Carson Foster piles up swim worlds medals with eye on first Olympics
Carson Foster once again showed he's one of the best all-around swimmers at the world championships. Come June, he'll try to make his first Olympic team.
Foster, 22, took silver in the 200m individual medley at worlds in Doha on Thursday. That's his fourth silver in five IM races at worlds in this Olympic cycle.
Canada's Finlay Knox overtook Foster in the last 50 meters of Thursday's final, prevailing by 33 hundredths in 1 minute, 56.64 seconds.
Foster went from placing third and fourth in the IMs at the Tokyo Olympic Trials — where the top two made the team — to taking the torch as the top U.S. IMer in this Olympic cycle.
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If he makes the team at June's trials, he'll then try to extend a U.S. legacy in the IMs at the Paris Games.
Dating to the 1996 Atlanta Games, an American man has won at least one of the 200m or 400m IM at seven consecutive Olympics: Tom Dolan, Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Chase Kalisz accounted for 10 golds (six alone for Phelps).
Standing in the way: France's Léon Marchand, who swept the IMs at worlds in 2022 and 2023, plus broke Phelps' last individual world record in the 400m IM last year. Marchand, like many top swimmers, is skipping this week's worlds, the first to be held in an Olympic year.
Also Thursday, American Claire Curzan added 50m backstroke gold to her title in the 100m back. The 50m back is not an Olympic event.
Worlds continue Friday with finals live on Peacock at 11 a.m. ET. American Kate Douglass, already a 200m IM gold medalist this week, qualified for both the 100m freestyle and 200m breaststroke finals.
