World swimming championships: 10 races to watch

Ten races to watch at the world swimming championships in Budapest that start Saturday …

Women’s 400m Freestyle (Final Saturday, June 18)Katie Ledecky‘s toughest race to win is always her shortest. For the first time since 2013, she goes into a major international meet with the 400m free fitting that bill after dropping the 200m. She will look to regain the crown after taking silver behind Aussie Ariarne Titmus at the Olympics and the most recent world championships (2019). Titmus, who broke Ledecky’s world record at the Australian Championships last month, is skipping worlds to focus on the Commonwealth Games later this summer. So the American’s top challenger should instead be 15-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh, who was fourth in Tokyo. Ledecky has been 1.07 seconds faster than McIntosh this year.

Men’s 400m Individual Medley (Final Saturday, June 18)This race could include reigning Olympic champion Chase Kalisz and reigning world champion Daiya Seto of Japan. But a pair of 20-year-olds are also worth watching. American Carson Foster missed the Olympic team by one spot. A month later, he swam a 400m IM time that would have won Tokyo gold by nearly a second. At world championships trials, Foster beat Kalisz by 1.17 seconds. Then there’s Léon Marchand, who come the 2024 Paris Olympics could be France’s best swimmer and going for the nation’s first gold medal of the Games given the 400m IM is traditionally on the first day of competition. Marchand, who trains under Michael Phelps‘ old coach Bob Bowman, was sixth in Tokyo, but his personal-best time would have earned silver.

SWIMMING WORLDS: Broadcast Schedule

Men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay (Final Saturday, June 18)For so long the most exciting relay, with the U.S. trading