By: Max Xu

On Saturday, June 18, Katie Ledecky won gold in the women’s 400-meter freestyle in Budapest, Hungary.

Ariane Titmus, the Australian swimmer who beat Ledecky’s record just a month before, was not present at the FINA World Championships. She decided to skip them to focus on her goal to win gold in the upcoming Olympics in Paris.

However, even without the record-holder to challenge Ledecky, the race wasn’t without competition. Canadian swimmer, Summer McIntosh earned silver in the race, only about a second over Ledecky’s time. McIntosh’s surprising performance has made people wonder if there might be a third contender for the gold medal at the next Olympics. “I was a little nervous. [McIntosh] hung in there the whole time, so she definitely pushed me a lot,” Ledecky said.

Ledecky ended with a time of 3:58.15, which broke Ledecky’s own meet record and was the fourth-fastest 400 that she has ever swum. Although it was about a second and a half slower than Titmus’s world record, it was Ledecky’s personal best for the 2021-2022 season.

The gold medal at the World Championships this year was Ledecky’s 16th, which is 5 more than any other female swimmer in history. She is also a 7-time Olympic gold medalist.

Ledecky has just recently started working with a new coach (Anthony Nesty) and training group last fall, which has motivated her greatly. Many people think that she is motivated by trying to take back the record from Titmus, but she says that that isn’t the case.

“That wasn’t any added motivation,” said Ledecky. “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.”

Source Article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/06/18/katie-ledecky-400-free/