Katie Ledecky moving on after a bit of a letdown at worlds

BUDAPEST, Hungary — OK, it wasn’t like Katie Ledecky was a flop at the world championships.

Far from it.

She won five gold medals. She took silver in her other event.

“If that was my bad year for the next four years, then the next couple years are going to be pretty exciting,” Ledecky declared.

But her performance in Budapest did prove one thing.

She’s human.

Ledecky failed to set a personal best in any of her races — the ultimate goal for every swimmer, even more than the medals. A runner-up finish in the 200-meter freestyle was the 20-year-old’s first individual defeat in a major international race.

“I always wish there was more,” Ledecky said. “I’ve never walked away from a season completely satisfied, even last year (after winning four golds at the Rio Olympics). You always are looking and moving forward.”

She was certainly due for a letdown.

Ever since a stunning breakthrough at the 2012 London Olympics, when she won the 800 free as a little-known 15-year-old, Ledecky’s trajectory has been nothing but up, up, up.

In 2013, she won four golds at the worlds in Barcelona, setting a pair of world records. Two years later in Kazan, she swept every freestyle from 200 to 1,500 meters, setting two more world records. And, yes, two more world records fell last summer in Brazil, transforming her into a full-fledged star.

But that wasn’t the only striking change in Ledecky’s life.

After putting off college for a year to focus on the Olympics, the Washington, D.C.-area swimmer moved across the country for her freshman year at Stanford. It has been an enriching experience that she’s fully embraced, meeting new people and taking all sorts of challenging classes, but perhaps it had an impact on her swimming.

Ledecky acknowledged that she “didn’t really set as high of goals or have that same motivation, just always being on and on and on.”

“Going through a lot of transitions and changes this year, knowing that I’ve gone through that now, I can really take what I’ve learned and use it moving forward,” Ledecky said.

She was certainly overshadowed along the banks of the Danube.

Caeleb Dressel emerged as America’s newest sensation with a record-tying seven gold medals — three of them on the same night, the first swimmer ever to accomplish that feat at worlds.

“He’s incredible,” Ledecky said, maybe even a bit relieved to have the spotlight shining elsewhere. “Just so impressive how he goes race to race to medal ceremony to medal ceremony, has another race in about two minutes. He’s just such a great athlete and such a great swimmer. So young, too, that he has so many great years ahead of him.”

Dressel is the same age as Ledecky.

Chances are, they both have plenty of great years ahead of them.

But now, for perhaps the first time in her swimming career, Ledecky is facing a bit of a setback.

It will be interesting to see how she bounces back.

In all likelihood, she’ll come back better than ever.

“This year I didn’t really set very specific time goals or goals in general,” she said “I just kind of wanted to repeat in all by different events from the past two worlds and just play a part on some good Team USA relays. I didn’t really have too big of expectations for myself, especially compared to the last couple of years. I knew there were expectations externally, but I was really just trying to focus on my own races, putting those together, and using this year as a big learning year.”

Ledecky took on her most demanding program at these championships, competing in four individual events and two relays, a total of 6,300 meters in all counting preliminaries, semifinals and finals.

“It was pretty tiring,” she conceded. “I’m pretty wiped out right now. But I’m happy with how it all went. I was happy with how I was able to bounce back after each race, move forward to the next race and get through to the next round as well as I did.”

She’s not totally pleased with the results, even though she’s now the winningest female swimmer in world championship history with 14 gold medals — more than anyone except Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Ledecky feels like she’s capable of more.

“I’m happy with five golds and a silver,” she said. “But there’s a lot of room for improvement for me, as crazy as that sounds. Moving forward, I’m going to be really motivated. I’m really looking forward to working toward 2020 now.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Ink or swim? Tattoos on show at worlds

World records have tumbled and gold medals won but the colourful array of tattoos on show at the world swimming championships have proved just as eye-catching, be they designs of sharks, dolphins or even the lion adorning the arm of Adam Peaty’s grandmother.

A vast array of images, script, and secretive symbols adorned the bodies of competitors, from flowing and harmonious waves to powerful and speedy creatures of the deep.

The Olympic rings — a proud stamp on the skin of the swimmers who competed at a Games — are also common place, but some of the world’s fastest have explained the thinking behind the art work on their bodies.

Britain’s Peaty has been one of the stand-out performers at the Duna Arena with two world records and golds in the men’s 50m and 100m breaststroke.

Peaty had a large tattoo of a lion inked onto his left shoulder after winning the Olympic 100m breaststroke title last year in Rio de Janeiro.

