By: Nicholas Huang
In the 2022 FINA World Championship, Katie Ledecky won her 16th gold medal, 5 more than any other woman has ever achieved. This 400m race was her fourth fastest time in her career, being a time of 3 minutes and 58.15 seconds. Not only did she swim the 400, but she swam the 800 free, 1,500 free, and the 4×200 relay.
Katie wasn’t the only spectacle of the championship, however. Fifteen-year-old Summer McIntosh from Canada was runner-up and scored another sub-four-minute time, a feat that only three other women had accomplished. American Leah Smith won a bronze medal, right behind McIntosh and Ledecky, with a 4:02. However, everything could have changed if Ariarne Titmus competed in the championship. The Australian swimmer decided that she did not need to compete at worlds, even though she recently swam the world record 3:56. If she had completed, Ledecky would have had some fierce competition.
All in all, the USA team won six of the fifteen medals on opening day, and seven-time gold medalist Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Held helped secure a gold medal in the 4×100 freestyle relay race for the men.
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