FEMALE RACE OF THE YEAR

Lilly King, 50m Breaststroke, 2017 FINA World Championships
Lilly King continued her first FINA World Championships in dominant fashion with a victory in the women’s 50m breaststroke in a world-record time of 29.40. The swim eclipsed Yulia Efimova’s previous world record set in 2013 and marked King’s third of four gold medals captured in Budapest.  

Lilly King, 100m Breaststroke, 2017 FINA World Championships
In the highly anticipated women’s 100m breaststroke final at the 2017 FINA World Championships, Lilly King delivered. She jumped out to a quick lead off the blocks, led by more than half a second at the turn and held off the rest of the field over the final 50 meters to touch in a world record time of 1:04.13 – nearly a second clear of silver medalist teammate Katie Meili. King’s effort took more than two-tenths of a second off the 4-year-old world record.

Katie Ledecky, 400m Freestyle, 2017 FINA World Championships
On the first night of the competition, Katie Ledecky won her third-straight world championships title in the women’s 400m freestyle in a dominant 3:58.34, good for the second-fastest time in history. In typical Ledecky fashion, she took the lead off the blocks and never relinquished it, touching more than 3 seconds clear of the field. The gold medal was the 10th of Ledecky’s world championships career, and she would finish the meet with a women’s record of 14 career world titles. 

Ashley Twitchell, 5K Open Water, 2017 FINA World Championships
Ashley Twichell stuck with the lead pack early in the women’s 5-kilometer open water race. She made a move past France’s Aurelie Muller with about 700 meters to go and never gave up the lead to win gold in 59:07.0 – 3 seconds ahead of Muller. With the win, Twichell became the first American woman to win three career FINA World Championships medals in open water swimming.