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.
For the second-straight year, Katie Ledecky gave up a freestyle race to swim the 400 IM at the Pac-12 Championships, and for the second-straight year, she came up with a big national record.
In 2017, it was the American record, with a 3:57.68 that ranked behind only Katinka Hosszu in the historical ranks. In 2018, Ledecky knocked off Hosszu with a 3:56.53.
This time around, she won’t have to watch that record get taken down by a teammate while she swims different events at NCAAs. Ledecky will swim the 400 IM next month, setting up what could be an even bigger swim for the Olympic and world champ.
Here’s a splits comparison of the two:
| Ledecky 2018 | Hosszu 2012 | ||||
| Fly | 54.75 | 25.90 | 25.47 | 54.71 | Fly |
| 28.85 | 29.24 | ||||
| Back | 59.29 | 30.34 | 30.36 | 59.84 | Back |
| 28.95 | 29.48 | ||||
| Breast | 1:09.43 | 34.61 | 34.53 | 1:08.41 | Breast |
| 34.82 | 33.88 | ||||
| Free | 53.06 | 27.08 | 27.10 | 53.58 | Free |
| 25.98 | 26.48 | ||||
| 3:56.53 | 3:56.54 | ||||
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The WR is 4.18 for the 400IM and is Belmonte’s …. 3.56 too fast even for these legends of the sport unless they had a blue seventy wetsuit on 😉
What an amazing swimmer. Could she try to match or even break PHelp’s 8 golds at an olympics?
Would be tough to see how – she doesn’t have a natural spot on the 400 medley relay or a fifth event individually even if she can win the 400 IM. She could do 5, maybe 6 – and 6 would tie the record for a female Olympian (held by the last of the “great” East Germans – Kristin Otto).
I would have preferred Ella and Katie BOTH being given Swims of the Week.
Two record breakers. Can’t wait to see what they do tapered LOL
So Hosszu starts half a second ahead at the 50, Ledecky catches back up and stays even through 150, pulls ahead by 200. Hosszu retakes the lead on breaststroke by over half a second again, maintains that advantage through the first 50 of free, and then gets run down and out-touched in the last 50. That would be an insane race
Katinka is far better in back and breast than she was in 2012.
When she made her 4:26 in Rio (2016) it was 5 sec improvement (from gold race in Kazan 2015) coming from breast and free legs. There were no noticeable progress in her signature strokes since 2012 in 400IM
There were. Look at her PBs in back and breast and not in IM. BTW please don’t compare a first and a last day swim.
Wow. Ledecky is phenomenal.
I need a video!
Go to ledeckydailyl