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 the weekend was chock full of huge swims between the Duel in the Pool, both Winter Junior National Championships and the Nation’s Capital Invite, there’s still one swim that’s head and shoulders above the rest.
Seemingly out of nowhere, Katie Ledecky blasted the best 1000 freestyle ever swum by a female swimmer, going 8:59.65 and charring the American record to bits by a whopping 11 seconds.
Though we’ll often use our Blueseventy Featured Swim of the Week to take a closer look at a less-publicized swim, this week, we’re going back to Ledecky’s headline-grabbing effort to unpack more of the insanity its speed creates.
So without further ado, Ledecky’s 1000 free by the numbers:
- 4:28.75 – Ledecky’s split over the final 500 yards. As a standalone 500 free, that would rank #5 all-time, and no one besides Ledecky has ever been under 4:30 in the event, much less 4:29 coming off of another four-and-a-half-minute 500 free.
- 1:46.47 – Ledecky’s final 200 yards. that would rank within the top 100 times in history for the 17-18 age group in the individual 200 free.
- 0.01 – the difference between Ledecky’s opening and closing splits. Keep in mind that her first split included a start, which drives home just how well Ledecky finished this race. (She was out in 25.53 and closed in 25.52).
- 1:44.59 – the sum of Ledecky’s four fastest splits during the 1000. That time by itself would have scored at last year’s NCAA Championships in the 200 free.
- 11.12 – the number of seconds faster than anyone in history Ledecky swam the 1000 free. That’s over 1.1 seconds on each 100 split.
- 14:57.41 – what Ledecky’s projected 1650 free would have been if she had repeated her slowest overall split for the final 650 yards.
- 14:50.43 – what Ledecky’s 1650 free would have been if she kept up her average pace for 650 more yards.
You can read more about the swim here.
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I found a very simple conversion rule which I think I reasonably accurate. Add 10% to a 400 or 800 LCM time to get a 500 or 1000 SCY times. In other words, the ratio of times should be 10 to 11. An 9:10 would become an 6:59 and a, 8:20 would become a 9:10. This would make Ledecky’s time equivalent to an 8:10.59. Hoff’s 9L10.77 would be equivalent to an 8:20.70.
I can’t believe so many fans are surprised.
She swam 8.07.39 in the 800 free in long course.
That’s still more impressive than that swim in yards.
In both races she has been able to finish like a bullet! 28.41 in long course and 25.52 in SCY!
The most impressive thing is that she swam 8.59 not fully tapered.
KL just puts the SCY records at a level close to those in LCM.
Only SCM has not been rewritten yet.
Maybe at Duel in the pool in 2 years?
Unless she is tired of freestyle after Rio and focus on IM for Tokyo 2020. Don’t forget my prediction! If she wants it,… Read more »
Keep in mind we’re primarily a US fan base on this site. It’s true LC caries more weight on the international stage, but unless you have real shot at making trials or an international team, SCY will probably be more important to you. Everyone in the US trains SCY for at least some of the season, everyone can easily calculate what 100 pace a 9:00 thousand is (holding 54s), and everyone regardless of sex can identify with how ridiculous that is.
The reason people are so blown away by this swim is because it violates a very simple schematic we’ve constructed: Male swimmers go under nine minutes, female swimmers go over nine minutes. For the first time history there… Read more »
This guy Swimmer A… I like him. Finally someone is putting BG in his place; it gets kind of annoying when you see him being a know-it-all on every freakin’ article
Hahaha This Guy ^ right here knows what’s up
Is 8:59 a typo? Just kidding, but …..This would make her the 4th fastest in the NCAA Division one MEN, so far this year!!! http://www.collegeswimming.com/times/?page=1&orgcode=3&event=11000&gender=M&division=&conference=&season=2015-2016 and number one in the women of course, by 43 SECONDS!
Wow, wow, wow! Go Katie, you are so exciting to watch!
That’s beyond mind blowing!
Some others:
Worrell breaking 50.0 in 100 fly at NCAA Women’s Nats last spring
Salnikov breaking 15 in the 1500 free
Phelps breaking 50 s in 100M LC fly 2009 Worlds (conceivably / possibly again next year textile as well)
If Ledecky can break 15 minutes in the 1650 that would be a tremendous accomplishment. Won’t be easy but if anyone can do it, it’s her. It will take 3 500 splits of 4:32 and some change. Obviously this is kind of an arbitrary threshold, but people love multiples of 10. As a swim nerd I’d love to see people rank the various multiple of 10 barrier swims. The most impressive that immediately/noteworthy come to my mind are:
1. Weismuller 1:00 in LCM 100 free (perhaps not the most impressive, but huge historical importance).
2. Ledecky’s 1000 yard free (for the reasons metioned).
3. Coughlin breaking 50.0 in the 100 SCY backstroke (when she did that time it… Read more »
fastmcgee,
I would put Down Fraser sub minute in your list too.
Love the analysis!
One small error: Ledecky’s 50 splits are 11.12/20 = .56 seconds faster than anyone else in history, not 11.12/10 = 1.11. A 1000 has 20 50s.
Good catch! The figures are updated now.