Olympic gold medalist Tom Shields of Huntington Beach won two silver medals in the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) Saturday in Windsor, Ontario while Ella Eastin of Irvine won a silver medal.
Shields was second in the men’s 50-meter butterfly in 22.40 seconds, .02 off the American record he set in Friday’s semifinals, for his seventh medal of the meet. Fellow Olympic gold medalist Chad le Clos of South African won in 21.98.
Shields swam the butterfly leg on the U.S. men’s 200-meter medley relay, which finished second in 1:31.97. Russia won in 1:31.52.
The U.S. was in third when Shields began swimming the third leg. His 21.94 split was the fastest on the leg and put the U.S. in second, one-tenth of a second behind Russia.
Shields also won silver medals in the men’s 100- and 200-meter butterfly in the six-day meet that began Tuesday.
Shields swam on the U.S. teams that won the gold medal in the 200-meter mixed medley relay, the silver medal in the men’s 200-meter freestyle relay and a bronze medal in the men’s 400-meter freestyle relay, finishing in a dead heat with Australia.
“There have been ups and down this week, but some good notes to take in,” said Shields, who is scheduled to swim in the men’s 400-meter medley relay on Sunday, the meet’s final day.
Eastin finished second in the women’s 200-meter individual medley in 2:05.02. Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won in 2:02.90.
Eastin was sixth after swimming the opening 50 meters in 27.79. She moved into second when she swam the second 50 in 31.05.
Eastin was second in the women’s 400-meter individual medley relay, eighth in the 100-meter individual medley and fourth in the 200-meter butterfly, all won by Hosszu, a three-time gold medalist at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics and a former USC standout.
The meet is being conducted in a 25-meter pool, half the length of the pools used in the Olympics, at the WFCU Centre, usually the home of the Windsor Spitfires junior hockey team.
The 25-year-old Shields is among five co-captains on the 35-member U.S. team and the oldest man on the team.
Shields won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics for swimming in the preliminaries in the 400-meter medley relay. He finished seventh in his lone individual event, the 100-meter butterfly.
Shields swims 7,000 meters — 4.3 miles — a day, six days a week during training. He began swimming when he was 8 years old in an effort to be safe in pools.
Shields graduated from Edison High School in Huntington Beach in 2009, the year he was selected as the National High School Swimmer of the Year. Shields swam four years for California, winning six NCAA individual championships and one in a relay.
The 19-year-old Eastin was the Pac-12 Conference’s swimmer and newcomer of the year in the 2015-16 season, winning NCAA championships in the 200 individual medley and 400 individual medley, helping Stanford to a second-place finish.
Eastin graduated from Crean Lutheran High in Irvine in 2015.
–City News Service