In her last swim of the 2015 World Championships Katie Ledecky became the first woman ever to break 8:10 in the 800m freestyle with a winning time of 8:07.39.
Not only did she break her 8:11.00 world record from 2014, she picked it up, threw it on the ground, and stepped up on it until there was nothing left. With an 8:07.39, Ledecky took an incredible 3.61 seconds off her previous mark. That’s the second largest world-record drop ever in the event behind Tracey Wickman who beat her own world record by 5.91 seconds in 1978.
As if beating her own mark wasn’t enough, Ledecky won the final by over 10-seconds. Second place finisher Lauren Boyle of New Zealand earned the silver with an 8:17.65, which is still an amazing performance in the event if you keep a blind eye to all of Ledecky’s swims.
The time makes her a whopping 6.71 seconds faster than the second fastest performer ever in the event, Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain, and 8.53 seconds faster than the third fastest performer ever, Jazz Carlin.
Ledecky now owns seven of the top 10 fastest performances ever in the women’s 800m freestyle.
Taking the race out strong, Ledecky was a 2:00.22 at the 200-meter mark. At the halfway point she turned in 4:03.22, a time which would have finished third only to herself and Sharon Van Rouwendaal in the individual 400 final. Ledecky split a 4:04.17 on the way home which would rank sixth in the world in the individual 400 free.
With that win, Ledecky earned her fifth gold medal at these world championships. She joins the likes of Missy Franklin, Libby Trickett, and Tracy Caulkins as the only women to have ever achieved the feat.
It also makes Ledecky the first woman to ever win four freestyle gold medals at one single edition of the world championships.
Ledecky took home wins in the 200, 400, and 1500m freestyles earlier in the meet. She also was a member of the winning 4x200m freestyle relay.
Ledecky’s 800 gold is her ninth world championship title of her career. That ranks her second in all time female world championship titles only to Missy Franklin who earned her 10th earlier this meet.
Ledecky’s 8:07.39 marks her third world record of these championships. Earlier in the meet she broke her own 1500m world record twice.
Not to accuse anyone, but I was surprised when I read this,
“The newspaper also reported an allegation that more than a third of the world’s fastest times in endurance events were recorded by athletes whose tests have triggered suspicion.
Along with the German broadcaster ARD/WDR, the newspaper reports that it has had access to a database containing more than 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 athletes and which it claims reveals “the extraordinary extent of cheating by athletes at the world’s most prestigious events”.
http://www.itv.com/news/2015-08-02/doping-claims-among-many-as-third-of-olympic-and-world-championships-medals-including-55-golds-according-to-report/
There have been people who have basically said if we ask questions about the Chinese we should ask questions about the Americans, and they have asked questions about Ledecky and possible doping.
I think if we are going to ask questions about the Americans, we should also ask questions about doping. As was noted, Ledecky improved by more than 10s in her 1500m time. Her critic tried to pretend that the length of the race doesn’t matter–but a 1s improvement in a 100m race is really more than a 10s improvement over 1500m. Zetao wasn’t even good enough in 2013 to swim 100m for the Chinese, and this year he 2.01 s faster than the Chinese swimmer from 2013 which… Read more »
Ledecky’s 800 time was only 1.8% faster than the 1989 WR of Janet Evans. By comparison, Bronte Campbell’s 100 time was 3.6% faster than the 1992 WR of Jenny Thompson. Ledecky is the next Janet Evans, but with all the advances in training and equipment over the last quarter century it is ridiculous to argue that the improvement we see can only be explained if we assume Ledecky is on drugs.
There is another problem. If you think Ledecky has taken drugs, when do you think she took them? Do you think she was on drugs when she won 800 gold in London? If so, how do you explain her improvement since then if before and after were both… Read more »
800m Free Full Race (British TV)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x30w0dd_women-s-800m-freestyle-katie-ledecky-8-07-39-world-record-kazan-2015_sport
Thanks for posting this!
So proud of Katie and her jaw-dropping accomplishments. Amazing to be a legendary athlete already and only 18 years old.
KD no woman can keep up with ledecky no matter how they swim. Her 400,800 and 1500 freestyle world records will never be broken. I repeat never. Some people will say oh no a new talent will come in the future and break the records but I say that is bullshit.
Oh Carlo – you are so wrong – for starters, she will SHATTER those records in RIO. Then, as others learn that there’s a different way to swim, one she created and made famous, they will start swimming like that. Eventually, someone will break her records, that’s their purpose, records are made to be broken. Just like no one was supposed to break the full body suit records – you’ve seen those tumble. It’s just a matter of time. However, she has changed the face of distance swimming forever. Kudos, Katie – glad I got to see you swim as an age grouper before everyone knew your name.
It took 2.5 decades to find the next Janet Evans, It will take a long time, but one day someone will break these records.
Carlo — I think you are so wrong. One of the coolest things for me was listening to Lauren Boyle (an amazing talent herself) say that Katie had thrown down the gauntlet for all of the women — showing what was possible. I am enjoying watching Boyle really challenging herself to match what Katie is doing as far as improving. Other girls will come along who will be challenged to push and some day her records will be surpassed. But not yet. And some may stand for many years.
And Katie has shown transcendent talent since she was young — you can watch her time progression. But her major drops have come since she grew alot and physically matured. Plus… Read more »
If she swam and trained for short course meters, could she get under 15:00 in the SCM 1500? World record sits at 15:19, I think it’s a distinct possibility.
I think what Ledecky does so well is that she goes out. Distance swimming has been something where swimmers go out a little slow then really hammer home the back half of a race (this is notorious with men’s distance swimming currently) but Ledecky doesn’t do that. She absolutely destroys these girls on the front half of races by going out and hammering the first 400. Girls like Carlin and Ashwood rely on their back half and negative splitting, but Ledecky doesn’t do that, and I think this is going to… Read more »
Finally she did it. She finally put that 800 world record at the same level as her 400 and 1500 free world records. I said that last year she would not be fully satisfied as long as she doesn’t swim 8.08.
But I didn’t think it would happen this week with all the races she has swum before. I thought it would happen in Rio with no 1500 free.
But she’s different than the other girls.
Philippe Lucas was once again right.
The other day he said: “That kind of girls, the more she swim, the best she is.”
8.07.39! I can’t still believe it!
It was amazing to watch.
Total control from… Read more »
Agree 100%.
I agree completely that she needed / wanted to get the 800m time in-line with the 400 and 1500. To me, it is much more impressive that she broke 8:08 (1:01 per lap) than the fact that she broke 8:10. However, I did not think she would do it at this event. I was also thinking it would occur later, possibly at Rio. I cannot wait to she her in Rio next year. Hopefully the finals will be scheduled such that she can go flat-out in each one. Her kick at the end of the 1500 and 800 was absolutely incredible.