The latest triumph in the world of swimming belongs to none other than Simona Quadarella, who has emerged as the new 1500m freestyle world champion. This victory has also secured her a pass for the Paris Olympics in 2024. Quadarella’s winning time was an impressive 15’46″99, leaving the Chinese contender Bingjie Li trailing behind with a time of 15’56″62. Additionally, Isabel Gose from Germany finished in third place with a time of 15’57″55. This achievement marks Quadarella’s return to the top tier of the world’s longest lane swimming distance after a gap of nearly five years. The 25-year-old Italian swimmer, who is affiliated with the Circolo Canottieri Aniene, had previously bagged gold in this event at the 2019 Gwangju.
Quadarella’s past world medals in the 1500m freestyle include a bronze in 2017 and a silver in the previous year. The middle distance ‘queen’ made a triumphant return in the longest lane swimming race, just as she had previously done on July 23, 2019 in South Korea. This time around, Quadarella took advantage of the absence of the American and reigning Olympic champion Katie Ledecky at the ‘Aspire Dome’ in Qatar’s capital.
Under the guidance of her coach Christian Minotti, the three-time continental distance champion (2018, 2021, and 2022) delivered a flawless technical and tactical performance, earning her the gold medal and achieving the Olympic qualification by clocking a time of 15’46″99, a whole eight seconds short of the required limit. Quadarella maintained a consistent pace and a significant lead throughout the race. The Chinese Li Bingjie finished ten seconds behind (15’56″62), closely followed by the German Isabel Gose who was nearly eleven seconds behind (15’57″55). Quadarella will next compete in the 800m freestyle heats on Friday, with a potential final slated for the following day.
Simona Joins Pellegrini and Paltrinieri in the ‘Club’
With her fifth consecutive appearance on the world championship podium, Quadarella joins the prestigious ‘club’ of Italian swimming giants, Federica Pellegrini and Gregorio Paltrinieri. Pellegrini made it to the world podium in the 200m freestyle eight consecutive times from 2005 to 2019, emerging victorious on four occasions. Paltrinieri, on the other hand, stood on the world podium five times in the 1500m freestyle between 2013 and 2022, winning three times.
However, when considering the overall long course world championship medals, Quadarella, who has eight European golds to her name, stands at six medals along with Thomas Ceccon (who was absent at the World Championships in Doha due to scheduling conflicts). This puts them behind Pellegrini with 11 medals, and Paltrinieri with 8 medals.
