But Ledecky, 25, didn’t become the greatest female distance swimmer in history by focusing on her rivals, present or absent. What Ledecky saw Saturday in her opening event of the FINA World Championships were the things that mattered most:Another gold medal, the 16th of her career at world championships, five more than any other female swimmer in history.A time, 3 minutes 58.
Canadian phenom Summer McIntosh was a strong runner-up, pushing Ledecky throughout and earning the silver in 3:59.39, becoming just the fourth female in history to go under four minutes, along with Titmus, Ledecky and Italy’s Federica Pellegrini. McIntosh pulled within a second of Ledecky with 100 meters to go, but Ledecky held her off with a furious finishing kick.
American veteran Leah Smith took the bronze medal in 4:02.08, the seventh world championship medal of her career. All told, Team USA won six of the available 15 medals awarded on the opening day of the world championship meet. Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Caeleb Dressel helped the Americans to the gold medal in the 4x100 free relay, though it was Ryan Held’s 46.99 split in the second leg that put that race away.
As for the women’s 400 free, no one will ever know whether the dynamic would have been altered had Titmus chosen to swim at worlds rather than skip it in favor of July’s Commonwealth Games. It’s possible Titmus — whose world record last month at the Australian national championships took down Ledecky’s mark from the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics — would have vanquished Ledecky head-to-head the way she did at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.
“That wasn’t any added motivation,” said Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist. “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.”
No dudes in this one?
If Lia Thomas was there she'd be pouting in 2nd place.
Wait until she races a female with a penis.
Is this a real woman or a transie?
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