On Saturday, Katie Ledecky scored yet another gold medal in her career in the 400 Free at the FINA World Championships in Budapest on an opening day with a personal-best time of 3 minutes 58.15 seconds for the 2021-2022 season. The race was tight between Ledecky and young Canadian swimmer Summer McIntosh, but Ledecky pushed hard and secured a strong finish at the end.
Ledecky has earned her 16th gold medal from the world championships, has which is five gold medals more than any female swimmer has previously achieved After losing the world record to her famous arch-rival Ariarne Titmus of Australia in the previous month, many were hoping that she would be able to take back her record in this race. However, she decided not to do so. During today’s match, Ledecky expressed she focuses on constantly improving herself, “I wanted to push to the point of pain tonight. It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at the worlds, so I’m really happy with that and really excited about the rest of the [meet]. I’m just always trying to improve… We kind of set out this year [without] setting any time goals, just trying to improve each meet, and so far I’ve done that, so that’s pretty good.”
Perhaps everyone worldwide was most intrigued by the fact that Ariarne Titmus had chosen to skip the world championships to focus on participating in the Commonwealth Games in July. Ledecky and Titmus have been competitors since the last world championship to the Tokyo Olympics. No one knows if Titmus would have defeated Ledecky or if Ledecky could have pushed through. Alas, everyone can only wait for the battle to occur at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 400-free event, which could even include other competitors in the future.
Ledecky remarked about the “drama” between the two competitors with her world record being shot down, saying, “That wasn’t any added motivation. A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, it must motivate you more.’ But I’m always motivated. I’m always excited to see what I can do. …If I didn’t have motivation before, that would’ve been a problem.”
USA team member, Leah Smith, took home the bronze medal with a time of 4:02.08. The award marked her 7th in the world championships throughout her career. In the opening event, Team USA was able to take six of the fifteen medals that day.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/06/18/katie-ledecky-400-free/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/sports/olympics/ariarne-titmus-katie-ledecky-swimming-worlds.html
Ledecky has earned her 16th gold medal from the world championships, has which is five gold medals more than any female swimmer has previously achieved After losing the world record to her famous arch-rival Ariarne Titmus of Australia in the previous month, many were hoping that she would be able to take back her record in this race. However, she decided not to do so. During today’s match, Ledecky expressed she focuses on constantly improving herself, “I wanted to push to the point of pain tonight. It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at the worlds, so I’m really happy with that and really excited about the rest of the [meet]. I’m just always trying to improve… We kind of set out this year [without] setting any time goals, just trying to improve each meet, and so far I’ve done that, so that’s pretty good.”
Perhaps everyone worldwide was most intrigued by the fact that Ariarne Titmus had chosen to skip the world championships to focus on participating in the Commonwealth Games in July. Ledecky and Titmus have been competitors since the last world championship to the Tokyo Olympics. No one knows if Titmus would have defeated Ledecky or if Ledecky could have pushed through. Alas, everyone can only wait for the battle to occur at the 2024 Paris Olympics in the 400-free event, which could even include other competitors in the future.
Ledecky remarked about the “drama” between the two competitors with her world record being shot down, saying, “That wasn’t any added motivation. A lot of people are like, ‘Oh, it must motivate you more.’ But I’m always motivated. I’m always excited to see what I can do. …If I didn’t have motivation before, that would’ve been a problem.”
USA team member, Leah Smith, took home the bronze medal with a time of 4:02.08. The award marked her 7th in the world championships throughout her career. In the opening event, Team USA was able to take six of the fifteen medals that day.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/06/18/katie-ledecky-400-free/
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/sports/olympics/ariarne-titmus-katie-ledecky-swimming-worlds.html
