Katie Ledecky has become the first woman ever under nine minutes in the 1000 yard freestyle, going 8:59.65 at the Nation’s Capital Swim Club Invite Sunday.
Ledecky popped the time at the 2015 NCAP meet hosted at the University of Maryland, shattering the American record in savage fashion.
In an already star-studded career, this is among Ledecky’s best swims ever relative to the rest of history in the event. The previous American record was a 9:10.77 set by Katie Hoff in 2007, meaning Ledecky is a full 11 seconds faster than anyone else in history.
Ledecky previously approached that record, going 9:11.31 in November of 2014, but her swim today still stands up as a drop of 11.66 seconds en route to the fastest swim in history.
Hoff’s time was also the 17-18 National Age Group record, so that mark transfers to Ledecky’s trophy case as well. Ledecky also now holds the U.S. Open record, with Hoff’s 9:10.77 standing as all three records since 2007.
Ledecky’s splits ranged from 26.8 to 27.5, with twin 25.5s bookending the swim on the opening and closing 50s. Maybe most impressive was that she was out in 4:30.90 to the 500 and actually negative split the race, coming home in 4:28.75 over the final 500 yards. As individual 500s, those would rank as the 8th and 5th fastest 500 yard freestyles in history. Nobody besides Ledecky herself has swum a 500 free faster than 4:28.75, and she did it immediately after swimming a 4:30.90.
Earlier in the meet, Ledecky had put up the fourth-fastest 200 free of all-time at 1:41.04, posted a 4:01.69 in the 400 IM and won the 500 free in 4:28.17.
Her full splits, per the meet’s live results page:
25.53 52.42 (26.89)
1:19.94 (27.52) 1:47.36 (27.42)
2:14.50 (27.14) 2:41.79 (27.29)
3:09.06 (27.27) 3:36.53 (27.47)
4:03.82 (27.29) 4:30.90 (27.08)
4:58.16 (27.26) 5:25.18 (27.02)
5:52.11 (26.93) 6:18.99 (26.88)
6:45.98 (26.99) 7:13.18 (27.20)
7:40.35 (27.17) 8:07.47 (27.12)
8:34.13 (26.66) 8:59.65 (25.52)
She should do a 500 free for time before each of her events, so she is properly warmed up when she gets to the blocks.
Here is a select list of 17-18s who never made it under 8:59.65 in the 1000:
Erik Vendt (9:01.88)
Sean Killion (9:00.31)
Charlie Houchin (9:02.69)
Chip Peterson (9:02.79)
Klete Keller (9:04.28)
Zane Grothe (9:04.32)
Larsen Jensen (9:07.23)
Michael Klueh (9:06.55)
Michael McBroom (9:06.47)
Clark Smith (9:05.73)
Mark Warkentin (9:06.01)
Well said, Daaaave! Quite a respectable list.
Ah, this is the most wonderful thing I’ve seen today.
I mean cool and all but its still just the 800.
Real story of the week was Grevers in the 100 back WR. Now that was awesome.
Or Kromowidjojo’s 50 WR.
Those were way more interesting races to watch.
Fine swims. Grevers beat his training partner’s old record by 0.02 and Ranomi tied her own personal best. Really impressive.
But really. Who swims serious, rested short course meters? Those swims really mean nothing.
I suppose they might have edged into the top 10 most INTERESTING swims of the weekend, considering the numerous other efforts that absolutely crushed what had ever been done by other athletes in same setting (course/age, etc.). They CERTAINLY were not as INTERESTING as a 17 year old boy 100 YARD free at :41.23 (1.62 seconds ahead of the next fastest 17 year old in history and OVER A SECOND under the national high school record) or a girl sub 9:00.00 at 1000 yards in… Read more »
I meant Matt at :47.81!
My point was that distance swimming doesn’t matter. If you want to swim relatively slowly over long intervals go do open water. Most people don’t want to watch slow swimming when you could be watching 50’s and 100’s.
Swimming fast requires physical & mental hard work to be as perfect as possible.
Swimming slow for a long time requires only effort which is not nearly as much to respect as the perfection required by a sprinter.
I have to disagree with you here. It is of personal opinion which of the events is more “exciting” to watch, so I won’t argue that point.
