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A golden trio of female teenaged swimmers were the star performers at the 15th FINA world championships in Barcelona on Tuesday night. |
None of them are old enough to legally drink and only one of them is old enough to drive a car, but they are all old enough to win world championship gold medals and swim world records.
At 18, Missy Franklin is already an old hand at her sport. Two years ago, at the Shanghai world championships, the then 16-year-old burst onto the scene, winning three gold medals, a silver and a bronze. A year later, Franklin, who holds dual Canadian-US citizenship, went one better, picking up four gold medals and a bronze at the London Olympics.
Franklin, who has just finished high school and accepted a sports scholarship from the University of California, has set the bar even higher this time around.
She has been entered in eight events and is hoping for eight world championship gold medals—a feat no other swimmer has achieved.
After three days of the competition, she remains on track. On Sunday she won gold with the US 4x100m freestyle relay and on Tuesday she finished first in the 100m backstroke and just over an hour later, had the second-fastest time in the women’s 200m freestyle.
Anybody who thought that was impressive needed to think again when Katie Ledecky took to the pool. The 16-year-old, who swims for the Nation’s Capital Swim Club in Washington, won the 400m freestyle on Sunday night and on Tuesday swam in the final of the 1,500m.
For 1,400 metres she was trailing Lotte Friis—with both on them well under world record time. With 100m to go, Ledecky kicked in and left the Dane no chance, winning in 15:36.53—an astonishing 6.01 seconds slower than the previous best mark set by Kate Ziegler in 2007. New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle took bronze.
It is unlikely that Ledecky has finished her medal haul, as she will start the 800m, a race in which she won Olympic gold in London and is the favourite in Barcelona. She can also hope for another gold with the US 4x200m freestyle relay. The teenager also qualified for the 200m freestyle—becoming the first US swimmer to qualify for all four distances—but pulled out due to her gruelling schedule.
Spain’s Mireia Belmonte, who placed fourth in the 1,500m, paid tribute to the all-conquering American. “She is absolutely fit. Impressive. She is probably made in the same factory as Michael Phelps,” Belmonte said, referring to the American champion who has a record 22 Olympic medals.
Ledecky’s world record was not the first of the championships. That honour went to another of the golden trio—Ruta Meilutyte.
The Lithuanian only started swimming as a seven-year-old and is said to have jumped into the deep end at her first lesson and needed to be rescued. Since then though, she has taken like a fish to water and a move to Plymouth in England has seen a near-meteoric rise.
Last year she competed at her first major championships and straight away won Olympic gold in the women’s 100m breaststroke as a 15-year-old. Fast-forward a year and the now-16-year-old broke the 100m breaststroke world record in Monday’s semi-finals and a day later picked up the gold medal to go with it—albeit missing her own record by just 0.07 seconds.
After her victory, she paid tribute to the older generation of swimmers. “I think it’s great that the young swimmers are stepping up. The older swimmers are allowing us to step into our dreams and realise our potential,” Meilutyte said.
And there is obviously plenty of potential to go around, though most opponents will be hoping that the golden trio has reached theirs.