JasoninHalifax wrote:
and Ledecky is middle distance / distance free oriented, not much else (she does have a decent 400IM and is a valuable, but not brilliant, 4x100 free relay swimmer.
hosszu is primarily an IM'er / backstroker, and she isn't dominant in the backstroke like she is in IM. I don't see her contending in free / fly / breast at the WC/Olympic level.
sjostrom is 50/100 free / fly, but can do a really fast 200. The way she is swimming so far this year, I don't see anyone getting close to her in her 4 best events. She also popped off a Swedish NR in the 50 back earlier this year, at the time it put her at 13th in the world. Not bad for someone who isn't a backstroker.
They are all very different swimmers.
Hosszu has two 200 Fly World Championship bronze medals already, and is a medal contender in that event again this year. She also won silver in the 200 Free at the most recent Short Course Worlds. She's more than just an IM/backstroker. I think she makes a better case for "worlds best female swimmer" than Sjostrom. She certainly has more range, distance- and stroke-wise.
But, with Leah Smith scratching out of the 1500, Ledecky's probably gonna win that event by a full pool length. A "long course" pool length. Fifty. Full. Meters. That's a visual that will leave an impact. And she won't even have to set a PB to do it. She's just that much better than anyone the rest of the world can throw against her right now. I'm pretty sure she'd still be regularly crushing 400/800/1500 records if she wasn't diversifying out of boredom.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"