With the swimming portion of the World Aquatics Championships approaching, all eyes will be on Katie Ledecky, the most decorated female swimmer in history, as she goes head to head with teen sensation Summer McIntosh.
Ledecky, who has nine Olympic gold medals and a staggering 21 World Championship titles, has dominated women’s swimming for more than a decade and looks towards this year’s championships in Singapore with an eager eye.
“Each of my events, there’s a different challenge and I’m just excited to see what kind of times I can put up and how I can race,” she told CNN Sports.
For years, the only person the American has had to worry about threatening her records is herself. But despite still amassing wins and accolades, Ledecky – whose early career was characterized by outrageously fast times – hadn’t bagged a world record in seven years.
That was until this May, when she shaved six-tenths of a second off a world record she set almost a decade ago in the women’s 800m freestyle – signalling a return to her trademark speed and power, and a hunger to keep pushing swimming’s limits.
“It was more than just the world record to me. It was going the best time… I think every swimmer knows that feeling, you know, that feeling of going at best time and being better than you’ve ever been. And for me, that just happened to be the world record in that event, and so that was an added bonus,” she explained.
However, at this year’s world championships, Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh will be providing the usually dominant Ledecky some fierce competition.
The 18-year-old McIntosh set three world records at the Canadian Swimming trials in June, smashing the 400m freestyle world record in some style with a time of 3:54.18, as well as breaking the 200m individual medley (IM) world record and her own 400m IM mark from May last year.
With four Olympic medals already to her name – three of them gold – McIntosh is on a path to swimming immortality, and at this year’s Championships, she is aiming to win five individual gold medals, a feat only previously achieved by the legendary Michael Phelps.
McIntosh is also edging closer to Ledecky’s domain: last month, she set a new Canadian record in the 800m freestyle with 8:05.07 – which was just 0.95 seconds short of Ledecky’s time.
The two will go head to head in the 800m freestyle in Singapore, the first time McIntosh has competed in the event at the world championships in a direct challenge to Ledecky’s – who is a six-time world champion in this event – dominance.
“I’ve gotten to race Summer a lot over the years now. I think for the first time I raced her in Tokyo and she was just 14 years old, and I think at that point, you could see that she had a bright future ahead of her,” Ledecky told CNN Sports.
She added: “We will race the 400 and the 800 against each other. And there’ll be some other great competition in those races as well. So I think it’s exciting.”
Speaking of her incredible 800m free performance earlier this year, she said: “It was my best time. It was the world record that Summer’s been, you know, continuing to drop time in every event.
“It should be some exciting races and I’m just gonna put my best foot forward and see what I can do.”
McIntosh is also up to the challenge, explaining in a video conference on July 9: “One of the many reasons I picked 800 is because, in my opinion, it is the biggest challenge. Katie is so strong and in her top form this season, so that match-up will be awesome.
“I think we bring the best out of each other.”
Training to win
Ledecky has been preparing for her seventh World Championships rigorously, training for around 25 to 30 hours a week – swimming 10 times a week and working out five times a week.
Her downtime is just as important as her training, she explained: “It’s hours that people don’t think about that are just as important. How I’m fueling my body, how I am resting, how I’m recovering.”
She added that along with physical preparation, she places great emphasis on mental readiness.
“I think every day that I’m in the water at practice, I’m visualizing racing situations that I am in, or I’m just thinking about my goals, my times, my paces, my technique, all the different things that I need to be thinking about and being diligent about,” Ledecky explained.
“I’ve had really great coaches … that have believed in me and believed that some of my best swimming is ahead of me and that’s what we’re working toward every day.”
Although Ledecky is undeniably proud of her record-breaking achievements, she is most happy with her career as a whole.
“I think, you know, what I’m probably happiest with is just the consistency that I’ve had over the years,” she told CNN Sports.
“I never imagined I would make it even to one Olympics and so anything after that first gold medal at my first Olympics when I was 15 has been kind of icing on the cake. Everything’s just been extra from then on out.
“It’s kind of freeing there’s no pressure. Certainly, I put pressure on myself, but I always remind myself of that and that takes the pressure off.”
The swimming competitions at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore run from July 27 to August 3.