The men’s 400 free is the first of four finals Sunday night.
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Katie Ledecky poses during the podium ceremony.
The 18-year-old Ledecky led all the way and was under her world-record pace until the next-to-last lap, touching in 3 minutes, 59.13 seconds to set a championship mark.
“Maybe it disappoints you guys”, she blurted, “but it doesn’t disappoint me”.
Soon after qualifying for all four individual events a year ago, Ledecky and her coach, Bruce Gemmell, began charting an aggressive course of training and competition to prepare her for what she will face – all the while keeping one eye focused on Rio, where the lack of a 1,500 for women will force Ledecky to look to shorter races and relays to boost her medal count.
The current Olympic champion won the men’s 400-meter freestyle in 3 minutes, 42.58 seconds on Sunday night, his third consecutive world title in the event.
[Katie Ledecky scares 400 free world mark; Sarah Sjostrom blasts fly record]. Standing on the top perch between Van Rouwendaal and bronze medalist Jessica Ashwood of Australia – atop a giant platform in the middle of an intimate swimming arena constructed inside a cavernous soccer stadium that will host a World Cup quarterfinal in 2018 – Ledecky smiled as she sang along to the “Star-Spangled Banner”, and gulped hard, as if holding back tears, at the end.
She will swim the 200-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyles.
“A medal would have been nice for sure but the swim felt good to me which is the main thing”.
“It’s very flattering and a great honour for me that people seem to hope or expect a world record every time I swim, because I guess that is based on what I have done in the past”.
Also on Franklins program is the 100 free and 200 backstroke.
I truly believe it wont ever happen again, she said. Over the back half of the race, where Ledecky is typically strongest, the early speed she showed took a toll, the five-time world champion continually falling off what was needed to set another global standard.
“Of course, it was broken in the precious swimsuit period, so now if we want to break this record it will take more effort, but I see it as a goal on the road to Rio”, he said.
France outdueled Russian Federation to win the mens 4×100 free relay in 3:10.74.
[2015 FINA World Championships: Links, schedule and results].
After the US team failed to qualify from the morning’s heats for the men’s 4x100m freestyle relay for the first time in world championships history, the French quartet retained their title. Or it could merely be a cyclical downturn in the quality of elite sprinters being produced in the United States in recent years.
“Athletes have been caught doping in other countries, like Australia, but not much is made of that and I think it’s disrespectful to China”. A hard lesson learned..
For the swimmers themselves, the hard lesson, whatever lesson it was, was obscured in the immediate aftermath by the sheer, crushing weight of the loss.
“We have been preparing for this all year”, said Toumarkin.
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That – not anything Ledecky said or did – was what disappointment looks and sounds like.
