TeamUSATracker: June Preview
Coming in June: All Eyes on the Pool (World Aquatics Championships), the Beach (Beach Volleyball World Championships) and 5 Things to Watch for USA Tennis this Grass Season
June is here… Summer is here and Americans turn their focus to the pool, the beach, and backyard BBQs in their lawns.
Team USA will focus on the pool (World Aquatics Championships), the beach (Beach Volleyball and Beach Handball World Championships) and lawns ( US Open Golf & Wimbledon) all this June.
@TeamUSATracker will be keeping an eye on the 2022 World Aquatics Championships beginning in a few weeks June 18 in Budapest, Hungary and could provide another big medal haul by USA Swimming.
The FINA World Aquatics Championships will be broadcasted on NBC family of networks including Peacock. Swimming, Artistic Swimming, and Water Polo pool play will start things off the first week of competition. Diving, Open Water Swimming, and Water Polo elimination round will take center stage the 2nd week of competition. Follow @TeamUSATracker for the latest schedule of where to watch all these World Championships.
🔎IN FOCUS: SWIMMING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Steelers Head Coach Mike Tomlin famously says “The Standard is the Standard”-and for USA Swimming - the standard is the best in the world. USA Swimming is the most decorated nation in World Championship and Olympic history and looks to add that haul in 2022.
Team USA Swimming Roster for the 2022 World Championships consists of 49 swimmers with 24 men and 25 women competing in the pool and open water. Nearly 60% of Team USA ( 29 of the 49 swimmers) head to Budapest for Team USA after being a part of Team USA Swimming in Tokyo last summer.
Headliners for Team USA include Caeleb Dressel who has 13 combined gold medals in the last 2 World Championships and Katie Ledecky who has 15 combined gold medals over the last 4 World Championships but comes off a disappointing 2019 World Championships as an illness caused Ledecky to withdraw from two events but will not face Australia’s Ariarne Titmus who is skipping the World Championships to focus on the Commonwealth Games.
Team USA is experienced in the pool with 75% of the swimmers in the pool as USA Swimming will have a swimmer with previous Olympic experience in every one of the 42 pool events but one - the men’s 200m butterfly (unfortunately Michael Phelps is still retired after dominating that event for over 16 years is still retired) .
Caeleb Dressel could swim in up to 8 events with relays as might teenagers Claire Curzan and Torri Huske who had breakout results at the USA Swimming trials. Curzan and Huske leads 10 teenagers on the US women’s swim team and over half of the women’s team is not over the age of 21. Michael Andrew is scheduled to swim in the most individual events (5) including the 100M breaststroke which will not feature the great Adam Peaty who is out with injury
5 US Swimmers (Leah Smith, Lily King, Regan Smith, Ledecky, and Nic Fink) in the pool along with 16 year old Katie Grimes will also be swimming three events over the course of two weeks as Grimes is the only swimmer competing both in the pool (400 IM, 1500 FR) and open water (10KM).
🔎IN FOCUS: DIVING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
USA Diving sends 16 members they bring to Budapest including 3 Tokyo Olympians trying to stop China’s dominance in diving. China won 7 of 8 diving golds at the Tokyo Olympics and 12 of 13 golds at the 2019 World Championships The last two golds for Team USA in diving at the World Championships were in 2005 Laura Wilkinson (10M platform) and 1991 Kent Ferguson (3M springboard). USA Diving has at one medal at World Championships going back to 2003.
The headliner of the USA Diving team is Tokyo silver medalist Delaney Schnell (10M synchronized diving) and bronze medalist at the 2019 World Championships (10M platform). Schnell will compete in both the 3M and 10M synchronized diving events in Budapest. A fourth Tokyo Olympian qualified for a spot on USA Diving’s World Championships but Andrew Capobianco fell off an electric scooter in April breaking Capobianco’s wrist and thumb. Capobianco was replaced by Greg Duncan and Carson Tyler -who both had already made the team in other events- in the 1M & 3M springboard.
Team USA did qualify six divers (3 men, 3 women) for high diving but high diving is not on the 2022 World Championships program after the rescheduling of World Championships from Japan to Hungary . Team USA had done very well in high diving (6 medals: 3 golds, 3 silver) since high diving joined the World Championships in 2013 and Team USA had 3 top 5 finishers including 3rd place finisher Meili Carpenter at the Red Bull Series stop in Boston over the weekend.
