See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards right here.
Ilya Kharun took his worldwide profession to the following degree in 2024, successful his first long-course senior worldwide medals and establishing himself as a risk from the 50 to 200 butterfly on the worldwide stage.
After a profitable freshman marketing campaign at Arizona State, successful the NCAA title within the 200 butterfly and serving to the Solar Devils to this system’s first NCAA title, Kharun turned his consideration to long-course and the Olympic summer time. Kharun had represented Canada on the worldwide stage earlier than. Nonetheless, Paris marked his debut Olympic Video games, and he was seeking to transfer up from his fourth-place end within the 200 butterfly and ninth within the 200 butterfly on the 2023 World Championships.
The lads’s 200 butterfly was billed as a showdown between Kristof Milak, the world file holder and defending Olympic champion, and Leon Marchand, the 2023 world champion and residential crowd favourite. The ultimate in Paris lived as much as that, however behind the battle for gold, Kharun was unshakeable in his first Olympic last. He was third for your entire race, calmly extending his lead for the ultimate spot on the rostrum by the again half of the race.
Kharun was certainly one of three males to separate sub-30 seconds on the ultimate 50 meters, and he used that closing pace to get his fingers on the wall for bronze and his first medal at a long-course senior worldwide meet on the game’s largest stage. Not solely was it Kharun’s first main medal, it was the primary Olympic medal earned by a Canadian man since 2012. He clocked 1:52.80, ending third in a Canadian file time and changing into the seventh-fastest performer in historical past.
The third step of the lads’s 200 butterfly podium appeared extensive open coming into the meet. It was the other within the 100 butterfly—the occasion’s finest swimmers had been firing warning pictures all year long as six of the eight quickest performers in historical past have been on the Paris entry lists. Kharun entered because the thirteenth seed and survived a brutal semifinal spherical by making the ultimate because the sixth seed.
The younger Canadian turned seventh within the Olympic last. However he flew residence, splitting 26.72 over the closing 50 meters and getting his fingers on the wall for bronze by a tenth. Kharun clocked 50.45, his third lifetime better of the Video games, as he went from 50.71 in prelims to 50.68 within the semifinals and eventually his bronze-medal effort.
“That is what I wished,” Kharun advised Crew Canada, “however I knew [in] the 100 fly, the competitors was so loopy that the highest three was only a dream for the 100 fly. I’m simply so glad I lastly bought it. I used to be in disbelief once I touched the wall, and it’s simply so nice.”
Like his 200 butterfly medal, his 100 butterfly medal additionally helped make Canadian Olympic historical past. He touched behind his teammate Josh Liendo’s silver-medal effort (49.99), marking Canada’s first double podium at a Summer season Video games since 1976. Additional, no Canadian man had medaled within the 100 butterfly since 1972. Kharun shared that he and Liendo “spoke about how loopy it might be [if] me and him each bought on the rostrum. I’m so glad we spoke it into existence. It’s such an amazing feeling.”
Kharun’s shock medals on the Olympics introduced that {the teenager} had reached the following degree within the sport. He additional confirmed that on the 2024 Brief Course World Championships in Budapest. The 2022 version of the meet marked Kharun’s first time representing Canada, and his efficiency in Budapest highlighted how a lot enchancment he’s made prior to now two years.
His meet peaked within the 200 butterfly—he earned his first world title by equaling Daiya Seto’s championship file 1:48.24, tying him for the second-fastest efficiency of all time. The swim set Americas, Commonwealth, and Canadian data as he helped Canada sweep the 200 butterfly in Budapest (Summer season McIntosh received the ladies’s race one occasion earlier than). Lastly, Kharun added a silver and nationwide file within the 50 butterfly (21.67) and helped Canada medal in three relays; he left Budapest with 5 medals in whole.
Honorable Mentions:
- Josh Liendo: Liendo had a wonderful efficiency in Paris at his second Olympic Video games. His first particular person occasion didn’t go as deliberate—he missed out on the ultimate of the lads’s 100 freestyle, however he rebounded in type. He grew to become simply the fifth man to interrupt 50 seconds within the 100 butterfly, setting a Canadian file as he earned silver in a loaded last for his first Olympic medal. His time led to a 2-3 end within the occasion for Canada, with him and Kharun standing on the rostrum collectively. Liendo was scratched into the lads’s 50 freestyle last and made the many of the alternative; he completed fourth in 21.58, simply two-hundredths off the rostrum. Liendo was integral to Canada’s relays, swimming on the nation’s fifth-place males’s 4×100 medley and sixth-place males’s 4×100 freestyle relays. Outdoors of the long-course pool, Liendo placed on a dominant show on the 2024 Males’s NCAA Championships, sweeping his particular person occasions by successful the 50 free (18.07), 100 fly (43.07), and 100 free (40.20). He additionally helped the Gators defend their 200 medley and 200 freestyle relay titles, with an NCAA file (1:20.15) within the former.
- Finlay Knox: On the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Finlay Knox shocked the sector by successful the 200 IM out of lane 7. The swim earned Knox the primary long-course World Championships gold by a Canadian man since Brent Hayden in 2007. It’s the sixth world title received by a Canadian man and the second within the 200 IM. Knox earned his title in a Canadian file 1:56.64, which he then lowered to 1:56.07 on the Canadian Olympic Trials as he booked his ticket to Paris in his first particular person occasion. Knox in the end completed eighth within the 200 IM and, like Liendo, helped Canada to a fifth-place end within the males’s 4×100 medley relay and sixth within the males’s 4×100 freestyle relay. He received 200 IM bronze on the 2024 Brief Coruse World Championships, setting a Canadian file of 1:50.90 to earn his place on the rostrum.
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