In an interview with NBC Sports, swimming superstar Katie Ledecky revealed that she would not be racing in the USA vs. Australia Duel In The Pool competition this August. This announcement comes just a week after her rival Ariarne Titmus said that she was unsure about attending the same meet, citing the external pressure of having to race Ledecky as one reason.
This announcement comes despite the fact that Duel In The Pool had been billed by many media outlets as a showdown between Ledecky and Titmus. Ledecky had already planned her 2022 schedule last fall, which was months before the competition was announced.
With Ledecky competing at the upcoming FINA World Championships and Titmus opting to skip the meet in favor of the Commonwealth Games, Ledecky’s decision not to go to Duel In The Pool means we don’t get to see any head-to-head races between the two swimmers this year.
Ledecky was asked about Titmus’s decision not to swim at Worlds, and how she felt about the Aussie breaking her world record in the 400 free at Australian trials.
“I don’t have too strong of an opinion one way or the other,” Ledecky said of Titmus skipping Worlds. “Of course, I always want to race the best. But she’s made a decision that she feels is best for her moving forward.”
About her world record being broken, Ledecky said she was expecting it.
“I had seen how she was swimming that whole week at her trials,” Ledecky said. “She was right on her times, and I knew it was a real possibility. So I wasn’t surprised. It’s great for the sport, great to have somebody like that to race at these meets. And I know that there are other swimmers as well in that event that are coming up that are going to be very competitive over the next couple of years. So definitely keeps me on my toes. And I think we’ll continue to have some great races.”
In addition, Ledecky also discussed why she dropped the 200 free from her Worlds schedule. She said that she wanted to focus more on longer distance events, something that she discussed with her coach Anthony Nesty when she moved to train at the University of Florida last fall.
For Ledecky’s last four world championships as well as the Olympics, the women’s 200 free and the 1500 free finals were always on the same night. This year, there is no finals double, but the 200 free semifinal and the 1500 free are still in the same ssesion.
“I wanted to not have a double this year and see what I could do with a mile and just kind of lighten my load a little bit,” Ledecky said.
Ledecky still swam the 200 free at U.S. trials to be on the 4×200 free relay, and will continue swimming the event for that reason. However, her status in the individual 200 free is something she hasn’t decided upon yet.
“We’ll kind of see how things go this summer,” Ledecky said. “I continue to feel confident in my 200m free, and I’ll definitely be targeting it for the relay. But yeah, we’ll see individually what makes sense moving forward. It definitely would be more on the table if the schedule does open up a little bit more and creates a little more rest in there.”
When asked about the potential for her to break Michael Phelps‘s record of 15 individual world championships titles, Ledecky replied by saying that it was not one of her targets.
“I definitely have always been somebody that’s valued quality of swims over quantity and medals,” Ledecky said. “And I’ve never set goals for a certain number of medals or certain records like that.”
If Ledecky wins the 400, 800, and 1500 free this year, she will have 3 more world titles added onto the 11 she has now. This will put her at 14 titles, just one less than Phelps. However, if she repeats and wins these three events next year at the 2023 World Championships, she will be at 17 titles and break Phelps’ record.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Katie Ledecky To Skip Duel In The Pool This Summer