BUDAPEST — If you need to read about golfers yelling at each other or journalists yelling at golfers or something like that, please click elsewhere.
Katie Ledecky was back racing Saturday night, which means we can all feel good about, well, everything. Especially about the notion of endless possibilities. And what it means to genuinely be an inspiration seemingly everywhere in our fractious and chaotic world, and especially to women and girls — some of whom make posters for you and still others who make posters and then grow up to, you know, race you.
Here at the FINA world championships, Ledecky won the women’s 400-meter freestyle in a meet-record 3:58.15. It was the seventh-fastest time, ever, in the event. Ledecky has four of the seven. Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, who won the 400 free at last year’s Tokyo Olympics — with Ledecky a gracious second — and who just a few weeks ago set the new world record, 3:56.4, slicing six-hundredths of a second off the mark Ledecky set in Rio in 2016, has the other three.
In Tokyo, Titmus went 3:56.9. Ledecky finished in 3:57.36 — the second-fastest mark in Ledecky’s career. Here, Ledecky was well within a second of her Tokyo time, but without Titmus pushing her. And this means?
It means the decision to move from Stanford to Florida, where Ledecky has been training under coach Anthony Nesty with a group of guys, including distance standout Bobby Finke and others, holds considerable promise. In particular, toward the Paris 2024 Games.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” Ledecky said of training in Gainesville. “It’s just been refreshing and fun to have new teammates and new coaches and a different perspective.”
The promise was obvious in the morning 400 prelim swim, when Ledecky went 3:59.79. Afterward, asked how often she had gone under four minutes in a prelim, she would smile and say — “very rarely.”
Ledecky is 25. Summer McIntosh of Canada, who finished second Saturday in a personal-best 3:59.39, is 15. Ledecky was 15 when she burst onto the scene at the 2012 London Games, winning gold in the 800 freestyle.
Ledecky said she knew McIntosh, who finished fourth in Tokyo, would push her.
McIntosh pushed. Still, Ledecky won by 1.24 seconds.
Ledecky after touching the wall // Getty Images
McIntosh; Ledecky; and bronze medalist Leah Smith of the United States. Smith, after the race, of Ledecky: “I think it’s just been really special to, like, chase after dreams with her. I feel like she has pushed me so much and I’m, like, really proud of everything I’ve done in my career and I’m proud of her, too” // Getty Images
McIntosh, at 15, figures to keep improving. She is a major talent. No doubt. All the same, she is looking down a road — a lane, if you will — well-traveled, a teen in a sport dominated by teens and early 20-somethings.
On the U.S. roster: Claire Weinstein, 15; Katie Grimes, 16; Leah Hayes, 16; Bella Sims, 17; Claire Curzan, 17.
“I used to, like, pull [Ledecky] quotes from the internet and then make posters and then put them up on my wall,” McIntosh, sporting orthodontic braces, said after the final. “She’s, like, my main idol. So it’s really cool to race her.”
World-class swimming traditionally skews young. France’s 20-year-old Léon Marchand, who finished sixth in the men’s 400 individual medley in Tokyo in 4:11.86 and whose prior lifetime best had been Saturday morning’s 4:09.09, abruptly threw down 4:04.28 Saturday night for the win — roughly four-tenths of a second behind Michael Phelps’ long out-of-reach 4:03.84, set at the 2008 Beijing Games.
Marchand’s father, Xavier, won silver in the 200 IM in Perth in 1998. And more: Marchand swims at Arizona State. His coach there? Bob Bowman. Who coached, of course, none other than — Phelps. That 400 IM mark from 2008? It’s now in reach. By a French guy who figures to be a breakout star at the Paris Games. When — his birthday is May 17, 2002 — he will have just turned 22.
Titmus is 21. She is not in Budapest, for reasons of her own.
Ledecky’s medal Saturday was her 16th gold at a world championships; only Ryan Lochte, with 18, and Phelps, with 26, have more. The race Saturday marked Ledecky’s fourth world championship gold in the 400 free. In all, she has 12 individual world gold medals; only Phelps has more, 15. Ledecky is due here to swim two more individual events, the 800 and 1500 freestyles, and the 4x2 free relay.
“The focus maybe for everyone else is about time, but for me it hasn’t been about time this year,” Ledecky told NBC. “It’s just about finding my stroke, finding my rhythm and not putting a limit on what I can do.”
What Ledecky is doing is extraordinary: 25, not only still winning but perhaps, quite possibly, maybe even probably, still getting better.
Hey, Tilly, a secret — when Katie was 10, she, too, was a super-dedicated swimmer. Just like you. And, just like now — not putting any limits on what she might do.
Our world can, you know, use more of that kind of thing.