Swimming - Ledecky heroics paper over rocky US campaign at world championships
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Katie Ledecky's sustained brilliance and a late gold-rush by her female teammates added gloss to an underwhelming campaign for Team USA at the swimming world championships in Singapore.
The team's preparations were hit by a bout of gastroenteritis during a pre-meet camp in Thailand and they rallied to finish top of the medal table with nine golds, one better than rival power Australia.
But three years out from the Los Angeles Olympics, where swimming will be the crowning event of the second week, alarm bells are ringing for the hosts.
Luca Urlando won the only individual title for the American men in the 200 metres butterfly, an event the France's Olympic champion Leon Marchand conveniently sat out.
There were no men's relay titles to boost the medal count but plenty of queries about selections and strategy from pundits and fans.
Just as at last year's Paris Olympics, it was up to the women to save the team's blushes, with Ledecky underlining her greatness with another golden double in the 800m and 1500m freestyle.
Gretchen Walsh's 50-100 butterfly double was another huge boost among the six individual titles won by the American women.
The spoils gave the swimmers some ammunition to fire back at critics like Ryan Lochte and Michael Phelps when two of the all-time greats of U.S. men's swimming made their disappointment clear on social media.
Olympic men's 1,500m freestyle champion Bobby Finke, who took bronze in Singapore, called some of the criticism "weak" and "stupid".
"You're never going to win with those people," said Finke.
"So I have a lot of thoughts. My brain has just been spiralling. I'm just disappointed, but I'm going to back these boys no matter what they say."
Finke's passion may have been a comfort for teammates given the absence of any spirited defence from the team's management or coaches.
National Team Director Greg Meehan told broadcaster NBC on day two of the championships that he was proud of the swimmers and staff for working through the gastroenteritis outbreak, and said "the overall vibe" of the team was great.
Team staff otherwise closed ranks, declining to shed light into problems at the camp in Thailand or comment on the fitness of individual swimmers in Singapore.
LEDECKY CARRIES THE TEAM
A year after Paris, where the U.S. slumped to their lowest medal haul in the pool since the 2004 Athens Olympics, plenty of questions remain.
Nine-times Olympic champion Ledecky, the most decorated women's swimmer of all time, has carried the team on her shoulders for over a decade.
But she will be 31 at the LA Games and Singapore showed the competition is catching up.
The American system continues to develop world-beating swimmers but, in the men's ranks at least, it is Europeans profiting from college resources and competition.
Bob Bowman, former coach of Phelps, boasts quadruple Olympic champion Marchand and Romanian sprinter David Popovici in his programme at Texas University.
The European pair combined to take four of the men's individual titles at Singapore.
Canada's Summer McIntosh, who won four individual women's titles and challenged Ledecky for the 800 freestyle gold, will join Bowman's stable within weeks.
The competition is heating up abroad as well, with Russian swimmers back in force at the world championships and winning medals under a neutral flag.
Only one competed at the Paris Olympics amid geopolitical tension over the invasion of Ukraine but Russians won three golds in Singapore as the neutral collective finished fifth on the medal table.
No matter the strength of the competition, great expectations will follow the U.S. all the way to Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, which is set to be the largest swimming venue in Games history in 2028.
Team USA have a busy three years working out how to live up to them.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Nick Mulvenney)
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