Katie Ledecky wins 1500m free at swim worlds on 15-year streak, breaks ties with Phelps, Lochte

Katie Ledecky prolonged her 15-year win streak within the 1500m freestyle and broke profession medal ties with Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte on the World Swimming Championships on Tuesday.

Ledecky earned her sixth title within the 1500m free and twenty second world title general.

She clocked quarter-hour, 26.44 seconds in Singapore, comfortably prevailing by 5.35 seconds over Italian Simona Quadarella.

“Each one has meaning, and I love every race that I’ve had at worlds over the years,” Ledecky stated on Peacock.

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It was truly Ledecky’s closest 1500m free at an Olympics or worlds since her first title in 2013.

Credit Quadarella, who grew to become the second-fastest girl in historical past within the occasion by 7.09 seconds over Dane Lotte Friis’ silver medal time from 2013. It’s nonetheless 11.31 seconds shy of Ledecky’s world file, although.

“I knew that if I started hurting at any point, somebody was going to be right there to come charging at the end,” stated Ledecky, who at 450 meters was three seconds beneath her world file tempo from 2018.

Ledecky entered the race with the highest 24 occasions in historical past. She swam the fifth-best time ever Tuesday however leaves with the highest 11 occasions with Quadarella now slotting at No. 12.

Ledecky final misplaced a 1500m free on the 2010 Potomac Valley Championships in her native Maryland — as a 13-year-old to a 17-year-old Kaitlin Pawlowicz.

“(Ledecky) was leading and her cap came off,” Pawlowicz stated in 2016, according to Yahoo Sports.

Ledecky earned her twenty eighth world medal of any shade, breaking her tie with Lochte for second all-time behind Phelps’ 33.

She received a twenty first particular person medal, breaking her tie with Phelps for second all-time behind Swede Sarah Sjostrom’s 23.

Ledecky has two occasions left at these worlds: the 4x200m free relay on Thursday and the 800m free, probably the most anticipated race of the meet as a result of a possible showdown with Canadian Summer McIntosh. That ultimate is Saturday.

Also Tuesday, Australian Kaylee McKeown swam the second-fastest girls’s 100m backstroke in historical past — 57.16 seconds — to overhaul American Regan Smith. McKeown dislocated a shoulder within the weeks main as much as a pre-worlds coaching camp.

“I’ve got a really flexible stroke, and it’s to my benefit when I swim my backstroke but sometimes it can cause me to dislocate my shoulder,” she stated, in accordance with Swimming Australia. “It’s been quite irritated but I’ve got a good medical team and physiotherapists to help me get through.”

Fellow American Katharine Berkoff took bronze in a repeat of the Paris Olympic podium.

Smith, the world file holder at 57.13, and McKeown mix to personal the highest 25 occasions in historical past.

Romanian David Popovici rallied previous American Luke Hobson within the final 50 meters to win the 200m free in 1:43.53. Hobson took silver in 1:43.84, one 12 months after incomes bronze behind gold medalist Popovici on the Olympics.

Olympic 200m breaststroke gold medalist Kate Douglass gave the U.S. a 3rd silver of the session. She completed runner-up to German Anna Elendt within the 100m breast.

Elendt, a former Texas Longhorn, was twentieth on the 2024 Olympics after taking silver on the 2022 Worlds.

Douglass lowered her private finest in each the semifinals and ultimate in an occasion she by no means beforehand swam at a serious worldwide meet.

Douglass, 23, is now as much as 16 profession World Championships medals — all since 2022 — together with particular person medals within the 200m particular person medley (two golds), 50m free and 100m and 200m breaststrokes.

Pieter Coetze of South Africa rallied from third on the 50 to take the boys’s 100m again in 51.85. Coetze matched the third-best time in historical past in relegating Olympic champion Thomas Ceccon of Italy to silver.

Worlds proceed all week with preliminary heats at 10 p.m. ET and finals at 7 a.m., reside on Peacock.

Wednesday’s finals function Olympic champion Bobby Finke within the males’s 800m freestyle.