Friday, June 24, 2022
Ledecky Accomplishes Historic 800 Free Feat at FINA World Championships
Katie Ledecky finished her slate of events Friday at this year’s FINA World Aquatic Championships with her fourth gold in four events – this time in the 800-meter freestyle.
It’s an event she’s owned for the past decade – winning the past five world titles beginning in 2013 to become the first swimmer to ever five-peat as world champion in a single event.
“I think back to London (2012 Olympics), and I made it a goal to not be a one-hit wonder,” said Ledecky, who picked up her 19th World Championship gold medal (behind only Michael Phelps’ 26). “Here we are 10 years later, so I’m really proud of that, and I’m still excited for the future as well.
“(I’ve been) training with some men (in Florida). Bobby (Finke), Kieran (Smith) and Trey (Freeman), who are all here. (I) try to keep up as much as I can. They push me, and I hope they’ve benefited from me being there. (I’ve done) a lot of work on my stroke and my rhythm, and I think it’s paying off. I think this is just the start, which is tremendously exciting for me.”
With the win, Ledecky becomes the first swimmer to win five-straight World Championship titles in the same event and holds the 27 fastest times in the world.
Her time of 8:08.04–her best in a couple of years and fifth-fastest of all time–outpaced the rest of the pack by more than 10 seconds. Teammate Leah Smith finished just off the podium in fourth.
Ledecky’s was the United States’ lone gold from Friday’s finals – but it certainly wasn’t the only medal.
Michael Andrew started the United States’ medals underway with a silver in the 50m freestyle. His time of 21.41 finished just behind champion Ben Proud of Great Britain, who won in 21.32.
Andrew’s time was a personal-best, and with the medal, he became the first swimmer–male or female–to win individual medals in three different strokes at a single World Championships. He won bronze in the 50 fly and 50 breast earlier in the meet.
He returned later in the session to swim the 100 butterfly final and just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish (51.11).
And despite coming so close to winning two, he was very happy to leave the evening with a medal.
“(Swimming the 50m free/100m fly combo) I can never be too disappointed with making a podium at a World Champs,” Andrew said. “Going into the race, I actually texted my dad before, I was like 21.30 wins it. Call it. Knew it. I was right.”
Phoebe Bacon and Ryan White represented the United States in fine fashion in the 200m backstroke, an event the United States won in 2019 (Regan Smith) and has medaled in every Worlds since 2003.
Both 2020 Olympians, Bacon swam a sizzling 2:05.12 to win silver while White earned bronze in 2:06.96. Bacon’s time of 2:05.12 was just .04 off the gold-medal time of 2:05.08 from Australia’s Kaylee McKeown. White and Bacon finished fourth and fifth in Tokyo last summer.
“We were in Budapest the whole time, and watching all my friends get medals, it was difficult to contain my excitement,” Bacon said. “But I knew my swim was coming, and I just had to be patient with myself and trust my training and all that would come and I would swim well.”
In the only event of the day where the United States didn’t medal, Claire Curzan and Torri Huske finished 5th (25.43) and 6th (25.45) in the 50m butterfly, respectively. The top six finishers were separated by 0.5 seconds.
The United States ended the evening’s finals with a bronze medal in the 4x100m mixed medley relay with a time of 3:21.09. Australia took gold with a world-record time of 3:19.38 followed by Canada in silver at 3:20.61.
According to U.S. sprinter Ryan Held, who helped the United States to gold in the men’s 400 free relay earlier this week, world record swims just happen.
“It’s always a pleasure to represent the Stars and Stripes,” said Ryan Held, who swam the opening leg of the mixed relay. “We put our best relay forward. Sometimes a team breaks the world record. You just have to shake their hand and say awesome race. Hats to Australia, but, yeah, I’m really proud of our team.”
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the final day of competition, with several opportunities for the United States to add to its medal total.
Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong start things off as the first and second seeds in the men’s 50m backstroke final, followed by Lily King in the women’s 50m breaststroke final.
Following his win in the 800m freestyle and Olympic title last year, Bobby Finke is one of the favorites in the men’s 1500m freestyle, while Erika Brown and Torri Huske take on the field in the women’s 50m freestyle final.