🔎IN FOCUS: WATER POLO
Any day the final announcement from USA Water Polo on Women’s Water Polo and Men’s Water Polo rosters should come out. Previously in May USA Water Polo did announce the athletes they invited to training camp for World Championships and FINA World League Super Final.
USA Women’s Water Polo team completed the three peat in Tokyo and USA Women’s Water Polo team will be going for a 4-peat after winning World Championship Gold in 2019, 2017, and 2015. USA Men’s Water Polo team has never won a World Championship medal with their best finish being 4th three times.
🔎IN FOCUS: ARTISTIC SWIMMING
USA Artistic Swimming team has had a good year most recently winning 9 medals (2 golds, 3 silvers, 4 bronzes) at the latest FINA Super Final.
As mentioned by USA Artistic Swimming in their press release - USA Artistic Swimming made the decision to debut their routines before World Championships.
“In a sport where federations often prefer to hide their routines before the largest competitions, the USA is hoping its strategy of participating in international competitions pays off next month at World Championships. With many different eyes on their routines, the team can now take the feedback and strategize how to maximize their score potential in Budapest.”
Artistic Swimming which only has 2 events (duet, team) at the Olympics has 10 events at the World Championships. Artistic Swimming includes two events not currently included in the Olympics (solo, mixed duet) and also give two medals for world championships per event (free and technical plus team free combo and team highlight).
The last gold medal for Team USA in artistic swimming came in 2017 in mixed duet. Russia has won the last 12 golds at the Summer Olympics since Team USA won gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics. At the 2019 World Championships Russia won 9 out of 10 gold medals.
However with Russian athletes banned from FINA World Championships, artistic swimming should be more wide open. China and Ukraine should bring strong squads to World Championships as gold medal contenders having won silver and bronze at Tokyo and both countries winning over 5 medals each at the 2019 World Championships.
📺OTHER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP/WORLD CUPS TO WATCH IN JUNE
June 10- June 19: Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome
Team USA sends 6 teams (4 women, 2 men) to Beach Volleyball World Championships in Rome. With the Gold Medalist from Tokyo #ATeam (Alix/April) not competing- Team USA send three other athletes who qualified for Tokyo all have new partners Kelly Cheng (née Claes) and Betsi Flint, Sarah Sponcil and Terese Cannon, and Taylor Crabb and Taylor Sander. There have only been 3 Elite 16 events before World Championships in 2022 and in those 3 events - Cheng/Flint has a 3rd place finish and Sara Hughes/Kelley Kolinske has a 4th place finish.
The top 25 teams in the world were guaranteed a berth via rankings and some top US beach volleyball teams that could represent Team USA in Paris did miss qualification due to rankings and quotas including Tri Bourne/Trevor Crabb, Chase Budinger/Troy Field, and Kristen Nuss/Taryn Kloth.
June 16 to June 19: US Open Golf: Brookline, Massachusetts
Monday was the last day of qualification for the US Open. A great story happened in Florida.
June 21 to June 26: 3x3 Basketball and Beach Handball
3x3 Basketball has the FIFA 3x3 World Cup in Antwerp, Belgium . US Men are ranked #5 and the defending gold medalists from Tokyo US Women are ranked #7.
Beach Handball World Championships in Crete, Greece. Team USA qualified both men and women’s beach handball team.
June and July Volleyball: VNL Continues in Summer
USA Volleyball (Women's Roster) Team USA started off 3-1 defeating Tokyo silver medalists Brazil but losing to undefeated Japan.
USA Volleyball (Men’s Roster) US Men begin VNL play June 7th and the 25 man roster they put for VNL is very young with 6 players still in college and 10 players making their VNL debut. USA Volleyball Head Coach John Speraw talks about the youth movement “At the beginning of every quad, there’s an opportunity to look at young players who could be Team USA contributors.” “There is a short period before the Paris Olympic Games, and this is the time for us to evaluate young talent.”
What World Championships are you looking forward this summer?
LOOKING AHEAD: TRACK AND FIELD
USA will host the World Championships in Track & Field for the first time ever from July 15 to July 24 in Eugene, Oregon.
USA Track & Field will figure out most of the World Championship team at National Championship trials - June 23 - 26 in Eugene, Oregon. World Championships trials have already happened in 10,000M, race walk, marathon, and combined events (decathlon and heptathlon).