Swimming slow for a long time does not only require effort. Ladecky’s stroke gets longer and more efficient as the race progresses and she gets tired. That is incredible. This isn’t because she is “trying” harder than anyone else in the world. This is because she practices this every day. Because she races Olympic-level men at swim practice. Because she focused on her stroke. I would argue her technique is more “perfect” than most world class sprinters. She has to maintain it much longer.
Also, to imply she is swimming slowly is just… Read more »
People who think she is swimming “slowly” should race her – let alone the world class men distance swimmers. Watch marathoners. It sure looks as if they’re running “slow”. Try to keep up with them for 200-400-800 meters, let alone 26 miles!!
And stop using the time converter from SCY to LCM! 😆
That’s crazy senseless! 😆
No more “crazy senseless” than your predictions, and just as accurate by comparison.
And her swim was not “perhaps spectacular,” it was “spectacular.” Please don’t tell us again you weren’t impressed.
so technically by dissing bobo you admitted he is right ^^
There is nothing wrong with using the SCY to LCM converter as long as you remember that the converted time is 98% of the equivalent time. Ledecky’s time converts to 8:01.63 which is 98% of a time of 8:11.46.
Franklin’s 1:39.10 converts to 1:53.20 which is 98% of 1:55.51 which is almost exactly equal to the 1:55.49 she swam at the world champs.
so do you think everbody would get so excited about a 8.11 from ledecky? sure it would be an amzing time but wouldnt get as much attetion as this 8.59. bobos point is very true. but ofc its fun to watch yards too.
Calm down American swim fans!
Always put the things in perspective!
Katie Ledecky has just finally put the SCY 1000 free record at about the same level as her 800 free world record in long course.
Katie Hoff:
LCM 800 free PB 8.19
SCY 1000 free PB 9.10
Katie Ledecky:
LCM 800 free PB 8.07
SCY 1000 free PB 8.59
That’s perhaps spectacular in the headlines, sub 9 WOW, but THAT’S PURE LOGIC!
Absolutely no surprise here!
I even think that fully tapered like at last world championships, she must be able to swim about 8.57.
And no, she will not swim under 8 minutes in Rio! 😆 😆 😆 😆
Some swimswam commenters should stop smoking marijuana! 🙂
All points about converting SCY to LCM are well taken.
What’s interesting and more reasonable to consider is how her 8:59.65 1000 scy projects to the championship distance:1650 scy, where KL already holds the AR and USO records of 15:13.30.
You can go about this a couple different ways, but a very simple and I think reliable way would be to use her drop-off from her WR 800 lcm to WR 1500 lcm. As the distance in that case increased 88%, her average pace slowed about 1.2%. The distance increase from 1000 to 1650 is only 65% however – so it would be conservative to assume a similar 1.2% pace drop off.
When you do this: 539.65… Read more »
An interesting Hoff-Ledecky 800 LCM/1000 SCY comparison, but in looking at it from another angle, Hoff’s 9:10 was a significantly better swim than her 8:19 800 LCM. Hoff’s turns were (are??; we can still hope, right?) significantly better than Janet’s but add this comparison to your set: in 1989 Evans set mind blowing records in each of these events, the 800 LCM at 8:16.22 (three seconds faster than you list for Hoff) and 1000 SCY at 9:25.49 (15 seconds SLOWER than Hoff).
Thus, Ledecky’s absolutely thrilling 8:07 from last summer is 9 seconds faster than Evans did in the 1989 Pan-Pacs, interestingly also in Australia. But whatever adjectives you use to describe Ledecky’s 8:59.65, recognize and reflect on the fact… Read more »
Nice post, Duncan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMRaOaRqaZU
Thanks for posting the video but I’m not sure it will remain on swimswam for a long time! 😆
Her stroke looks a bit choppier than usual but it still worked clearly.
Wow what a legend, I would say she is a female Phelps or maybe even better cause at that age Phelps was not smashing records? I can’t believe it, Under 9 minutes wow wow.
At that age, Phelps was totally smashing records.
also ledecky has good turns. In fact she has better turns than a lot of male swimmers. I think she has better turns than the likes of sun yang and gregorio paltrinieri.
Combine her turns with her underwaters and she,s made to destroy records especially in short course yards. But what separates her from the likes of top class male swimmers like paltrinieri is the difference in speed at the swimming phase in long course meters. His speed at the swimming phase makes up for his deficiencies at the turns and underwaters.
If gregorio paltrinieri swims in yards, he,s be a lot slower compared to LCM because his underwaters are not crazy good.