Records, rivalries and races to watch at the World Aquatics Championships
SINGAPORE - As the world's top swimmers line up at the starting blocks for the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) on July 27, fans can expect some thrilling action in the WCH Arena over the next eight days.
From world champions to Olympic gold medallists and record holders, the battle for supremacy in the pool looks set to heat up from Day 1.
The Straits Times looks at some of the races to watch.
1. Women's 100m butterfly (July 28)
American Gretchen Walsh is one of the exciting talents to watch in Singapore after dominating the pool this season.
Winner of two golds and a silver at the Paris Olympics, Walsh broke the 50m fly American record at the Pro Swim Series in May after clocking 24.93sec. A day later, the 22-year-old bettered her own world mark in the 100m fly twice at the same meet, first clocking 55.09 before improving her time to 54.60.
Out to claim her first individual gold at the world championships, Walsh will face a stiff challenge from Olympic champion Torri Huske (US), 2024 winner Angelina Koehler of Germany and Australia's Alexandria Perkins, who ranks third in the world this year in the event after Walsh and Koehler.
2. Men's 100m freestyle (July 31)
In his Olympic debut in Paris 2024, Pan Zhanle made history by clocking 46.40 seconds in the 100m freestyle to claim gold and better his own world record – it was China first-ever gold in the event.
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Finishing over a second ahead of his rival, Australia's Kyle Chalmers, Pan also delivered one of the largest margins of victory in the event in decades. Impressively, all eight swimmers in the final finished under 48 seconds – another first for an Olympic final.
Now, headlining the 34-member Chinese squad, Pan is looking to retain his 100m free gold from the 2024 championships.
He will face a tough challenge from 2023 world champion Chalmers and Romania's David Popovici, who was third in Paris and boasts the world-leading time of 46.71sec clocked at the European Aquatics Championships U23 in Slovakia in June.
3. Men's 200m breaststroke (Aug 1)
While the focus was initially on Olympic champion Leon Marchand, the Frenchman's decision to skip the breaststroke events has opened up the field in the 200m breaststroke.
China's Qin Haiyang, 26, is the favourite for gold after setting the world record time of 2:05.48 at the 2023 World Aquatic Championships. At the meet in Fukuoka, he was also the first swimmer to sweep all the breaststroke golds at a single championships.
Qin will also be out for redemption after failing to progress to the final at the Paris Olympics, but he will have to contend with the likes of former world record holder Zac Stubblety-Cook (Australia) and teammate Dong Zhihao, who will be gunning for back-to-back titles.
4. Women's 800m freestyle (Aug 2)
The clash of the championships will see two of the world's best swimmers facing off in the 800m freestyle for the first time on the world stage.
American superstar Ledecky, the veteran at 28, has been unbeatable at the world championships and Olympics for 13 years, barring a sole defeat to Canadian teen sensation Summer McIntosh at the 2024 Southern Zone meet.
While Ledecky's trophy collection includes 13 Olympic medals – nine of them gold, including four in the 800m free – and 21 world championship titles, McIntosh is aiming to give her a run for her money.
The 18-year-old has been in red-hot form this season, setting world-best times at the recent Canadian Trials in the 400m freestyle (3:54.18), 200m individual medley (2:05.70) and 400m individual medley (4:23.65). In that meet, she was the first swimmer since American legend Michael Phelps to break three individual world records at a single meet.
5. Men's 50m backstroke, Aug 3
Back in the pool at the world championships, Russia's Kliment Kolesnikov will be looking to make up for lost time in Singapore.
The 25-year-old missed out on Paris 2024 owing to the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and only received the nod from World Aquatics to compete at the championships this time under neutral status.
In 2023, he set the world record of 23.55sec in the 50m backstroke at the Russian National Swimming Cup – the record remains unbroken.
Kolesnikov is also expected to challenge for the 100m backstroke title – his best finish in the event was a silver at the 2021 edition in Abu Dhabi.
