By: Elaine Wang

Last Saturday, Katie Ledecky, seven-time Olympic gold medalist, once again came home victorious after a women’s 400-meter freestyle at Duna Arena in Budapest. Getting gold was not easy, though: Canadian Summer McIntosh was pushing Ledecky throughout the race, pulling less than a second ahead of Ledecky with 100 meters left, but Ledecky managed to make a comeback and win it with a final, fierce kick, finishing with an ending time of 3:58.15.

“I was a little nervous. [McIntosh] hung in there the whole time, so she definitely pushed me a lot. …Summer is now in the sub-four-minute club, so it’s only going to get harder these races. So I know I have my work cut out for me. It’s a good stepping stone here, to just kind of have a baseline for the next couple years moving [toward] Paris,” the 25-year-old said.

McIntosh came in with a close at 3:59.39, becoming the fourth female in history to finish under four minutes. And although Ledecky eventually won, the battle for victory between Titmus and Ledecky for the 400-meter freestyle at the Paris Olympics in 2024 “may have just gained a third contender,” the New York Times states.

Ledecky, however, was not focused on her rivals in her opening event of the FINA World Championships – instead, what the greatest female distance swimmer in history felt was most important was her personal improvement, beating her previous personal-best time for the 2021-22 season by more than a full second.

“I just wanted to push to the point of pain tonight. It’s the fastest I’ve ever been at 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,” Ledecky stated.

I’m very impressed with your revision Elaine! You really clarified that one confusing sentence and now the article flows so well. I think this is ready to publish! Keep up the great work 🙂

George

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