, the 2024 World Championships, and meets like the Australian Open and Berlin Open, athletes have been putting up fast times all season.

And as the spring rolls on and many countries have already held Olympic Trials or closed their qualification period, it’s beginning to become clearer who is going to be a medal threat in Paris and the times that it may take to get into the final, much less onto the podium.

• Related: 2024 Olympic Trials Dates Worldwide

Heading into the next round of senior level international and domestic meets, here is the state of affairs for the men’s events–the top five so far this season so far (September 1, 2023 – April 30, 2024) as well as what the medal table would look like based on this season so far.

Note: There are Russian swimmers included in the top five rankings but none are included in the medal tables. There are two events on the men’s side this affects: the 100 backstroke and 400 IM.

Men’s 50 Freestyle

Men’s 100 Freestyle

Men’s 200 Freestyle

Men’s 400 Freestyle

Men’s 800 Freestyle

Men’s 1500 Freestyle

Men’s 100 Backstroke

Men’s 200 Backstroke

Men’s 100 Breaststroke

Men’s 200 Breaststroke

Men’s 100 Butterfly

Men’s 200 Butterfly

Men’s 200 IM

Men’s 400 IM

Medal Table

Note: Organized by number of gold, then silver, then bronze. Caeleb Dressel (USA) and Hubert Kos (Hungary) are tied for third in the 100 butterfly world rankings, which counts as a “bronze” for both for the purposes of this table. 

More than anything, this medal table serves as a reflection of the training cycles of each country and which have already held their Olympic Trials. The top three countries on this table–China, Japan, and Germany–have all closed their Olympic qualification periods.

China and Germany’s qualification windows both closed at the end of this month with their national championships. However all of China’s four top times of the season come from earlier in the year; the most recent was Pan Zhanle‘s 100 freestyle world record in Doha. Qin Haiyang (100 breast), Xu Jiayu (100 back), and Wang Shun (200 IM) all swam their top times in the fall at either the Asian Games or in Qin’s case, on the World Cup circuit. September’s Asian Games were a home meet for China and some swimmers prioritized that meet in 2023.

On the flip side, Germany’s top times, courtesy of Lukas Märtens, all came from the 22-year-old’s performances at German Championships at the end of April.

Similarly, the British men’s rankings in the top five all come from their Olympic Trials. There, Ben Proud, Duncan Scott, Matt Richards, Tom Dean, Adam Peaty, OliverMorgan, and Max Litchfield all swam top five times in the world, with Litchfield taking the top time in the men’s 400 IM. Great Britain’s men are tied in the medal table with the Australian men, who haven’t had their Trials yet.

Irish swimmers have one last opportunity to earn qualifying times at the end of May at the Irish Open Championships. Like Germany, their two “golds” are thanks to one swimmer, in their case Daniel Wiffen, who swept the distance events at the 2024 World Championships.

15 countries are represented on this hypothetical medal table. That is only one less than the 16 countries who medalled in the individual men’s events at the 2020 Olympics. The countries on this list that did not medal in Tokyo are Ireland, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), and New Zealand. At the 2020 Games, the U.S that led the men’s individual events medal table with six gold, two silver, and two bronze medals.

From a total medals lens, China still leads the table with six. But four countries–Australia, Great Britain, Italy, and the U.S–all follow with five entries in the top three of the world rankings. Neither Australia nor the U.S have held their Olympic Trials yet.

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