Claire Weinstein, Katie Grimes, Sandpipers Will Take a Fall Trip to Asia for World Cups

U.S. Olympians Claire Weinstein and Katie Grimes, along with Sandpipers of Nevada teammates Luke Ellis (US National Team), Gabe Manteufel (Junior National Team), and others, will travel to swim a leg of the Swimming World Cup and Open Water Swimming World Cup this fall.

The group will first fly to Hong Kong to race in Stop 4 of the Open Water Swimming World Cup, the penultimate stop of the five-stop 2024 series. Then they will take the four hour flight to Singapore for the final stop of the three-stop 2024 World Aquatics Swimming World Cup Series.

Sandpipers’ Asian Tour

• October 26 – 27: World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup, Hong Kong
• October 31 – November 2: World Aquatics Swimming World Cup, Singapore

There will be $30,000 up for grabs at the Open Water World Cup and $224,000 in prize money awarded at the Swimming World Cup. While athletes planning to race in the NCAA are technically still not allowed to collect prize money, the Operation Gold loophole means that if the money flows through Olympic Committees, it can be kept beyond actual expenses.

Most of these swimmers have participated in the Open Water World Cup before, including Grimes’ big win in Funchal, Portugal last December. They have all competed in pool World Cups as well – Weinstein and Grimes have participated in the series in the last two seasons, while Ellis raced in 2022 and Manteufel raced in 2023.

Grimes won the 400 IM in both Berlin and Athens in last year’s series.