Team USA will have 4 athletes in multiple events at the World Championships as 2019 World Championship winners or 2021 Diamond League champions are eligible for a wildcard (maximum one per country). With some of Team USA’s success at the 2019 World Championships and the 2021 Diamond League there could be around 13 events where Team USA enters 4 athletes in front of the hometown crowd.
ICYMI: Sydney McLaughlin started her 2022 campaign going really fast in the 400M Hurdles
This Thursday in Rome: Allyson Felix in the 200M and Athing Mu in the 800M will make their Diamond League debut this season. Plenty of Americans will be competing in Rome as US trials start in two weeks post Rome.
🎾🍃TENNIS PREVIEW: 5 QUESTIONS FOR USA TENNIS HEADING INTO GRASS SEASON?
Coco Gauff made her first singles Grand Slam Final at the French Open but ran into Iga Swiatek playing like Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl and Swiatek’s 35 match winning streak. Gauff became the 2nd American women to make a Grand Slam Final this year (Danielle Collins Australian Open). In the last 5 years American women have made 10 Grand Slam finals (17 Grands Slams in that time) but are 1-9 in the finals with only Sofia Kenin winning the 2020 Australian Open as the lone win
Grass season is now full swing for men and women’s tennis in June with Wimbledon starting Monday June 27. There will not be any ranking points at Wimbledon this year as Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players caused the ATP & WTA to withdraw ranking points. The United States have 27 players (14 men, 13 women) with direct entry into Wimbledon but that number could go up as players get wildcard entries and other players withdraw due to injuries.
Top 5 things that @TeamUSATracker is watching this grass season?
1) What will Coco Gauff do for an encore?
At Wimbledon Coco Gauff has made the Rof16 twice (2019, 2021). Could she break into the QFs this year?
2) Who will step up in the post Venus and Serena Era at Wimbledon?
This could be the beginning of a new era if Venus and Serena Williams do not end up with wildcards. This century has been dominated by the Williams sisters- Serena Williams won 7 Wimbledon Championships and Venus Williams won 5 Wimbledon Championships. Combined they have been a Wimbledon finalist 20 times including 4 finals where Serena played Venus. The last American to win a Wimbledon Championships or play in a final not named Venus and Serena Williams- Lindsay Davenport. Madison Keys, Sloane Stephens, Alison Riske, & Coco Vandeweghe have all made one Wimbledon QF in the last 10 years but some of the top American women in the current WTA rankings Danielle Collins, Jessica Pegula, Sofia Kenin (coming back from injury), and Amanda Anisimova have never made the second week at Wimbledon.
3) What can the young inexperienced US Men do on grass?
Speaking of new era- the other thing to watch will be the upstart US Men - 8 of the 11 US men in the Top 60 have played under ten career matches on grass. Sebastian Korda and Jenson Brooksby both had success last year as Korda made Wimbledon Round of 16 and Halle QF and Brooksby made the Newport finals but a lot of the US Men have a small sample size on grass due to 2020 season being wiped out and previous injury. Some surprising historic stats on grass for US men including Tommy Paul not winning an ATP match on grass and Reilly Opelka (2016 Wimbledon Boys champ) only 2-5 on grass.
4) Can Fritz and Tiafoe continue their breakthrough on grass?
Two young Americans (part of the 25 and under club for US men’s tennis) with the most experience on grass are Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe. Both have won grass court titles in the last two seasons - Taylor Fritz won 2019 ATP 250 Eastbourne title and Frances Tiafoe won the 2021 Nottingham Challenger title. Fritz missed most of grass season last year rehabbing from injury but both Fritz and Tiafoe have won over 60% of their matches on grass since 2019. Can they continue to have success on grass this season?
5) Could it be Goodbye for some former Wimbledon men’s semifinalists?
2018 Wimbledon semifinalist John Isner faced some post match questions at Roland Garros if it would be his last French Open and he will face the same questions in Wimbledon where he played the longest match ever and after a marathon semifinal loss to Kevin Anderson Wimbledon finally changed to tiebreakers in 5th set. Wimbledon now has the same tiebreaker as all Grand Slams and history will show John Isner played a key part in that.
Also 2017 Wimbledon semifinalist and 2019 quarterfinalist Sam Querrey got one of the last direct entry spots to Wimbledon and Team USA Tracker wonders if this might be the last time Querrey plays Wimbledon given some of his recent results on ATP Tour.