For the second consecutive year, Katie Ledecky opted out of swimming the 200 freestyle at the World Championships despite qualifying for the individual event. Ledecky chose to prioritize her remaining individual events, the 400, 800 and 1500 free, plus the U.S. women’s 800 free relay. Bella Sims inherited Ledecky’s individual spot in the 200 free because she finished third in the event at Nationals after Leah Smith was the beneficiary last year.

In 2023, USA Swimming added an additional relay swimmer to the roster in light of Ledecky’s decision. Shortly after the final night of competition at U.S. Nationals, Anna Peplowski was added to the Worlds team after finishing seventh in the 200 free, but no additional relay swimmer received a spot in 2022, when Erin Gemmell placed seventh in the event at the International Team Trials.

USA Swimming has admitted that this year’s call was the correct decision and last year’s was a mistake. In a statement released by USA Swimming Friday when finalizing the Worlds roster, including the addition of Chris Plumb to the coaching staff, USA Swimming apologized to Gemmell for the error.
 

For the first time ever, three women who will race in a 400 freestyle final with all having broken 4:00, and in fact, all three have been 3:56s at some point. Katie Ledecky was the first to reach that barrier at the 2016 Olympics while Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh have joined her in that ridiculous territory with huge improvements over the past few years. And while Ledecky has opted out of the 200 free for this year’s Worlds, Titmus and McIntosh will be central players in that race alongside Titmus’ Australian teammate Mollie O’Callaghan and Olympic silver medalist Siobhan Haughey, and perhaps a 14-year-old world record could come under fire.

Contenders:
Freya Anderson (GBR): This 22-year-old was fourth in the 200 free at last year’s World Championships, and she has already broken 1:56 this year. She won silver in the 200 free and bronze in the 100 free at the European Championships. Contending in: 200 free

Mollie O’Callaghan (AUS): She was the silver medalist in the 200 free at Worlds last year and ranks No. 1 in the world this year and fifth all-time at 1:53.83. O’Callaghan is also the reigning world champion in the 100 free. However, a recent knee injury might affect O’Callaghan’s preparation for Worlds. Contending in: 200 free

Lana Pudar rocketed into the top 10 of the 100 fly rankings with a Bosnian record of 56.95 en-route to gold at the European Juniors in Belgrade.

It was also a championship record and cut 0.44secs from the previous mark of 57.39 that stood to Anastasia Shkurdai of Belarus since 2019.

While Pudar was rewriting the national record books, Oleksandr Zheltyakov lowered his Ukrainian 200 back standard as he made his first journey inside 1:57, going 1:56.49 to head the semis.

That’s 0.66 outside Kliment Kolesnikov‘s championship record of 1:55.83 set in 2018 and makes him the 12th-fastest performer in the world this year, his time the 16th swiftest.

Vlad Stancu set a Romanian record of 15:00.51, cutting 4.96secs from his time of 15:05.47 en-route to gold at last year’s edition in his hometown of Otopeni.

Pudar won silver at the 2022 European Juniors behind Roos Vanotterdijk of Belgium, a year after taking the title at the 2021 edition.

Weeks later, the 17-year-old went on to take bronze over 100 and gold in the 200 fly at the Europeans in Rome.