Virtual Championships | Where They Rank

Virtual Swimming Rankings based on the 2018 Summer events.

Sep 12, 2018 by Ben Colin

With the Asian Games swimming wrapping up at the end of last month, it’s time to combine the entire summer swim season. Lacking an international meet that included every nation, determining this year’s winners is completely based on the rankings. Although everyone can agree, racing head to head is much more exciting, a virtual podium is the only option for this summer.

All swims included in the virtual summer rankings are based on the FINA Swimming World Rankings, which only includes FINA sanctioned swims. Many swims come from any of the international meets this summer or an individual federations national championships. The Commonwealth and Asian Games are included as well as the Pan Pacific Championships and the European Championships of major competitions this summer.

The United States dominated the medal table this summer, racking up 25 total virtual medals when compared to the rest of the world. Nine medals came by way of a yearly top time. Russia, despite only claiming eight total medals, was second among gold medal-winning countries. Great Britain was third with four golds.

Top five medal table based on this summers rankings:

Rank	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	9	8	8	25
2	Australia	1	5	6	12
3	Japan	3	5	3	11
4	Italy	0	3	7	10
5	Russia	5	1	2	8

Multiple swimmers claimed more than one top-ranking swim. Recently turned professional, Katie Ledecky, claimed the virtual gold in the 400, 800, 1500 freestyles. All of her fastest swims coming at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis in May. Ledecky also swam to second fastest in the 200 freestyle, trailing only future Stanford Cardinal Taylor Ruck.

In the individual medleys, two swimmers claimed gold in both disciplines. On the women’s side, Japan’s Yui Ohashi narrowly claimed gold with her winning swims from the Pan Pacific Championships. For the men, American Chase Kalisz convincingly took the 200 and 400 IM.

Similarly, the breaststroke events had two multi-event winners. Great Britain’s Adam Peaty lead the 50 and 100 breaststrokes by a drastic amount. The 100 breaststroke time coming in world record fashion at the European Games in Scotland as he inches ever closer to breaking the 57-second barrier. Russia’s Yulia Efimova picked up victories in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, giving American rival Lilly King the gold in the 50. The women’s 50 and 100 breaststroke podium featured the same three swimmers in different orders as American Molly Hannis joined the group for the bronze.

The final remaining multi-event winner is Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom. The many time world record holder held onto the crown in the 50 freestyle and the 50 butterfly. The former Olympic champion found a silver in her trademark 100 butterfly, following Japan’s Rikako Ikee by 0.15.

In terms of total medals, Ledecky led the women with four and no male swimmer picked up more than two individual medals. In addition to Ledecky, five other women claimed three medals in the virtual medal table.

13 swimmers claiming a world-leading time this summer have yet to win individually at the FINA World Championships or the Olympic Games. Many of those, including rising stars such as Canada’s Taylor Ruck or Hungary’s Kristof Milak, will make a significant splash at next summer's championships.

Check out the entire list of virtual medal winners this summer:

Event		Gold Medal	Silver Medal	Bronze Medal
50 Free	F	Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden	Pernille Blume, Denmark	Cate Campbell, Australia
50 Free	M	Ben Proud, Great Britain	Bruno Fratus, Brazil	Andrea Vergani, Italy
100 Free	F	Cate Campbell, Australia	Bronte Campbell, Australia	Simone Manuel, USA
100 Free	M	Vladimir Morozov, Russia	Katsumi Nakamura, Japan	Alessandro Miressi, Italy
200 Free	F	Taylor Ruck, Canada	Katie Ledecky, USA	Ariarne Titmus, Australia
200 Free	M	Danas Rapsys, Lithuania	Duncan Scott, Great Britain	Sun Yang, China
400 Free	F	Katie Ledecky, USA	Ariarne Titmus, Australia	Leah Smith, USA
400 Free	M	Sun Yang, China	Mack Horton, Australia	Jack McLoughlin, Australia
800 Free	F	Katie Ledecky, USA	Simona Quadarella, Italy	Ariarne Titmus, Australia
800 Free	M	Mykhailo Romanchuk, Ukr.	Zane Grothe, USA	Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
1500 Free	F	Katie Ledecky, USA	Simona Quadarella, Italy	Wang Jianjiahe, China
1500 Free	M	Florian Wellbrock, Germany	Mykhailo Romanchuk, Ukr.	Gregorio Paltrinieri, Italy
50 Back	F	Liu Xiang, China	Yuanhui Fu, China	Georgia Davies, Britain
50 Back	M	Brad Tandy, S. Africa	Cameron McEvoy, Australia	Liment Kolesnikov, Russia
100 Back	F	Kathleen Baker, USA	Kylie Masse, Canada	Emily Seebohm, Australia
100 Back	M	Ryan Murphy, USA	Xu Jiayu, China	Kliment Kolesnikov, Russia
200 Back	F	Kylie Masse, Canada	Kathleen Baker, USA	Margherita Panziera, Italy
200 Back	M	Evgeny Rylov, Russia	Ryan Murphy, USA	Xu Jiayu, China
50 Breast	F	Lilly King, USA	Yulia Efimova, Russia	Molly Hannis, USA
50 Breast	M	Adam Peaty, Great Britain	Cameron van der Burgh, S. Africa	Fabio Scozzoli, Italy
100 Breast	F	Yulia Efimova, Russia	Lilly King, USA	Molly Hannis, USA
100 Breast	M	Adam Peaty, Great Britain	James Wilby, Great Britain	Yasuhiro Koseki, Japan
200 Breast	F	Yulia Efimova, Russia	Reona Aoki, Japan	Micah Sumrall, USA
200 Breast	M	Anton Chupkov, Russia	Josh Prenot, USA	Ippei Watanabe, Japan
50 Fly	F	Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden	Rikako Ikee, Japan	Cate Campbell, Australia
50 Fly	M	Andrii Govorov, Ukr.	Ben Proud, Great Britain	Michael Andrew, USA
100 Fly	F	Rikako Ikee, Japan	Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden	Kelsi Dahlia, USA
100 Fly	M	Caeleb Dressel, USA	Piero Codia, Italy	Chad le Clos, S. Africa
200 Fly	F	Alys Thomas, Great Britain	Hali Flickinger, USA	Zhang Yufei, China
200 Fly	M	Kristof Milak, Hungary	Nao Horomura, Japan	Chad le Clos, S. Africa
200 IM	F	Yui Ohashi, Japan	Kathleen Baker, USA	Seoyeong Kim, S. Korea
200 IM	M	Chase Kalisz, USA	Mitch Larkin, Australia	Kosuke Hagino, Japan
400 IM	F	Yui Ohashi, Japan	Fantine Lesaffre, France	Ilaria Cusinato, Italy
400 IM	M	Chase Kalisz, USA	Daiya Seto, Japan	Jay Litherland, USA