Without the Australian shadows of her archenemy Ariarne Titmus, at home, and Lani Pallister, positive for covid on Thursday, Katie Ledecky had no rival to hang the fourth of the four golds she was chasing at the Budapest World Cup, this time in the 800 Free, your fetish test.
The American will leave Hungary as the woman who has won the most medals in World Cup history: 22. Adding four by four, she will hardly catch Ryan Lochte (27) and Michael Phelps (33), the swimming legends.
Ledecky is the first swimmer in history to win the same event in five consecutive World Cups: he won gold in the 800m freestyle in Barcelona 2013, in Kazan 2015, in Budapest 2017, in Gwangju 2019 and now in Budapest 2022.
There was little doubt that the 800 gold would also end up hanging around Ledecky's neck. In the qualifying series, played on Thursday, the American set the best time in 8:17.51, that is, 7 seconds less than Pallister and her countrywoman Leah Smith, who was the first to approach her in the final. Although she fainted soon, after the first 50 meters, she was clearly surpassed by the Australian Kiah Melverton... she was the last to qualify among the 8 finalists and she ended up taking silver.
Ledecky's dominance of all 16 pools was overwhelming. Swimming down lane 4, in the first 150 meters he was already one second ahead of Melverton; the rent rose to two seconds in the 250 meters, to 3.2 in the 400 meters... and so on progressively until accumulating 10 seconds ahead of the Australian at the end and almost 11 to the third, the Italian Simona Quadarella, who had qualified with the seventh fastest time.
The world record this time was far away. Ledecky set a discreet 8m08s04 in the Budapest final, nine seconds less than in the preliminary series, but far from his Rio 2016 record set at 8m04s79.
Ledecky, 27 years old, with more or less shadows, continues to dominate the background in freestyle since she burst like a tsunami into the Palau Sant Jordi pool at the 2013 World Cup winning the same poker gold, at only 16 years old. . She currently holds the world records for the 800 free, set at the 2016 Rio Games, and the 1,500 free since 2018.
Although it is true that, with age, their domain is declining and predators appear who question their hegemony. In May she broke the world record in the 400 free, snatched by the Australian Ariarne Titmus, her great rival, who also snatched the Olympic crown in that distance at the last Tokyo Games. When everyone expected a high duel with the rematch at stake, Titmus was absent from Budapest. "I'm not interested in the World Cup," justified the Australian. She preferred to prepare for the Commonwealth Games..
