Dressel, Ledecky set to make a splash

BUDAPEST • After three years in turbulent waters, swimming starts to regain some stability with an extra edition of its long-course world championships in Budapest starting today.

On the podium, some continuity is assured as two American stars Caeleb Dressel, whose five-gold haul at the Tokyo Games made him the top individual winner last year, and Katie Ledecky continue their relentless pursuit of medals.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused chaos with the global swimming calendar, with its world championships in odd-numbered years.

The world championships in Fukuoka, Japan, have been pushed back to July next year.

To fill the gaps in their schedule, and coffers, world swimming's governing body Fina wants to move the theoretical 2023 championships to January 2024 in Doha, Qatar, and has added a special edition for this year.

For these reboot championships, Fina opted to return to Hungary, where swimming is big and which hosted the event in 2017.

While these changes to swimming's rhythms - along with the fallout from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the lingering impact of the pandemic - continue to muddy the waters, Budapest promises some stellar showdowns.

Ledecky, the winner of 10 Olympic medals and 18 in the world championships, is ready for this out-of-sequence event, having decided to opt out of the 200m freestyle.

"I don't feel like this snuck up on me or that it was a shorter year or anything like that," the American told NBC Sports. "I definitely have always been somebody that's valued quality of swims over quantity and medals. I've never set goals for a certain number of medals or certain records like that."

The 25-year-old, who has seven Olympic gold medals, should grab her first gold of the championships in the 400m free today, although the question is whether she can reclaim her world record from Ariarne Titmus, who broke it at the Australian trials last month.

Her rival will not be in Hungary after choosing to focus on the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham next month.

Other absentees include British Olympic gold medallists Duncan Scott and Adam Peaty, while Russians are simply banned following the invasion of Ukraine in February. They were fourth in the medal tally in the last worlds in Gwangju, South Korea, in 2019 with 16 medals including three golds.

Ukraine's top swimmer, perennial silver medallist Mykhailo Romanchuk, can expect to be in the spotlight for once in the absence of the Russians.

China will also be in Hungary but their form is a mystery. Both their Tokyo individual gold winners, Zhang Yufei and Wang Shun, are in their squad, but their preparation has been shrouded by Covid-19 restrictions, with the country's two selection meets in April axed.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE