Disclaimer: BlueSeventy Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The BlueSeventy Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
While Stanford was heavily favored to win this year’s NCAA Championships, almost all of the pre-meet chatter stretching back years to recruiting seasons was about the Olympian duo of Katie Ledecky and Simone Manuel.
Who would have expected they’d both be overshadowed by a teammate?
Ella Eastin had the finest meet of any swimmer at the 2018 NCAA Championships, breaking 2 American records, winning three individual events and two relays. Over the course of three days, Eastin beat a number of swimming elite – most notably in her 400 IM.
In that race, Eastin beat Ledecky – widely considered the world’s best swimmer – head-to-head by a massive 3.6-second margin. She also broke Ledecky’s American record and for the first time surpassed Katinka Hosszu‘s former all-time best time. Make that two of the world’s best swimmers overshadowed by Eastin.
As an added bonus, in the 200 IM, Eastin beat Olympian and reigning NCAA Swimmer of the Year Kathleen Baker by half a second while breaking her own American record and becoming the first woman under 1:51. Eastin would also win the 200 fly and swim key legs of the winning 800 free relay (1:41.1 split) and 400 free relay (47.1 split).
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Ella Eastin = BOSS
interesting no mention of madeline denave’s 200 fly. it really flew under the radar. she has big things in store!
I suppose it is fitting (in an unintentionally satirical sort of way) that the article notes that Ella has been historically less discussed than teammates Katie & Simone, and then the comments section (up to this point) is dominated by discussions of other athletes (i.e., Michael Phelps and ESPN’s top 20 list).
i thought exactly the same thing ……
Well done Ella – we will see u at the Us Trials down the summer and at hopefully on the Us Team .
Someone please explain to me how DEAN is such a snack??
was the article about him ?? check again in case u missed it lol
There is no page for it, but did anybody see ESPN’s 20 for 20 article that listed the top 20 most dominating athletes in the last 20 years? Phelps was left off of it, which is mind boggling enough, but their explanation is unforgivable.
What was their explanation
Right – what was their explanation for leaving off the most decorated Olympian spanning decades of dominance?
Where the heck is Michael Phelps?
Here’s the issue: There were 34 swimming events at the 2016 Olympics, with three more coming in 2020. And while it makes no sense to count each as a distinct sport, like soccer or baseball, there’s also no way to combine times across distances, disciplines, medleys and relays-and no one rating that weights national, international and Olympic competitions for an annual score among individual swimmers. We’d love to tell you where Phelps and Katie Ledecky rank on our list of most dominant athletes, but we can’t. It’s not our fault, it’s the data!
(My sidenote: I love that they tout “Backed by math!” on the original article, and then say “The math is… Read more »
And then they proceed to place Felix and Bolt there on the exact same list where they essentially do the same thing on land…
Did they include Joey Chestnut’s domination in competitive eating? No way anyone is taking that hot dog record down anytime soon but his performance in the bratwurst division is equally impressive.