Morning, Nerd.

Welcome to the Swimnerd newsletter where each week we highlight the most interesting stuff going on in swimming.

• FINA Rebranding

• 🌎Short Course World Champs Day 1🌏

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FINA who?

T'was the night before the world champs,

When FINA announced,

From this day forward,

FINA is out;

The Congress convened,

And there it was said,

"We are World Aquatics, and FINA is dead"

There has been a lot of commentary on the artist formerly known as "FINA" rebranding to what is now "World Aquatics". Here are some of my favorites by the meme wizard himself, @JakeSwinn:

All jokes aside, there seemed to be many in the world of aquatics (no pun intended) requesting the change in name to better reflect the other sports with which FINA was the governing body (diving, high diving, water polo, open water swimming, and artistic swimming). Luckily FINA listened.

World Aquatics President, Husain Al-Musallam, said in the official announcement:

"I will always tell you that our athletes must come first, so I would never make a big decision like this without consulting our athletes. Their response has been very clear. More than seventy percent of the athletes that we have spoken with have said that they would like us to change FINA’s name."

And according to the announcement, a few of the key improvements in this reform appear to be in furthering the inclusion of the athletes and their voices in the decision-making process as well as the creation of the "Aquatics Integrity Unit". According to World Aquatics, the purpose of the Aquatics Integrity Unit is to "ensure a level playing field, safeguard athletes' health, and remove any and all forms of misconduct within sports."

World Aquatics is also looking to modernize with today's aquatics audiences. President, Al-Musallam continues:

Our new brand and visual identity will also enable us to connect with new audiences and encourage new generations of athletes across our disciplines to be united by water, safely, fairly and sustainably.”

To read the full announcement and/or to watch the extraordinary general congress, click the links below!

🌎World Short Course Championships🌏

Day 1 Finals

The first final of the night was the women's 400m freestyle. With no Ledecky, Titmus, McIntosh, or Bingjie (late scratch due to illness), the race was wide open for a star to emerge. The race finished with Aussie swimmer, Lani Pallister securing the first 🥇 of the meet in a time of 3:55.04. Second place 🥈went to New Zealand's Erika Fairweather (3:56.00), and third 🥉 to American Veteran, Leah Smith (3:59.78). Overall, it was a great race to watch, especially between Pallister and Fairweather.

The second final of the night was the women's 200m IM. American Olympians Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh emerged from the heats first and second respectively in strong times (2:04.39 for Douglass and 2:05.94 for Walsh). In the final, questions on whether or not Douglass or Walsh would break Katinka Hosszu's 2014 World Record (2:01.86) emerged after their first 100 was over the world record pace. In the end, Douglass secured the USA's first gold medal 🥇 of the meet as well as the American Record. Alex Walsh finished second 🥈 in 2:03.37, and the bronze medal 🥉 went to Aussie superstar, Kaylee McKeown in 2:03.57 (a new Oceanic record).

Then came the men's turn in the 200m IM. After prelims, Japanese legend, Daiya Seto, led the men in a time of 1:51.76 over the USA's rising IM star, Carson Foster (1:51.89), Canada's Finlay Knox (1:52.50), and a tie for the fourth seed between South Africa's Matthew Sates and the USA's Shaine Casas (1:52.52). In the final, it would be Sates that took control and swim the second fastest 200m IM of all time (1:50.15) 🥇 as well as an African Record. Foster finished with the silver 🥈 in a blistering 1:50.96, and Finlay Knox overtook Shaine Casas in the final 25 to earn the bronze 🥉 (1:51.04).

In the men's 1500m freestyle, Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy led from start to finish in a gold medal-winning 🥇 time of 14:16.88 (second fastest in the world this year behind Daniel Wiffen's 14:14.45 last week). In second place 🥈 was Damien Joly of France (14:19.62) and third 🥉 was Henrik Chirstiansen of Norway (14:24.08).

The women's 4X100m Freestyle Relay gave us swim nerds many gifts. This race was Australia vs. USA duel in the pool all over again. Hats off to the whole field for producing a mind-boggling number of sub-52-second splits (12). Take a look at these comparisons between AUS and USA.

While both teams had spectacular swims, it was Australia's Emma McKeon and her 49.98 relay split (fastest split in history by nearly a half second - Australia's Cate Campbell 50.38, 2019) that won them the race 🥇. Both teams were under the previous world record of 3:26.53 set by the Netherlands in 2014, but as always, only the fastest team gets to keep it. The American women set the American record and won silver 🥈. The bronze-medal-winning relay 🥉 was Canada in a time of 3:28.06 with Maggie MacNeil sporting the fastest split of that team in 51.11.

In the men's 4X100m Freestyle Relay, the race was for second once the Italian men took control. With each leg, the Italian men got faster and faster and faster. They finished with a World Record time of 3:02.75 🥇(previously set by the United States at the 2018 World Championships in Hangzhou, China).

The battle for second was again between Australia and the United States with Australia winning 🥈 by less than a half second over the Americans 🥉 (Australia's 3:04.63 - Oceanic Record to USA's 3:05.09). The most notable splits of the two teams were Kyle Chalmers' 44.98 anchor leg and the USA's mid-distance leader, Kieran Smith's, 45.77 anchor.

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