The evening ends with the women’s 400 individual medley, followed by the men’s and women’s 400 medley relay events, respectively.
It’s an event she’s owned for the past decade – winning the past five world titles beginning in 2013 to become the first swimmer to ever five-peat as world champion in a single event.
“I think back to London (2012 Olympics), and I made it a goal to not be a one-hit wonder,” said Ledecky, who picked up her 19th World Championship gold medal (behind only Michael Phelps’ 26). “Here we are 10 years later, so I’m really proud of that, and I’m still excited for the future as well.
“(I’ve been) training with some men (in Florida). Bobby (Finke), Kieran (Smith) and Trey (Freeman), who are all here. (I) try to keep up as much as I can. They push me, and I hope they’ve benefited from me being there. (I’ve done) a lot of work on my stroke and my rhythm, and I think it’s paying off. I think this is just the start, which is tremendously exciting for me.”
With the win, Ledecky becomes the first swimmer to win five-straight World Championship titles in the same event and holds the 27 fastest times in the world.
Her time of 8:08.04–her best in a couple of years and fifth-fastest of all time–outpaced the rest of the pack by more than 10 seconds. Teammate Leah Smith finished just off the podium in fourth.
Ledecky’s was the United States’ lone gold from Friday’s finals – but it certainly wasn’t the only medal.
Michael Andrew started the United States’ medals underway with a silver in the 50m freestyle. His time of 21.41 finished just behind champion Ben Proud of Great Britain, who won in 21.32.
Andrew’s time was a personal-best, and with the medal, he became the first swimmer–male or female–to win individual medals in three different strokes at a single World Championships. He won bronze in the 50 fly and 50 breast earlier in the meet.
He returned later in the session to swim the 100 butterfly final and just missed the podium with a fourth-place finish (51.11).
And despite coming so close to winning two, he was very happy to leave the evening with a medal.
“(Swimming the 50m free/100m fly combo) I can never be too disappointed with making a podium at a World Champs,” Andrew said. “Going into the race, I actually texted my dad before, I was like 21.30 wins it. Call it. Knew it. I was right.”
Phoebe Bacon and Ryan White represented the United States in fine fashion in the 200m backstroke, an event the United States won in 2019 (Regan Smith) and has medaled in every Worlds since 2003.
Both 2020 Olympians, Bacon swam a sizzling 2:05.12 to win silver while White earned bronze in 2:06.96. Bacon’s time of 2:05.12 was just .04 off the gold-medal time of 2:05.08 from Australia’s Kaylee McKeown. White and Bacon finished fourth and fifth in Tokyo last summer.
“We were in Budapest the whole time, and watching all my friends get medals, it was difficult to contain my excitement,” Bacon said. “But I knew my swim was coming, and I just had to be patient with myself and trust my training and all that would come and I would swim well.”
In the only event of the day where the United States didn’t medal, Claire Curzan and Torri Huske finished 5th (25.43) and 6th (25.45) in the 50m butterfly, respectively. The top six finishers were separated by 0.5 seconds.
The United States ended the evening’s finals with a bronze medal in the 4x100m mixed medley relay with a time of 3:21.09. Australia took gold with a world-record time of 3:19.38 followed by Canada in silver at 3:20.61.
According to U.S. sprinter Ryan Held, who helped the United States to gold in the men’s 400 free relay earlier this week, world record swims just happen.
“It’s always a pleasure to represent the Stars and Stripes,” said Ryan Held, who swam the opening leg of the mixed relay. “We put our best relay forward. Sometimes a team breaks the world record. You just have to shake their hand and say awesome race. Hats to Australia, but, yeah, I’m really proud of our team.”
Tomorrow (Saturday) is the final day of competition, with several opportunities for the United States to add to its medal total.
Justin Ress and Hunter Armstrong start things off as the first and second seeds in the men’s 50m backstroke final, followed by Lily King in the women’s 50m breaststroke final.
Following his win in the 800m freestyle and Olympic title last year, Bobby Finke is one of the favorites in the men’s 1500m freestyle, while Erika Brown and Torri Huske take on the field in the women’s 50m freestyle final.
The evening ends with the women’s 400 individual medley, followed by the men’s and women’s 400 medley relay events, respectively.