After three years in turbulent waters, swimming starts to regain some stability with an extra edition of its long-course world championships in Budapest starting on Saturday.
On the podium, some continuity is assured as two American 25-year-old stars Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky continue their relentless pursuit of medals.
As in other sports, the Covid pandemic caused chaos with the global swimming calendar, with its world championships in odd-numbered years.
Covid delayed the 2020 Tokyo Olympics a year and the world championships, also in Japan at Fukuoka, were initially put back to this May and then to July 2023.
To fill the gaps in their schedule, and coffers, world swimming’s governing body FINA wants to move the theoretical 2023 championships to January 2024 in Doha, Qatar, and has added a special edition for this year.