10x Olympic swimming medalist Katie Ledecky is mixing up her schedule this season. At the Westmont Pro Swim, she opted out of the 200 free to race the 400 IM. Why? She’s dropped a 1:54 200m free earlier this season, and sometimes she likes racing the 400 IM instead. (She pulled up third in the 400 IM behind Hali Flickinger and Leah Smith.)
Coming up at the San Antonio Pro Swim, Ledecky isn’t swimming the 800 and 1500 freestyle. She’s sprinting, sort of, racing the 100, 200, and 400 free. Why? While the 100 free is not her bread and butter, she does swim it in-season, and she did on Team USA’s 4×100 freestyle relay that won silver at the 2016 Olympics.
How fast will Ledecky swim in San Antonio?
- 400 free? 4:00 would be solid, but she could dip under.
- 200 free? I’d be happy with another 1:54.
- 100 free? 54.39 makes sense to me, but she’d turn heads with a 53.9, which isn’t too crazy to predict. Her PB is a 53.7 from the 2016 Austin Pro Swim, an in-season race! What do you think? It’s definitely a swim I want to see.
Speaking of swims I want to see, going off topic, Caeleb Dressel is entered in the 200 IM. San Antonio will mark the first time this season that he’s swimming it. How fast will he go? I have no clue where he’s at rest-wise, but his yards PB is 1:38.13. (Does anyone know is meters PB? Share it in the comments.) I think a 1:58 is in cards. What do you think?
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I’ll tell you what Mel if Dressel does swim a 1:58 at this meet like you predict he might, then I think he’ll definetely have a legitimate shot at winning this event at worlds, possibly even going close to wr.
Shades of Shane Gould
Can we get a Dressel-Ledecky 400 m free? Please??? Time-trial?
Katie secretly wants to be a sprinter (even she isn’t aware of it) With half as much work as she does now, she could be on top of the Word in the 100 and 200 free and win those events by 10s of 1000s of seconds.
needs more bench press. No swimming
Just bench
Would you rather swim another race you know you’ll walk away with a win, or challenge yourself in events you will struggle to win?
yes………….(but no breaststroke…)
Dressels best time in the 2IM LC is a 1:59.97 at 2019 toyota US open but I think he can go much faster than that now.
Thank you…..
Dressel’s 200m IM will be around 2:01
…that would mean he’s still broken-down. I think he’ll be a “tiny bit” rested for San Antonio. Team Trials are April 26-30.
OFF TOPIC for Melvin: were you happy that Jessica Chastain won an Oscar for her role as Tammy Faye? How close was her portrayal to your memory of her? Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Maybe she is swimming those events because they are fun for her.
agreed