World Championships, Day 3 Finals: Simona Quadarella Seizes Opportunity with Second 1,500 Gold

Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini/Deepbluemedia/Insidefoto

World Championships, Day 3 Finals: Simona Quadarella Seizes Opportunity with Second 1,500 Gold

The absence of Katie Ledecky, who has reigned over the women’s 1,500 freestyle like few swimmers ever have in a single event, is among the most high-profile absences at the 2024 World Championships.

Simona Quadarella knows what it’s like to take advantage of that. And she showed it again on Tuesday.

The Italian controlled the field from start to finish in the 1,500 freestyle, winning by more than nine seconds in a time of 15:46.99.

It’s the second gold medal and sixth total Worlds medal for the 25-year-old Italian. She won gold in the 1,500 in Gwangju in 2019, when Ledecky withdrew from injury. Quadarella won silver in this event last year to Ledecky and bronze in 2017. Quadarella was quicker last year in winning silver at 15:43.31, which reflects Quadarella feeling she wasn’t as prepped for this meet as usual due to the early juncture in the season.

“It’s so exciting to win here in Doha,” she said. “I always need consistent races, consistent results. I expected the victory, but it’s always difficult. It was a very tiring race, but I’m really pleased with my time and with the gold medal of course.”

Silver went to China’s Li Bingjie, who last year won bronze. Li swam 15:56.52. She surged ahead of Germany’s Isabel Gose at the 1,100-meter mark. Gose won bronze in 15:57.55, adding to her 400 free bronze medal.

Ledecky’s absence isn’t to detract from Quadarella, but her dominance is difficult to overlook. Ledecky first won a world title in this event 11 years ago in Barcelona. She won three straight in the event before illness torpedoed her chances in Gwangju in 2019, then returned to win the event in 2022 and 2023. She also won the inaugural Olympic race in the 1,500 for women in Tokyo in 2021.

Quadarella was the only one of the medalists who seemed remotely pleased with their results in the post-race press conference.

“To be honest, I’m not really satisfied with the result tonight and it was not what I expected,” Li said. “During the 1500 freestyle, I changed the tactic. For example, I had to race in the very beginning, which was a very new thing for me to do. For 200, it’s not really my strength, but I need to do my best. If I had experienced less pressure for 200, I would have achieved a better result.”

“I’m feeling a little tired, but here we go again with a bronze medal,” Gose said. “I trained a lot for this event. Everyday, me and my coaches worked on new things and made them better and better. We were focusing on various areas while training. Swimming is my job and I love it. It is my second Olympic ticket by getting under the top four and swimming is a sport full of joy, so I will see what comes next. Although I think I learned a lot from my mistakes here.”

Gose had been sixth last year at Worlds. The other holdover finalist was France’s Anastasiya Kirpichnikova, who was fourth last year. She finished fifth this time around. Fourth was New Zealand’s Eve Thomas, though she was nearly 12 seconds off the podium.

Quadarella was quickest in prelims, followed by Gose and Li. Fourth in prelims was Australia’s Maddy Gough, who slid to seventh in the final.

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