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≡ TYR PRO SWIM WESTMONT ≡
It’s early in the season, but there were world-leading performances for 2026 in 22 events at the Tyr Pro Swim Series that finished Saturday evening in Westmont, Illinois, especially from Americans Gretchen Walsh, Katie Ledecky and Chris Guiliano, and Canadian teen star Summer McIntosh and Australian distance star Sam Short.
Walsh swam five races and recorded five world-leading marks, including in the women’s 50 m Free, in the heats at 24.51 and then the final at 24.39. She swept her three rounds in the 50 m Butterfly, winning in 55.39 (heats), 55.31 (semis) and then 55.20 in the final, the sixth-fastest time in history.
Ledecky was just as brilliant, defeating McIntosh in the women’s 800 m Free on the first night in 8:08.37 (world lead) to 8:10.45, then winning the 1,500 m Free by more than 41 seconds in 15:40.86, and finally the 400 m Free in 4:00.54, equaling her own world lead from the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Austin in January.
McIntosh lost in the 800 Free, but she won the 200 Free in a world-leading 1:53.80, the 200 m Fly in 2:04.72 (world lead) and the 200 m Medley in a world-leading 2:08.21. Five-time Olympic medalist Kate Douglass won three events, in the 100 m Free (53.45), the 100 Breast (1:06.42 world lead) and 200 Breast (2:22.01 world lead).
Australia’s Short, the 2023 World 400 m champion, also dominated the distances, taking the 400 m Free in 3:43.49 (world leader), the 800 m Free over Tokyo 2020 Olympic champ Bobby Finke of the U.S., 7:40.98 (world lead) to 7:58.35, and the 1,500 m Free in a world-leading 14:52.33 to two-time Olympic champion Finke’s 15:08.27.
In the short men’s races, American Guiliano was supreme, winning the 50 m Free in a world-leading 21.43, as well as getting a world-leading 47.38 in the 100 m heats, then winning the final in 47.84. Guiliano won the 200 m Free in 1:45.53, just ahead of fellow American Gabriel Jett (1:43.54), after swimming a world lead of 1:45.38 in the prelims.
Paris Olympic 400 m Medley medalist Carson Foster won the two men’s medleys, both in world-leading times, in 1:57.39 (200 m) and 4:09.49 (400 m). U.S. Sprint star Michael Andrew won the 50 m Breaststroke in 27.00 and the 50 m fly in 23.10. French Olympic hero Leon Marchand was a two-event winner in the 200 m Backstroke in 1:57.56 and the 200 m Breast in 2:10.06.
Jett came back to get his own world lead in the men’s 200 m Butterfly in 1:55.07. Russian Ivan Tarasov won the 50 m Back in a world-leading 24.90, with Andrew second in 25.23. Canada’s Blake Tierney swam a world-leading 53.60 in the 100 m Back.
American star Regan Smith scored two wins as well, taking the women’s 200 m Back in 2:04.90 (world lead) and the 400 m Medley in 4:35.74. Katharine Berkoff, the 2025 World Champion, won the 50 m Back in 27.24, also a world-leading time, ahead of Isabelle Stadden (27.29). Stadden won the 100 m Back in 58.24, and was also second to Smith in the 200 m Back (2:05.91).
Quite a meet for March! The third Tyr Pro Swim is in 20-23 May in Sacramento.
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