Performances on Sunday, the first day of eight days of competition in the pool, were hampered by the United States team’s severe case of gastroenteritis at the swimming world championships in Singapore.
USA Swimming spokesperson Nikki Warner told The Associated Press that the epidemic was confirmed and that it originated during a training camp the U.S. team attended in Phuket, Thailand, prior to their arrival in Singapore.
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“Every American swimmer has been to Singapore,” she remarked. She refused to disclose the number of people who had contracted the contagious diarrhea.
It seems evident that at least three people have been affected: Claire Weinstein, Luca Mijatovic, and Torri Huske.
Huske, the reigning Olympic 100-meter butterfly champion, was pulled from Sunday’s preliminary heats. She was first removed to concentrate on relay events, according to the team.
Mijatovic, a 16-year-old American, competed in the 400 freestyle preliminary round. It was evident that he was under duress while he swam because his time of 3:59.68 was about 15 seconds off his entry time.
The promising 18-year-old Weinstein was also eliminated from the 400 freestyle.
The most well-known swimmer on the American squad, Katie Ledecky, did not seem to be impacted and performed normally in her preliminary practice on Sunday.
The American swim team is attempting to recover from a challenging experience at the Olympics in Paris one year ago. Only eight gold medals were won by the Americans, which is the fewest since the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Even with that relatively low number, Australia came in second on the medal standings.
With a fairly youthful men’s team, the men’s team hopes to bounce back in Singapore after winning just one gold medal in Paris. It’s the youngest in history, according to head coach Greg Meehan.
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AP athletics:
