For anyone looking to catch up and watch all of the record-breaking swims from Katie Ledecky and Jack Conger during finals of the 2013 Metro Championships on Saturday, we’ve got all of the videos together for you right here in one place, thanks to Matt Rees.
Start above with the big kahuna, Conger’s 500 free 4:13 that took down a 30-year old record, and work your way down as Ledecky and Conger took on record-after-record in Maryland.
Katie Ledecky swims a 4:31.38 in the 500 free to break her own National High School Record, which is now faster than the NCAA Record:
Katie Ledecky swims 1:42.96 in the 200 free, breaking Missy Franklin’s National Independent High School Record:
Jack Conger swims a 42.86 leading off Good Counsel’s 400 free relay, a new National Independent High School Record:
Jack Conger breaks Metros Record in the 100 backstroke with a 46.76, though that’s far off of where he was at Winter Nationals for the NAG Record:
See Also:
- Full Meet Recap, with full meet results.
- Conger and Ledecky post the fastest 500 freestyles in history.
Can we talk about the double breathing that goes on in 500 and up freestyles? Conger pulled the Sun Yang there. 2 breaths first 2 strokes off nearly every wall. Is the net gain of those breaths greater than the energy then output to get back up to speed? Numerous others use double breaths earlier in races (Martin from UGA last year NCAA Champ) generally within the first 200-300. Thoughts?
Is ledecky the female version of thorpe with such versatility over all freestyle distances ? No. a Shirley Basashoff or Shane Gould, both made the olympics I think from 100 to 800 or 100 to 400 or Debbie Meyers winner of 200,400, and 800 in 1968. Gould also won the 200 IM.
Ledecky has also swum past the NCAA record already in the 1000 Free by a significant margin, I think by about 6 seconds. Pretty impressive when you consider also that she swam an anchor 50 Free split of :22.27 in a relay this weekend when the independent high school individual 50 Free record is :22.24 and overall hs record is 21.99.
The thing I see is distance girls freestylers sometimes lose it as they age, a lot of yardage that swimmers like Ledecky have to do in practice and you get burn out by 15,000 to 20,000 yards or meters workouts.
The thing about Ledecky is that she’s a remarkably powerful swimmer for a distance swimmer. Even if her amazing ability to take races out hard and then finish so well fades as she gets older, I see her having a great career as a 200/400 type girl.
Trust me, she’s not doing 15-20k workouts.
Is ledecky the female version of thorpe with such versatility over all freestyle distances ?
Ledecky has also swum past the NCAA record already in the 1000 Free by a significant margin, I think by about 6 seconds. Pretty impressive when you consider also that she swam an anchor 50 Free split of :22.27 in a relay this weekend when the independent high school individual 50 Free record is :22.24 and overall hs record is 21.99.
1650 by 10 seconds
That 22 split is impressive for a distance swimmer (and a high schooler, in general), but you have to give at least 4 tenths of a second for the relay start. I remember watching Maddy Schaefer in our local high school championships split under 22 a couple of times.
Absolutely agree regarding relay start and Maddy a fabulous sprinter and overall swimmer who as a 17 year old high school senior would probably have beaten 15 year old sophomore Ledecky in 50 Free. Just noting how cool it was to see the gear changing of both Ledecky and Conger, that each could swim record setting 500 Free and then each jump out and just a matter of minutes later split a 22-plus in a 50 Free leg as Ledecky did, and 42-plus in a 100 Free leg as Conger did as team players for their schools. Not looking to compare them to any other swimmers past or present, their accomplishments are outstanding on their own merits.
Katie Hoff set the 500 Yard Free record in Dec. 2007 at age 18 and a half in the now-banned legskin suit. You can view it here…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6vZab1dKMU
Now it’s the turn of Janet Hu to swim fast next weekend at her high school championships. And she could do serious damages. I think she has the potential to break 4 individual records before the end of her high school career with the 50 free, the 100 free, the 100 back and the 100 fly. It’s perhaps a little early because she’s just a sophomore but she could already approach them.
She’s a junior.
The next time goals for Katie Ledecky in SCY must be now the amazing American records of another amazing Katie (Hoff). I think we must really still more appreciate these records because even the young champion hasn’t beaten them for now. I think she will do it but it will not be easy. 4.30.47 in the 500 free, 9.10.77 in the 1000 free (the most impressive for me) and 15.24.35 in the 1650 free are incredible records.