Noè Ponti is the first Swiss world champion in the pool. The swimmer from Ticino triumphed in the 50 m dolphin at the short course world championships in Budapest.
As the world record holder in the discipline, Ponti was the big favorite, and the 23-year-old from Locarno delivered impressively: Ponti improved his own record by a further eleven hundredths and won in a superior 21.32 seconds. It was the 2021 Olympic bronze medallist's fourth world record in the 100 m dolphin this year.
Almost speechless, but composed, Ponti said in English during the winner's interview: "I'm happy." He had not always won in his career, and the Olympics in the summer (4th and 5th) had not gone as planned. "But I've learned from that and now I'm the happiest person in the world." In Paris, Ilya Kharun had won two bronze medals in the 100 and 200 m dolphin, but this time the Canadian finished second against Ponti.
Before him, only Swann Oberson had won a world championship title for Swiss swimming in 2011 over 5 km in open water. There had already been twenty Swiss medals in the pool at world title competitions - Olympic and world championships in large and small pools - but none in gold.
For the three-time European champion, it was his fourth world championship medal, all in the 25-metre pool. In 2021, he won silver in the 200 m in Abu Dhabi, and a year later he took silver in the 50 m and bronze in the 200 m in Melbourne, both in the dolphin technique.
