And with that, we can kiss goodbye all long course World Records from before the super-suit era of 2008 and 2009: Katie Ledecky has broken the all-time mark in the women’s 1500 free with a 15:36.53. The old mark of 15:42.54 was set by fellow American, and fellow D.C. Metroplex native, Kate Ziegler, who was a 15:42.54 in 2007 at a meet in Mission Viejo, California.
That record-breaking swim is an absolute destruction; on average, she bettered Ziegler by two-tenths of a second per 50, every 50. She wasn’t the only one under the old mark either. Denmark’s Lotte Friis had a valiant swim of her own, going 15:38.88 to improve Ziegler’s record by four seconds. Friis and Ledecky split time in the lead of this race, and though Friis led most of it, Ledecky really crushed her coming off of the last turn.
Note: for those wondering, Ledecky is two days older than the other World Record breaker at this meet, Ruta Meilutyte. Both turn 17 in March.
Friis broke the old European Record of 15:44.93 held by Italy’s Alessia Filippi from 2009. And again, in 3rd, New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle was a 15:44.71, which is the 4th-fastest swim in history, but still left her six seconds away from even a silver. Boyle became the first Oceanic swimmer under 16 minutes, breaking Melissa Gorman’s 2010 record of 16:01.53 in the event. This is only the 5th Oceanic record (in long course and short course combined) owned by someone other than the Australians.
Ziegler’s record was the oldest on the books in long course, with the new title going to Michael Phelps’ 4:03.8 in the 400 IM from the 2008 Olympics (incidentally, only three records from 2008 even are still around in long course).
There’s still one World Record older in short course meters, and that’s Grant Hackett’s indomitable 14:10.10 in the 1500 SCM freestyle from 2001.
Let’s do some comparative splits (you’ve gotta see this).
In the comparative splits column, GREEN shows when Ledecky made up ground on Ziegler’s splits. RED shows when Ledecky lost ground on Ziegler’s splits.
| Ziegler | Ledecky | Friis | ||
| Old WR | New WR | Cumulative Difference | #2 time in history | |
| 50 meters | 29.23 | 28.14 | 28.39 | |
| 100 meters | 31.26 | 30.61 | -1.74 | 30.76 |
| 150 meters | 31.60 | 30.58 | -2.76 | 30.49 |
| 200 meters | 31.37 | 30.72 | -3.41 | 31.07 |
| 250 meters | 31.71 | 31.16 | -3.96 | 30.87 |
| 300 meters | 31.57 | 31.76 | -3.77 | 31.28 |
| 350 meters | 31.60 | 31.50 | -3.87 | 31.14 |
| 400 meters | 31.53 | 31.42 | -3.98 | 31.26 |
| 450 meters | 31.54 | 31.31 | -4.21 | 31.2 |
| 500 meters | 31.60 | 31.50 | -4.31 | 31.51 |
| 550 meters | 31.79 | 31.33 | -4.77 | 31.13 |
| 600 meters | 31.68 | 31.36 | -5.09 | 31.58 |
| 650 meters | 31.59 | 31.47 | -5.21 | 31.46 |
| 700 meters | 31.56 | 31.43 | -5.34 | 31.84 |
| 750 meters | 31.43 | 31.53 | -5.24 | 31.33 |
| 800 meters | 31.51 | 31.51 | -5.24 | 31.85 |
| 850 meters | 31.34 | 31.62 | -4.96 | 31.57 |
| 900 meters | 31.51 | 31.53 | -4.94 | 31.74 |
| 950 meters | 31.65 | 31.88 | -4.71 | 31.56 |
| 1000 meters | 31.67 | 31.30 | -5.08 | 31.58 |
| 1050 meters | 31.45 | 31.60 | -4.93 | 31.48 |
| 1100 meters | 31.51 | 31.65 | -4.79 | 31.76 |
| 1150 meters | 31.72 | 31.62 | -4.89 | 31.48 |
| 1200 meters | 31.75 | 31.74 | -4.90 | 31.78 |
| 1250 meters | 31.38 | 31.48 | -4.80 | 31.56 |
| 1300 meters | 31.99 | 31.73 | -5.06 | 31.87 |
| 1350 meters | 31.59 | 31.34 | -5.31 | 31.38 |
| 1400 meters | 31.72 | 31.24 | -5.79 | 31.62 |
| 1450 meters | 31.42 | 31.00 | -6.21 | 31.59 |
| 1500 meters | 29.27 | 29.47 | -6.01 | 30.75 |
Ziegler’s splitting was more consistent than Ledecky, especially through the middle part of the race, but it was sort of a scenario of 4 steps forward, one step back for Ledecky. In a head-to-head sense, she wont 19 50’s as compared to Ziegler’s splits, and lost 9, but the ones she won she won big.
