In a race over 102 or 103 meters, possibly even in a race over 101 meters breaststroke, Anna Elendt would have become world champion in Budapest.

But when you swim, it's fifty meters in one direction and fifty meters in the other direction, and then it's over.

And that's why Anna Elendt, 20 years old, was the fastest woman in the pool at the end of this world championship race, but not world champion.

Christopher Becker

sports editor.

  • Follow I follow

Her name is Benedetta Pilato, born 17 years ago in Taranto, Apulia.

Benedetta Pilato saved a lead of five hundredths of a second after 1:05.93 minutes in front of Anna Elendt, nine in front of the Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, fourteen in front of the American Lily King.

prospects for success at the Olympics

Anna Elendt trains in Texas, she swam four tenths of a second faster in San Antonio in April than in Budapest, where she was the fastest of all in the semifinals with a time of 1:05.62 minutes.

But you don't become world champion in the 101-meter breaststroke, nor in the semi-finals of the World Championships, and you could tell from Anna Elendt's beaming face during the award ceremony that she, who had turned seventh after fifty meters in the final, had won silver and not lost gold: "I saw that they were right up front on my left and right after the turn.

So I said to myself: Now I have to hurry up a bit.” 

The joy at the result of the race to catch up is understandable, not only from a subjective perspective: When a German swimmer last won a medal over 100 meters breaststroke at a world championship, the country was freshly reunited.

Jana Dörries from Potsdam swam to two podium finishes in Perth in January 1991.

In addition, it was the second silver medal for the German elite team at this World Championships, so after three final days the pool swimmers had already won as many medals as at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju after eight - on the fourth, at halftime, they exceeded the yield, when Florian Wellbrock crawled to silver over 800 meters.

Anna Elendt and Lukas Märtens, the World Championships runner-up in the 400m freestyle, also twenty years old, are the two most prominent faces among the young and fast German swimmers who have prospects of success at the Olympic Games in Paris in three years.

At the same time, however, it is already clear that there are younger and even more successful swimmers elsewhere in Europe.

Because before the teenager Benedetta Pilato, another teenager had already swum to the world title, and how.

David Popovici, 17, from Bucharest swam ahead of everyone in the 200-meter freestyle.

After 1:43.21, the Romanian was back at the edge of the pool. Neither Michael Phelps nor Ian Thorpe had ever done it that fast. Only the Frenchman Yannick Agnel was faster without a miracle suit, ten years ago.

And Popovici then crawled ashore, thanked loved ones back home who believed in him, and otherwise had to say he wasn't done yet.

The 100 meter freestyle was still waiting: "The job is not done." That's an announcement.

Märtens, three years older than Popovici, finished a good two and a half seconds later.

Seventh.

He had just passed the Australian who had beaten him in the 400m, Elijah Winnington.

Nevertheless, Märtens was not dissatisfied.

Even when trying in vain to qualify for the final over 800 meters, it was obvious how exhausting the four freestyle starts in Budapest were.

Nobody had come to Budapest with a better time over this distance, in the preliminary heat 14 swimmers were faster than Märtens.

But his job is far from over, the 1500 meters are waiting for him at the weekend.

Announcement?

Not Märtens' style. Certainly not announcements à la Popovici.

Incidentally, the Romanian crawled through his semi-final over 100 meters on Tuesday evening, stylistically and statistically impressive: junior world record, 47.13 seconds.

Rafael Miroslaw, four years older but a German freestyle sprint hope, was eliminated in 48.65 seconds in 19th place and was well below the expectations of national coach Berkhahn, who believed that each of the ten German starters in Budapest would at least qualify for the semifinals would have.

And maybe when evaluating the World Cup week and looking at the competition, the Germans should also take a look at the vita of the Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, who finished third behind Benedetta Pilato and Anna Elendt over 100 meters breaststroke, in addition to the extremely fast teenagers .

Meilutyte was born in 1997, the year in which Jana Dörries ended her career as a swimmer.

She's 25, not an age in life, but one for plenty of poolside experience.

Meilutyte was an Olympic champion in London in 2012, aged 14, before becoming a youth Olympic champion two years later.

When she went empty-handed in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, tears flowed.

The child prodigy became an athlete in a crisis of meaning, despite plenty of European and World Championship titles.

In 2019 she officially ended her career after she had not been found three times for doping controls, she of all people, who had always offensively complained about cheating in her sport.

Last year she tried to swim at the Lithuanian championships and was fast.

It has now turned into a spectacular comeback.

But anyone who follows Ruta Meilutyte's Twitter account realizes what really concerns her: It's life in Vladimir Putin's shadow and it's the unconditional desire for freedom.

In April, Ruta Meilutyte swam in the blood-stained water of a pond in front of the Russian embassy in Vilnius in protest at the Kremlin ruler's murderous war against his neighbors.

She called her action swimming through.