(Los Angeles) Swimmer Katie Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, won the United States Championship 800m freestyle with the third fastest time in history Tuesday in Indianapolis.
At the opening of these championships, Ledecky, 26, clocked 8:07 and 7/100th, his best performance since his world record set at the Rio Olympics in 2016 (8:04.79). .
With this performance, she easily qualified for the Fukuoka World Championships (July 23-30), which will be her sixth Worlds.
“It’s been great […] I’m happy with this time,” reacted the swimmer to 19 world titles, including 14 individual titles – just one length short of swimming legend Michael Phelps’ record.
“I was so looking forward to getting to the start of the competition, seeing all these fast swims today,” added Katie Ledecky, who in the 800m freestyle has won the last five Worlds and the last three Olympic finals , since her first title in London in 2012, when she was just 15 years old.
Second at more than 13 seconds, Jillian Cox however shattered her personal best, in 8: 20.28, also winning her ticket for the Worlds.
The other star scrutinized in Indianapolis, Caeleb Dressel, on the other hand, disappointed in the men’s 100m freestyle by only achieving the 29th time, the last of his series.
At 26, the five-time Olympic champion in Tokyo in 2021, who had given up the World Championships in Budapest last year, is coming out of a long period without competition – he swam only once last month in Atlanta.
In Indianapolis, he must also compete in the 50m freestyle, and the 50 and 100m butterfly.
On Tuesday, the 100m freestyle was won by Jack Alexy in 4.793.
Among the women, 21-year-old Kate Douglass won the distance, posting the fourth best world performance of the year (5.257).