Grazie mille!
Does anyone have a video link to that race?
look on Universal Sports website
Can’t get the Universal Sports videos where I live.
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZElGXQ6HTk
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ribm5Ryx2ok
What Ledecky did in the 1500 was more than amazing, especially the ending. Katie’s last 200 was faster than 4th-place Lauren Boyle’s FIRST 200.
Lauren Boyle was actually third.
The splits are KRAZY:
At 400m:
Ledecky 4:05.89
Friis 4:05.26
Both would have won 2005 world championships in 400m!!
At 800m:
Ledecky 8:17.33
Friis 8:17.16
Both would have won every single world championships (including as recent as 2011 worlds) and olympics with the exception: 2008, 2009, and 2012!
Its was an AWESOME race.The best so far.
Ledecky having friis to push her will be amazing.. someone of that caliber should appear on Men side to Make Yang break some more barriers.
As for wiping out all of the suit records, I’m glad they’re gradually being erased, but there are still quite a few on the books. Unless noted, these were all set in Rome at the ’09 Worlds:
Women’s 200 IM (Kukors, 2:06.15)
Men’s 200 free (Biedermann, 1:42.00)
Men’s 400 free (Biedermann, 3:40.07)
Women’s 200 free (Pellegrini, 1:52.98
Women’s 400 free (Pellegrini, 3:59.42, though Ledecky will probably take it down in the next year or so)
Men’s 100 free (Cielo, 46.91)
Men’s 50 free (Cielo, 20.61, set Dec. 18, 2009, probably the very last one set in a bodysuit)
Women’s 100 back (Spofforth, 58.12, though Missy is getting close to it)
**… Read more »
evilwatersprite,
Cielo 50 free mark is 20.91.
I think they will go down naturally.Girls 100free was looking like intangible, and now we are a little over 0.2 from Britta WR.For me, Biedermann 200free and Kukors Medley WRs are the tougher ones to beat.But i dont think we will have to wait more ten years to see all of them go down.
The most difficult WR will be men 800 of Zhang Lin.. by a lot!
Maybe hard to beat because there is no much male 800free races around the world.But i will never doubt Sun Yang in long term(3-5 years).This guy is a beast.And any guy who can do 3.41 missing a lot of training can do a lot of thigs.
What’s sickening about those suited WRs is that the greatest performances in the first day by Ledecky (400 free), Cate Campbell (100 free) and the US girls ( 4×100 free) were not awarded with the WR bonus of USD 25,000 that they absolutely deserved.
Shame on you FINA!
Yes .it hurts so much more because these are the blue ribbon events . When people think swimming that is in their mind.
Magnussen & Campbell are the fastest ever & Ledecky & Thorpe are mind blowing excellent distance. Pioneers & champs all.
The other events are just for people built weirdly & have nothing better to do – in all honesty.
doubt Ledecky would take money as she has not gone pro, same for Franklin
Doesn’t make much sense (or cents) for Katie to swim in college. Missy has a two year window to swim at Cal before the 2015 Worlds. Katie graduates from high school then, and with an Olympic medal and at least one world record at that point, she won’t have much to prove and will be one of NBC’s featured stars before Rio. Her brother goes to Harvard, so her family values education, Pretty sure she’ll go to college and continue training, but can’t see her maintaining her amateur status and forgoing a lucrative 2016 payday just to swim for a college team.
Spofforth’s 58.12 was set in the LZR Racer, so at least she set her record in the same suit iteration as the person who held the record prior to Zueva breaking it in semis before Spofforth took it back. Only Coventry, Spofforth, and Lochte used the LZR to win world titles in Rome. The other records were set in Jakeds, Arenas, and the like.
Phelps wore large too, and only leggings for sub 50 100fly, compared to cavic/suit
*lzr
Read what he wrote properly.
“And with that, we can kiss goodbye all long course World Records from BEFORE the super-suit era of 2008 and 2009”
(my emphasis)
Kudos to Friis for making this a fantastic race! Otherwise, it would have been a one-woman show. Curious to see what she puts up in the 800. Hands down the race of the meet so far, and that’s rare to say in a 1500 race.
Agree 100%!
and Katie, what did you do over your summer vacation?
Friis made this race awesome… i just hope Ledecky dont get burned out in 800free.Too many races for Ledecky.8.17 in 800 partial is sick…
She already won two events and when you are 16 years old, your body can take it more.