Ledecky making waves
Katie Ledecky of Stanford enjoys the aftermath of her 1,500-meter freestyle victory in the World Championships. It’s her third gold medal of the event.
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Katie Ledecky breezed to her third gold medal of the world championships Tuesday, backing off a bit on her most grueling night of the meet.
It was left to Lilly King, Kylie Masse and Adam Peaty to take down the swimming record book — and King to claim another impressive triumph over her Russian rival.
Ledecky took the 1,500meter freestyle in 15:31.82 — six seconds off her world record, but enough to win by more than half the length of the pool — and returned just 49 minutes later to post the fastest time in the semifinals of the 200 free.
Long or short, it doesn’t seem to matter to the Stanford student.
“It’s hard the other 364 days of the year,” Ledecky said, barely breathing hard. “It’s putting the work in for practice, so when I get to this day of the meet, I can just do it. It’s routine. Just get up and know that I have the work in the bank to get up and swim those times.”
Ledecky is bidding for a record-tying six gold medals by a female swimmer at a single world championships .
She already became the winningest female ever at the worlds with her 12th career gold, breaking a tie with Missy Franklin and trailing only Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte among all swimmers.
“I couldn’t really get my kick going into it that much,” said Ledecky, who waited 19.07 seconds for silver medalist Mireia Belmonte of Spain to finish, with the bronze going to Italy’s Simona Quadarella. “I just kind of stayed steady there.”
Ledecky sucked all the suspense out of her final — she was more than 19 seconds ahead of the runner-up — and King made it 2-0 over Yulia Efimova in what has become one of swimming’s most compelling rivalries.
The finger-wagging American won gold at the Rio Olympics last summer in the 100-meter breaststroke after spurning Efimova and brazenly proclaiming the Russian had no business being allowed to compete because of doping violations.
Efimova nearly broke Ruta Meilutyte’s 4-year-old record in the semifinals, giving her the prime lane in the middle of the pool.
King, racing right beside her, was the one who preEfimova vailed when it counted. She led all the way, touching in 1 minute, 4.13 seconds to shave 0.22 of a second off the Lithuanian’s mark from the 2013 worlds in Barcelona.
King defiantly pounded the water when she saw the time, then turned to congratulate the runner-up — American teammate Katie Meili, who edged out the Russian for the silver.
King was especially giddy that the U.S. went 1-2, with Efimova relegated to a bronze.
“The rivalry is definitely there. I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon,” King said. “Obviously, it’s very awkward between the two of us. We’re competitors. We don’t really like each other too much.”
King’s bravado makes her stand out even more in the usually staid world of swimming.
“Her confidence is so impressive,” Ledecky said. “I think it’s infectious for the whole team.”
Efimova hung on the lane rope, all alone and managing a weak smile, as if she couldn’t believe the Indiana college student had beaten her again.
Still, this didn’t hurt as bad as the defeat in Rio.
“There’s still pressure from the media, but it’s more fun,” insisted. “The Olympic Games were the worst.”
China’s Sun Yang earned his second gold of the championships, adding the 200 free gold to his victory in the 400 free. He finished more than a half-second ahead of American Townley Haas. The bronze went to Russia’s Aleksandr Krasnykh.
Yang’s teammate Xu Jiayu touched first in the 100 backstroke, beating Americans Matt Grevers and reigning Olympic champion Ryan Murphy of Cal, who settled for silver and bronze.