Swimming star Katie Ledecky was dominated on Wednesday by Claire Weinstein in the 200m freestyle of the United States championships, qualifiers for the World Cup-2023, while Regan Smith, to regain the world record for the 200m backstroke , shone. Ledecky, a seven-time Olympic gold medalist, who won the 800m freestyle in Indianapolis on Tuesday, finished two hundredths behind the 16-year-old swimmer, who was still behind after 150 meters of racing and finally won in 1 min 55 sec and 26/100th.
“It’s incredible,” reacted Weinstein, after securing his ticket for the next world championships in Fukuoka (July 23-30). Last year, she finished 2nd in the American selections behind Ledecky but was then eliminated in the semi-finals of the Budapest World Championships individually.
The other sensation of the day is to be credited to Regan Smith, whose world record in the 200m backstroke was beaten by Australian Kaylee McKeown (2 min 03 sec 14/100th) in March. With a time of 2 min 3 sec 80/100e, the American, who had already won the 200m butterfly on Tuesday at the start, hit hard and showed that her recent choice to be coached by Bob Bowman is paying off.
“It’s been four years since I swam in 2 min 3 sec so I’m happy to be back at this mark”, she reacted after this 5th best performance of all time over the distance, while Rhyan White followed him at 1 sec 97/100e. From a distance, McKeown achieved a time of 2 min 3 sec 70/100th this month during the Australian selections.
In addition, Caeleb Dressel, who appeared in the 100m freestyle on Tuesday as he tries to return to the highest level, finished in an encouraging 3rd place in the 50m butterfly behind Michael Andrew and Dare Rose. At 26, seven times Olympic champion and 14 times world champion, had given up last year at the World Championships in Budapest and is coming out of a long period without competition.