Ledecky-led US team using worlds as springboard to LA

Nine-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky leads a United States swimming team aiming to shore up its global dominance at the world championships in Singapore with an eye already on the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Ledecky is headed to a seventh world championships on a high note, having lowered her longstanding world record in the 800m freestyle in May — her first long-course world mark since 2018.

She also posted the second-fastest 1,500m free ever this season, and swam the second-best 400m free of her career — all signaling that she remains a force, 13 years on from her breakthrough Olympic gold in the 800m free at London 2012.

The world championships begin on Sunday, and if Ledecky sweeps her three individual events and is part of a winning 4x200m free relay, she would take her tally of world golds to 25.

That is just one shy of Michael Phelps's overall record of 26 world titles.

The 28-year-old Ledecky said she isn't focusing on that type of comparison, or indeed on comparisons with her younger self.

After years in which she felt she could threaten a world record in virtually every race, Ledecky said she had stopped putting expectations on herself.

"I just kind of swim a little more free and just try to improve in different areas, improve off of the previous year or the previous two years, or whatever it is, rather than always comparing myself to my 19-year-old self, or whatever it may be," she said.

Ledecky is right to be cautious, especially with newly minted world record-holder Summer McIntosh waiting in the 400m free.

Ledecky's presence and levelheaded approach will anchor a US team that is a mix of experience and young talent.

The men are aiming to bounce back from a lackluster Paris Olympics, at which Bobby Finke's record-breaking 1,500m free gold was the only victory for the US men.

The US still topped the medal table with eight golds to Australia's seven, and 28 medals in total, but it was the Americans' lowest Olympic total since the 1988 Games in Seoul.

After the women kept the US afloat in Paris, they look strong again.

Gretchen Walsh has twice lowered her 100m butterfly world record this year and won the 50m fly at the US trials with the fourth-fastest swim ever.

Regan Smith, the 100m backstroke world record-holder, heads a formidable women's backstroke lineup eager to challenge Australia's Kaylee McKeown, who won double backstroke gold at both the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.

With Finke again leading the way, the US men emerged from the domestic championships in June with contenders in multiple events.

Luke Hobson became the first American since Phelps to break one min 44 sec in the 200m freestyle with a time of 1:43.73, and Jack Alexy posted a sizzling 46.99s in the 100m free.

Luca Urlando owns the first- and third-fastest times this year in the 200m butterfly and Shaine Casas signaled he's ready to take the fight to French star Leon Marchand in the 200m individual medley.

"The US men are pretty strong, so I think that was a really encouraging week of swimming for all of us," Carson Foster said in June after securing his place in Singapore with a series of second-place finishes at the US trials.

"I'm really excited for the worlds."

Ledecky called the Singapore squad "a great group".

"It will be a lot of good energy," she said. "We want to set the tone as a whole team, a whole unit, this summer, and build from there."

AFP