By: Ethan Tu

Katie Ledecky had an incredible meet this past week at the Fina World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. With 22 medals, she now has the most swimming world championships medals for a female, surpassing Natalie Coughlin who had 20. She also has the most gold medals for a female with 19, only trailing Michael Phelps, who has 26.

Ledecky won a historic 800 free, being the only person in history to ever win an event five times consecutively at world championships. She has not lost the 800 free in a race for a decade and has won the event 8 consecutive times at Worlds or Olympic games. Her performance at this championship is the fifth fastest time in history. To top it all off, the top 27 times in the 800 freestyle all belong to her, with the 28th performer being Ariarne Titmus.

After the race she said, “I’m happy with that. Fastest I’ve been in a couple of years, so really good end to a great week.” That marks her 19th gold at Worlds, four of which were from this meet.

On the first day of racing, June 18th, Ledecky won the 400 freestyle, then two days later she won the mile (1,500). She also swam the third leg in the 4×200 relay on Wednesday, breaking the championship record. On that relay she swam the third fastest 200 split of all time and said after the race, “That’s awesome. It’s so easy to get up for these relays and just not think and go”. Katie Ledecky is also the first person to swim the 400/800/1500 four different times at the world championships.

In the 400 free, Ledecky won gold and broke the championship record. The youngster from Canada, Summer McIntosh, finished second, only a second behind Ledecky’s time. McIntosh may become another gold medal contender for future races.

Ariane Titmus, Ledecky’s rival who broke her 400 free world record a month earlier, opted out of the world championships to compete at the commonwealth games instead. Although this disappointed many people who wanted to see her race Ledecky, Titmus said “I just really wanted to think about the long term. And I really don’t care – it doesn’t bother me that I’m not going to be in the headlines or the media or the spotlight when the world championships are on.”

Sources:

https://www.espn.com/olympics/swimming/story/_/id/34143381/katie-ledecky-adds-historic-medal-count-800-freestyle-title-world-swimming-championships

https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1655654898669x198896028836329280/Katie%20Ledecky%20wins%20gold%20in%20400%20free%20at%20world%20championships%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf

https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2022/06/22/katie-ledecky-swimming-world-championships-medals/

Huge Splits From Ledecky, Sims, Lead Americans To 4×200 Free Championship Record

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1b5uFbAkAi7SibqiIG5XRM6PjqDRf1CRE