2022 PHILLIPS 66 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, July 26 – Saturday, July 30, 2022
- William Woollett Aquatics Center, Irvine, CA
- Prelims 9 AM / Finals 5 PM (U.S. Pacific Time)
- Meet website
- Meet information
- Psych Sheet
- OMEGA Live Results
- Day 3 Finals Recap
What can’t Katie Ledecky do?
On Thursday, the 25-year-old won her third title of the 2022 US National Championships in an event that we usually don’t see her winning: the 400 IM. And not only did she win the 400 IM, but she also dropped nearly three seconds off her previous best time of 4:38.16 to go 4:35.77. That time would have been fast enough to win the event at the U.S. trials in April, and also would have been third at this year’s World Championships.
Being 25 and having broken the world record in three different events, we don’t really see best times from Ledecky in this stage of her career. So today marked her first personal best since May 2018, when she broke the world record in the 1500 free.
The win didn’t come easy for Ledecky though, as she had to battle Leah Smith, her domestic mid-distance freestyle rival, throughout the entire race. Ledecky was leading by a slim margin after the fly and back legs, but Smith came up on her to take the lead after the breaststroke. In order to secure the win, Ledecky had to run Smith down from behind in the strongest stroke for both swimmers: freestyle.
Ledecky’s race strategy was evident through her splits, considering that she dropped a blazing-fast 1:00.26 freestyle leg and went 29.53 on her final 50.
Smith vs. Ledecky, Comparative Splits:
| Katie Ledecky | Leah Smith | |
| Fly | 1:02.50 | 1:03.21 |
| Back | 1:11.38 | 1:10.58 |
| Breast | 1:21.63 | 1:20.76 |
| Free | 1:00.26 | 1:02.11 |
| Total | 4:35.77 | 4:36.36 |
That 4:35.77 now moves Ledecky up to #13 all-time amongst American women. And although she just put up an international medal-worthy time in the 400 IM, she said in her post-race interview that she doesn’t plan to add the event to any major meet lineups in the future because she wanted to focus on the distance free events.
It is interesting now what Katie Ledecky can do in 400IM being well prepared and tapered. I wish she dedicated one of PSS meets next season to this event only.
She started swimming 400IM LCM regularly when she got #1 from 200 through 1500 early in her bright career and was looking for new challenge. But it went nowhere swimming around 4:39 at best.
4:35 was completely unexpected today and it wasn’t that good because of greatest form she is at. No, she is slower now than month before. And therefore it raises the question why she is doing that. In the on-deck interview at the beginning of this meet she warned us that we are gonna see… Read more »
I loved watching this, great race!
TBH this seems to be getting a much more positive reaction than when Leah Smith went 4:33.86 in 2017…
Leah Smith has been passed up by Katie Grimes and Emma Weyant in the women’s 400 meter individual medley. In addition, I honestly believe Alex Walsh has the potential in the women’s 400 meter individual medley to compete with Emma Weyant. Furthermore, I honestly believe Alex Walsh is wasting her time in the women’s 200 meter freestyle. I predict Alex Walsh will dusted in the women’s 200 meter freestyle by a slew of teenagers at the 2023 International Team Trials.
I knew the GOAT would be fabulous in this event. I’d love to see her I do it in Paris. Love that she is changing things up. I’ve wondered lately if she’d try her hand at the 400IM.
Things are getting interesting 🙂
Not gonna happen.
This is not a new event for Ledecky. While swimming for Stanford she broke the NCAA and American records in the 400 IM at a PAC 12 Championship, but has consistently stated that she had no intention of swimming it at a major international championship.
Swimming IM event in SCY is a joke when 40% of the distance swimmers swim under water plus having twice as many extra walls. Only about 15% goes actually to each stroke above the surface. So if you has a really weak stroke like breaststroke in Ledecky’s case it doesn’t hurt much the overall performance.
That race was finished on the butterfly leg when Smith was nowhere. Ledecky wasn’t going to collapse on breaststroke when she sensed that victory was there if she remained reasonably close.
Every time I see that American record I can’t believe how weak it is. Grimes should just put it out of its misery. But at least this event is on the upswing nationally and internationally, unlike the women’s distance races.
I really do love it when swimmers swim off events, kind of hope Kaylee gets a random breaststroke swim at duel in the pool now
Would like to see Katie’s back to breast turn. At one of the Pac championships, she should have been DQ’d for being past vertical. But, who is gonna call that infraction??? Hope her new coach is doing a better job of watching the technical details because Mecham did not.
Loving it!!!