“The tattoo is more about training for me,” said the 22-year-old in Budapest.

“When you wake up, you look in the mirror and you go to the pool. It reminds me of the hard work I put in to win in Rio, while I am swimming.

“It also keeps me grounded and passionate about what I do, it reminds me of how I got there.

“It is great to have a reminder, it’s getting extended in a few days,” he added without wanting to give away the future design.

Peaty’s wheelchair-bound grandmother, Mavis Williams, 74, got a temporary tattoo, a copy of his lion tattoo, which delighted the British swimmer.

“That was crazy, I actually thought she had had a proper tattoo done, I thought ‘oh my god, what has she done, but she loves it,” said Peaty with a grin.

Bruno Fratus, who took silver in the men’s 50m freestyle on Saturday behind Caeleb Dressel of the USA, explained how his winged tattoo was done on a whim.

“I trust the guy who does my tattoos so badly that I just give him my arms and say ‘do whatever you feel like as long as it’s not too crazy’ as I still got to wear short sleeves,” the 28-year-old told AFP.

‘It’s who I am’

“As long as I have space and money I’ll keep doing it, and time off because every time you tattoo something you need 10 days off water.

“That’s a graffiti I saw in Miami in Wynwood, I just took a picture and give it to him as a reference. That one’s just a wing.

“I woke up one morning and thought ‘I think I would look good with a wing on my arm’.”

His compatriot, Etiene Medeiros won the women’s 50m backstroke gold on Thursday and explained the differing motivations for her tattoos.

“I have an ocean mermaid on my forearm to bring its energy into my life, beneath it a lotus flower, which is rising from the ashes like a phoenix,” said the 26-year-old Brazilian.

“Beneath that, an ‘ohana’ tattoo to remind me how blessed I am to have my family and friends.

“On my ankles, I have the name of my father and mother, I also have other ones which are hidden.”

South African-born Dutch swimmer Kyle Stolk boasts a springbok and an Irish shamrock displayed on a resplendent Dutch flag.

“I wanted to incorporate the three places that have made me where I am today,” said the swimmer, who learned his trade in Dublin, before moving to the Netherlands who he represented at the Rio Olympics.

“It might be a too flamboyant for some people but it means a lot to me, it’s who I am,” he said

source: sports.inquirer.net

Ledecky adds third freestyle gold to tally

KAZAN, Russia  - Katie Ledecky's bid to become the first swimmer to win four individual freestyle titles at a world championships remained on track as the American claimed a stunning gold in the women's 200 meters on Wednesday.

After qualifying for the final in seventh during a punishing schedule which meant Ledecky raced her semi-final 30 minutes after winning the 1,500m freestyle gold with a world record, the 18-year-old American touched first in one minute 55.16 seconds.

Ledecky's win, achieved from lane seven, added to her golds in the 400m freestyle on the opening night and the 1,500.

With all eight swimmers in with a chance of a medal at the final turn, Federica Pellegrini of Italy denied a United States one-two by claiming silver in 1:55.32 seconds. World champion Missy Franklin took bronze in 1:55.49.

Sun Yang of China dug deep, also from lane seven, to win his second gold, the men's 800m freestyle, after a thrilling battle with Italy's Gregorio Paltrinieri.

Briton Adam Peaty continued his fine form by adding the men's 50m breaststroke gold to his 100m breaststroke title, becoming the first swimmer to achieve the feat at a world championships.

Peaty won his third gold when he contributed to Britain's world-record time of 3:41.71 seconds in the mixed 4x100m medley relay, a new event.

Chad Le Clos of South Africa lost his men's 200m backstroke title to Hungary's Laszlo Cseh in a pulsating final.

Le Clos led for the first 100 metres but the Hungarian regained the advantage by the final turn. Although Le Clos made one final surge, Cseh did enough to post the year's world-leading time of 1:53.48 and hold off the Olympic champion by 0.20 seconds.

Cameron McEvoy of Australia clocked the fastest time in the world this year, 47.94 seconds, as he topped qualification for Thursday's men's 100m freestyle final.

His bid to succeed compatriot James Magnussen, the double champion who was forced to pull out of the championships with a shoulder injury, was given a major boost when Russia's Vladimir Morozov was disqualified in the following heat.

Morozov led throughout to record 48.12 seconds but was adjudged to have left the blocks too soon, a decision which silenced the near-capacity Kazan Arena.  — Reuters