U.S. Nationals: Jack Aikins Rebounds From Trials Third, Swims World’s Fastest 200 Backstroke
At last year’s Olympic Trials, Jack Aikins received a double helping of third-place bitterness. He had missed the Olympic team in the 100 backstroke by two hundredths. Three days later, Aikins was in second place for almost the entire 200 backstroke final, only for Keaton Jones to storm home and touch him out by 17-hundredths. To add another cruel twist, Aikins’ 200-meter time would have been good enough for third in the Olympic final.
Now, Aikins has vanquished those demons by qualifying for the World Championships with a dominant performance in the 200 back final at U.S. Nationals.
Aikins was the class of a field that included only one swimmer, Jones, who had previously finished top-two at a selection meet. He took the lead by a tenth over Daniel Diehl at the first turn and extended the margin to more than a second by the 150-meter mark. Once again, the field closed on Aikins down the stretch, but the gap was sufficient to bring him to the wall first.
“I’m usually out in front of the pack and try to hang on the best I can,” Aikins said. “I couldn’t see anyone the whole race, not because they weren’t close to me but just because I was trying my hardest just to look straight up, focus on my own race and not let anyone else affect me. And that’s something I’ve been working on in practice. I get distracted by what other people are doing, so if I focus on my own thing, that will be how I swim my best race.”
The Virginia senior-to-be finished in 1:54.25, his best time by a half-second and the quickest time in the world this year. Previously, Greece’s Apostolos Siskos was the only swimmer who had cracked 1:55 this year. The result was a testament to the process Aikins undertook when heartbreak forced him to examine every aspect of his swimming.
“After that happened, I was able to take a step back and learn how small two hundredths is and realize that I’m fighting for those moments every single day in practice. If I can just keep stacking those up over and over, it’ll pay off,” Aikins said. “I did a lot more aerobic training with my coach Jake and really hammering away and getting used to doing long, aerobic yardage to get my base up. Just get to a point where a 200 doesn’t feel that long for me because I’ve done so much longer stuff in practice that it really doesn’t feel like that much of a task.”
Joining him in the introspective journey was fellow Virginia backstroker Claire Curzan, who had her own narrow miss in the 200 back at last year’s Trials. And minutes before Aikins dominated the field in the men’s final, Curzan pulled off an upset win over Regan Smith in the women’s event to secure her own Worlds qualification.
“I think we both walked away from that really disappointed but ultimately learned so much. I think if both of us hadn’t got third, we wouldn’t have learned these lessons that are super important. We almost would have gotten comfortable with the way things were, and getting third reminded us that we need to get back to work, need to keep grinding.
Jones came in second at 1:54.85, marginally behind his best time of 1:54.61 but good to put him on his first World Championships team. Diehl finished third in 1:55.08, his highest-ever national finish on the national level and good for the No. 4 spot in the global standings. David King also climbed the world rankings, his time of 1:55.64 moving him into a tie for sixth.
Aikins has previously competed at a World Championships, swimming at the lightly-attended Doha meet in February 2024. He was the top seed in the 200 back entering the final, only to miss the podium by two tenths. Hungary’s Hubert Kos remains the strong favorite in the event on a global level, but Aikins sits in a medal-contending position heading into a full-strength meet in Singapore.
For the first time in more than a decade, a national 200 back final went off without Ryan Murphy, whose Hall-of-Fame career has made him one of the top American backstrokers ever. Murphy, 29, chose to sit out the 2025 season after swimming in three Olympics and becoming a father earlier this year, although he is leaving the door open for a future comeback.
“It’s really special to represent Team USA in an event where we’ve had so much success over the years, with Ryan and other 200 backstrokers,” Aikins said. “It’s really special to be able to follow someone like that.”