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Bronze be damned, a chance to see Ledecky is the thrill of opening night
Katie Ledecky en route to finishing third in the women's 400m freestyle final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore on July 25. On a dramatic opening night at the World Aquatics Championships' (WCH) swimming competition, a packed crowd hollered, music blared but talent spoke loudest. The greatest female swimmer of all time lost to the finest female swimmer of this time. Katie Ledecky used to be a poster on Summer McIntosh's wall. Now the Canadian, two lanes away in the women's 400m freestyle final, was offering the American proof of how powerfully that inspiration had worked. In a race about seconds, it was the years which showed. McIntosh, who won, is 18, Ledecky, who was third, is 28. Time in every way is on the former's side. When the American won her first 400m Olympic gold in 2016, the Canadian was nine. The wonder of sport is that sometimes a fan can turn into a rival. It is a testimony to McIntosh's drive and Ledecky's longevity. Both women arrived at the blocks with a poker player's expression. The competition face is a beautiful thing. Ledecky last broke the 400m world record in 2016, McIntosh did it this June. At this distance this wasn't a fully fair fight but still Ledecky comes. As long as they can draw a competitive breath, champions want to measure themselves. I'm here at the WCH Arena for the race, but really I'm here to watch Ledecky. The exceptional, in any field, exert a unique pull. The poet, the sculptor, the dancer, the swimmer, any time you get to see The Greatest, you go. Especially because swimming offers too few chances. The sporting spotlight is never shared equally. Across this Sports Hub precinct on July 27, Arsenal were playing Newcastle in a pre-season friendly. The last time either won the Premier League title was 2004 and yet they were watched by 38,720. In this watery arena in a car park, the full house which watched Ledecky chase McIntosh in hard competition numbered less than 5,000. Swimming appeared at the first Olympics in 1896 and it has produced Tarzans, legendary moustaches and a finned human named Michael Phelps, and yet, perplexingly, has never quite seized our regular attention. Its vocabulary is less familiar, its names less heralded, its feats too rarely on TV. Ledecky is astonishing – four golds in a single Olympics, golds in the same event (800m) in four Games – yet she is probably less known by some than the reserves of Arsenal's team. Yet Ledecky swims to challenge herself, not to be famous. She now has 27 world championship medals, yet competes without any apparent conceit. The most difficult thing for great athletes can be losing yet Ledecky, in the rare times she does lose, does so with grace. Race done on Sunday night, she walked through the mixed zone, stopping briefly for media requests. 'I would've liked to be a little faster,' she said. 'I was a little faster earlier this year, so there's always that slight bit of wanting to be better than that.' Her smile was wide, her tone tinged with gratitude. 'But I can't complain with the medal. Fourth place was a 3:58 (Ledecky timed 3:58.49, Australian's Lani Pallister was fourth in 3:58.87) so that could have easily been me.' A few days ago I'd asked the American swimmer Regan Smith what was extraordinary about Ledecky and her answer went 242 words. It started with 'a lot of things'. When Smith was 15 she was on a trip with Ledecky and said, 'I was very star struck. And I think she carries herself with a lot of grace'. 'She's very down to earth,' said Smith, the 100m backstroke world-record holder. 'If you don't see her, and you're not at the pool, you would never know that she is who she is.' Later Smith, 23, added: 'She's an exceptional leader, too, and she's very good at putting others before herself.' Roger Federer raised everyone's level, Ledecky made everyone faster. At the 2020 Olympics, Australia's Ariarne Titmus, who defeated her in the 400m freestyle, said, 'I wouldn't be here without her'. On Sunday night, China's Li Bingjie, who edged out Ledecky to win silver, was as complimentary. 'She may not be at her peak form now, but this result is still very significant and meaningful to me. I've looked up to her since I was a young athlete. I've had this dream since 2017, and Katie has always been someone I view as a great athlete.' July 28 is the 1,500m heats and it is the start of Ledecky territory. 'I think,' she said, 'the first day is sometimes a hit or miss for me at these worlds. I'm really excited for the distance races, I mean that's kind of my thing.' She is the saint of suffering and the 1,500m is her promised land. Fittingly it's the name of a song by one of her favourite singers Bruce Springsteen and maybe, on Sunday, defeat slowly digested, she might have rolled through her playlist and listened to words from it which define her devoted life. 'I've done my best to live the right way 'I get up every morning and go to work each day.'
