World Aquatics Championships 2023: Katie Ledecky continues dominance in women's 1500m freestyle, takes 20th world gold
The American wins her milestone 20th World Championships long-course gold medal as she retains the women's 1500m free title in Fukuoka.
Swimming
Katie Ledecky once again blew away the field in the women's 1500m freestyle to retain her crown as the top women's long-distance pool swimmer at the World Aquatics Championships 2023 in Fukuoka, Japan, on Tuesday (25 July).
The American's win also marked her 20th career long-course World Championships gold medal.
Ledecky was the heavy favourite going into the race, having been unbeaten over the distance in her career, and so it proved as she left all her rivals quite literally in her wake.
She was untouchable and hit the wall in 15:26.27, the third-best time ever – behind only her world record set in 2018 and her World Championships record set in 2015.
"I feel good. It hurt a lot but I'm really happy with the outcome. Just having a lot of fun this week," Ledecky said poolside after her win. "It's just a lot of hard work and really great people around me – my coaches ever since I started swimming since I was six, and my really great teammates."
That win also put Ledecky on 15 individual world golds – the same number as Michael Phelps. "It's an honour. I've known Michael for many years now, looked up to him as a little kid," Ledecky said in a press conference after her win. "We're both from Maryland. Just never really imagined I would be in this position. It's always an honour to win a medal for Team USA, especially gold. Just going to keep going and continue to do my best every time I race."
Simona Quadarella of Italy was a very distant second, having had a strong swim of her own to pull away from the rest of the pack by more than two seconds. Quadarella's 15:43.31 was over 17 seconds behind Ledecky as the 2019 world champion – Ledecky withdrew that year through illness – claimed a deserved silver.
The People's Republic of China's Li Bingjie (15:45.71) claimed bronze after the Australian Lani Pallister, who had been third for most of the race, faded hard towards the end of the race.