Simone Manuel Becomes First American Woman to Sweep 50m, 100m Frees at Worlds

Manuel became the first American woman to achieve the feat.

Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

GWANGJU, South Korea — Simone Manuel completed a sweep of the 50- and 100-meter freestyles at the world swimming championships on Sunday night, becoming the first American woman to achieve the feat.

Manuel raced one length of the pool in 24.05 seconds to earn her third gold and fifth medal overall on the last night of the eight-day competition.

She held off Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden, who took silver in 24.07, and Australian Cate Campbell, who earned bronze in 24.11.

In the 100 free, Manuel topped Campbell, while Sjostrom finished third.

Manuel's other medals came in three relays: gold in the mixed 4x100 free and silver in the 4x100 free and 4x200 free.

Lilly King won the 50 breaststroke, giving the American two victories over Russian rival Yuliya Efimova on Sunday.

They were denied a third meeting when King was disqualified in the heats of the 200 breast for not putting both of her hands on the wall at the same time in a turn.

King touched in 29.84, the only swimmer under 30 seconds in the final.

Benedetta Pilato, a 14-year-old Italian, earned a surprise silver in 30 seconds flat and reacted by crying.

"I didn’t know if it was happy tears or sad tears," King said. "She’s 14, it doesn’t really matter what kind of tears they were, but I was like, 'It’s OK, you did fine.'"

Efimova, who won the 200 and finished second to King in the 100, settled for bronze in 30.15.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary extended her domination of the 400 individual medley, becoming the first woman to win five titles in one event. She swam the four-stroke race in 4 minutes, 30.39 seconds.

Ye Shiwen of China took silver, just as she did behind Hosszu in the 200 IM. Yui Ohashi of Japan claimed bronze.

Japan’s Daiya Seto survived a last-lap challenge to win the men’s 400 IM in 4:08.95.

Jay Litherland of the U.S. had the fastest final lap — 27.89 — to chase Seto to the wall. Litherland took silver in 4:09.22. Lewis Clareburt of New Zealand earned bronze.

Florian Wellbrock of Germany made history with his victory in the 1,500 freestyle.

With his earlier win in the 10-kilometer open-water race, Wellbrock became the first swimmer to win gold in two sports at a single world championships.

He pulled away going into the final turn to win in 14:36.54.

Mykhailo Romanchuk of Ukraine took silver. Gregorio Paltrinieri of Italy, a two-time champion, earned bronze.

Zane Waddell of South Africa won the 50 backstroke, a non-Olympic event.