“To have swum so fast and beat the world record held by Caeleb Dressel, who has always been one of my idols, is simply crazy!” The physiotherapy student, very emotional on Saturday at the speaker’s microphone at the Hungarian Duna Arena – he even had to go backstage before being able to speak – left his mark on the history of Swiss swimming this week. And rather three times than one.
Never had a Swiss won a world title in a pool, he stacked them in the 50m butterfly, 100m medley and 100m butterfly. And with two world records up for grabs, in the discipline also called “dolphin”, please. “I am the fastest short course dauphinist in history,” he then gloated at the RSI microphone.
The new swimmer from SC Uster was thus able to put behind him his little failure at the Paris Olympic Games, where he failed in 4th and 5th place in the 100 and 200 m butterfly. The Ticino is also richer by 105,000 dollars (around 94,000 Swiss francs), a more than appreciable sum for his sport.
“I didn’t expect to go so fast, even though I knew I had achieved good times in preparation,” he explained. I can say one thing: I would have signed 20,000 times to come back from these Short Course World Championships with three gold medals and experience a week like this! In addition, the 100 meters was the race that I absolutely wanted to win.
Noè Ponti will now treat himself to a few well-deserved days off. He will dive back into the pools, 50m this time, with a very specific objective in mind: the Long Course World Championships in Singapore. It will be from July 27 to August 3.
