COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – U.S.
Paralympics Swimming today announced the 22 athletes – 16 women and six men –
named to the roster for the 2023 World Para Swimming Championships, which are
scheduled for August in Manchester, England.
The team was selected based on
results at last weekend’s Para Swimming World Series in Minneapolis, at which
Team USA athletes brought home 40 medals across the three-day competition.
“After some incredible performances
in Minneapolis, we are very confident in the roster that we’ll be bringing to
square off against the world’s best this summer,” Erin Popovich, director of
U.S. Paralympics Swimming, said. “Alongside our veteran athletes who have
competed at this level before, we had some newcomers step up and earn spots on
their first world championships team. We can’t wait to see them race in
Manchester.”
Headlining a stacked roster for Team
USA are Paralympic and world champions, led by 29-time Paralympic medalist
Jessica Long (Baltimore, Maryland), who is set to make her eighth world
championships appearance. Long has amassed 52 world championships medals in her
illustrious career, including 35 golds.
After sweeping her events at the 2022
Para Swimming World Championships in Madeira, Portugal, McKenzie Coan
(Clarkesville, Georgia) returns looking to add to her 16 career worlds medals.
Coan was a force in Madeira last summer, winning the 400-meter, 50-meter and
100-meter freestyle S7 races and adding a silver as part of the 4x100-meter
relay 34 points team. The six-time Paralympic medalist secured three world
series podiums in Minneapolis to secure her spot.
Another athlete returning after a
dominant performance at worlds in 2022 is Paralympic silver medalist Leanne
Smith (Salem, Massachusetts), who put together an unprecedented seven-for-seven
performance in Madeira. Her seven golds led Team USA at the meet and gave her
10 world titles in her career.
Joining the trio of Long, Coan and
Smith in the pool are a host of Paralympic and world champions. Paralympic gold
medalists Hannah Aspden (Raleigh, North Carolina), Mikaela Jenkins (Evansville,
Indiana), Elizabeth Marks (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and Morgan Stickney
(Cary, North Carolina) return to the pool seeking continued success on the
world stage.
Marks, a five-time Paralympic
medalist, won three medals – including two gold – in Madeira last summer and
will make her third world championships appearance. Stickney, meanwhile,
followed her double gold performance in Tokyo with another dominant win in the
women’s 400-meter freestyle in Madeira. The reigning world and Paralympic
champion in the event, Stickney also recently broke the Americas Record in
Minneapolis last week to secure her second worlds team berth.
Jenkins and Aspden, also double gold
medalists in Tokyo, are making their third and fourth career world
championships appearances, respectively. Jenkins has four worlds medals to her
name, including bronze in last year’s 100-meter butterfly S10 competition,
while Aspden took silver in the 100-meter backstroke S9 in Madeira.
Three-time Paralympic medalists Lizzi
Smith (Muncie, Indiana) and Colleen Young (St. Louis, Missouri), as well as
two-time Paralympic medalist Julia Gaffney (Mayflower, Arkansas), and
Paralympic silver medalist Ahalya Lettenberger (Glen Ellyn, Illinois) round out
the Paralympic medalists returning to the world championships stage on the
women’s side.
Young had a standout meet in Madeira
last summer, earning world titles in her 100-meter breaststroke and the
200-meter individual medley races. She also snagged a gold and a bronze at last
weekend’s world series en route to a spot on her sixth world championships
roster. Lizzi Smith joins her Madeira teammate on the 2023 roster after a
stellar performance in the women’s 100-meter butterfly in Minneapolis. Gaffney,
who has amassed 12 worlds medals throughout her career, will look to add to
that count in her fourth worlds appearance. Meanwhile Lettenberger, who is
finishing up her last season as a student-athlete on the Rice University swim
team, makes her third world championships team.
Two-time Paralympian and world
champion McClain Hermes (Dacula, Georgia) will compete in her third world
championships in Manchester. She is joined by high school junior Audrey Kim
(Salt Lake City, Utah), an up-and-coming teen making her second worlds roster.
Kim had an impressive showing at her worlds debut in Madeira, earning silver as
part of the mixed 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.
The six men on Team USA’s roster are
led by Paralympic medalists Matthew Torres (Ansonia, Connecticut) and Jamal
Hill (Inglewood, California). Each bronze medalists from Tokyo, Torres and Hill
made their world championships debuts in Madeira, where they earned two silver
medals apiece. They are joined by 2022 worlds silver medalist Morgan Ray (St. Augustine,
Florida) who set an American Record in his signature 100-meter breaststroke in
Minneapolis last weekend and qualified for his second worlds team.
The other veteran athlete on the
men’s side, 2020 Paralympian Lawrence Sapp (Waldorf, Maryland) returns to the
pool for his third world championships. Sapp had a strong showing in
Minneapolis, picking up two medals, including a win in the 100-meter butterfly.
Five athletes will make their world
championships debuts for Team USA, including Minneapolis standouts Olivia
Chambers (Little Rock, Arkansas) and Christie Raleigh Crossley (Toms River, New
Jersey), both of whom burst onto the national and international Para swimming
scene in the past year.
Chambers, a sophomore at the
University of Northern Iowa who was named Swimmer of the Meet at the 2022 U.S.
Paralympics Swimming National Championships in December, followed that
performance with a gold and two bronzes in Minneapolis to secure her spot on
the world championships team. Raleigh Crossley, meanwhile, made a statement at
the world series meet in Italy with a world record in the women’s 50-meter
backstroke S9 before winning the 100-meter backstroke in Minneapolis.
Rounding out a stacked roster for
Team USA are three additional athletes making their first appearance at world
championships. Paralympic silver medalist David Abrahams (Havertown,
Pennsylvania), who recently returned to training due to injury, nabbed two
medals in Minneapolis and will compete at his first major international meet
since the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. National team member Noah Jaffe (Carlsbad, California), a biochemistry major
at Cal Berkeley, found the podium three times en route to his first major
international competition roster for Team USA. Jaffe also was part of the
inaugural U.S. Para team to compete at last summer’s Duel in the Pool in
Australia alongside Coan, Hill and Lizzi Smith.
Making her first major international
appearance for Team USA is national team member Hannah Nelson (Yankton, South
Dakota). Nelson qualified for her first Para swimming national team this year
and has steadily improved en route to her first worlds roster.
The 11th edition of the event, the
2023 World Para Swimming Championships kick off July 31 in Manchester, England.
More than 600 swimmers from approximately 70 nations are expected to compete.
Follow U.S. Paralympics Swimming on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates
and results from the team.
For media requests and photo
inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.
2023 U.S. Paralympics Swimming World
Championships Team
Women
Hannah Aspden
Olivia Chambers
McKenzie Coan
Julia Gaffney
McClain Hermes
Mikaela Jenkins
Audrey Kim
Ahalya Lettenberger
Jessica Long
Elizabeth Marks
Hannah Nelson
Christie Raleigh Crossley
Leanne Smith
Lizzi Smith
Morgan Stickney
Colleen Young
Men
David Abrahams
Jamal Hill
Noah Jaffe
Morgan Ray
Lawrence Sapp
Matthew Torres
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