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A32 sports
Diasabra 18 Juni 2022

Swimming worlds packs star power, intrigue despite absences

(AP) — When the world
swimming championships
start in Budapest on Sat-
urday, a host of top stars
won’t be there.
Scheduling irregularities
caused by the coronavirus
pandemic, infections, Rus-
sia’s invasion of Ukraine,
fitness concerns and injuries competition for appearing at not quite what FINA, world
are forcing many Olympic a pro-war rally in Moscow. swimming’s governing body,
champions to skip the re- meant in February when it
scheduled event. English breaststroke star announced the “extraordi-
Adam Peaty is out after break- nary” event in Budapest.
Ariarne Titmus will not be ing his right foot in May. Rather, it was referring to the
there to continue her ri- Scottish Olympic champ fact that the original 19th ver- now they’re scheduled for 50, 100 free and 100 butterfly.
valry with American Katie Duncan Scott withdrew due sion of the event due to take four consecutive years.
Ledecky, nor will compatri- to training problems follow- place in Fukuoka, Japan, was Despite the absences, there Sarah Sjöström and Lilly
ots Kyle Chalmers or Emma ing his COVID-19 infection, twice put back. The first time will still be plenty of star King also bring star pedigree,
McKeon compete as all and several others – including was last year to avoid clashing power on show. while Hungarians Katinka
three are among the Austra- Venezuela’s Alfonso Mestre, with the postponed Tokyo Hosszú and Kristóf Milák
lian swimmers focusing in- Italy’s Leonardo Deplano and Olympics, then it was post- Ledecky will hope to reclaim will raise the decibel level
stead on the Commonwealth South Africa’s Pieter Coetze poned again in May due to her world record in the 400 at the 5,000-capacity Duna
Games, which begin on July – are out after late positive the impact of the pandemic, freestyle from Titmus on Arena. There are no corona-
28 in Birmingham, England. tests. which would have left a four- Saturday after the Austra- virus restrictions for specta-
Olympic champions Ahmed year gap since the last worlds. lian shaved 0.06 seconds off tors, though FINA says they
Russian and Belarusian ath- Hafnaoui of Tunisia and Tat- Ledecky’s mark from the will be “encouraged to show
letes will be absent as they are jana Schoenmaker of South But Hungary Prime Minis- 2016 Olympics. support by clapping instead
banned from all international Africa are also missing from ter Viktor Orbán offered to Ledecky can also win a fifth of cheering or chanting.”
events following the inva- the list of swimmers con- hold it again in the 2017 host consecutive world title in the
sion of Ukraine. Olympic firmed at the worlds from city. Budapest is also slated 1500 on Monday. Three-time Olympic cham-
backstroke champion Evg- Saturday through July 3. to host the worlds in 2027. U.S. teammate Caeleb Dres- pion Hosszú will be compet-
eny Rylov was also handed The championships are usu- sel is going for his third con- ing in her eighth worlds and
a nine-month ban from all The list of absent athletes was ally held every two years, but secutive world titles in the it could be her last.