For veteran New Zealand distance swimmer Lauren Boyle, Kazan marked the 27-year old’s remarkable fifth world championships over the course of her career.
With the conclusion of the 2015 edition of the meet, Boyle now owns exactly half of all of New Zealand’s medals as a country from the last 40 years at the world championships. In Kazan, Boyle wound up with a solid two silver medals, finishing behind Team USA phenom Katie Ledecky in both the 1500m and 800m freestyle events.
With her runner-up time (15:40.14) in the 1500m event, Boyle became the third fastest 1500m freestyle female performer ever, only behind Ledecky and Denmark’s Lotte Friis. In this one race, Boyle knocked four seconds off of her personal best, clocked a new Oceanic Record, and also marked her best showing ever at a World Championships.
The story was much the same for Boyle in the 800m race, where she swam to a silver medal finish with another new Oceanic Record (8:17.65), shaving about a second off of her own previous record.
In light of Ledecky’s dominant performances, Boyle refreshingly approaches racing the 18-year old American with realistic expectations. “It’s not a great mindset to go in knowing or thinking that she’s [Ledecky’s] going to be really far ahead. But in past events that has happened, so I don’t lose confidence if that happens – if that makes sense.” Boyle stated further, “For me, I usually swim my best races when I’m totally involved with my own race and I’m not really focusing on what anybody else is doing.”
On Ledecky’s unprecedented talent, Boyle continued, “What Katie Ledecky is doing for the sport is amazing and I think it helps all of us swimmers open our minds to what is possible.”
Overall, Boyle states that she “was really happy with my performance, it’s fantastic to get another medal – especially silver and also really with a personal best time for me and a New Zealand record, which is amazing,”
Boyle has been training with Australian Coach Denis Cotterell and his squad of Chinese athletes at his Miami-based training site (Queensland) since last December and is expected to return to his training camp after a brief vacation.
“It’s not a great mindset to go in knowing or thinking that she’s going to be really far ahead,” she said of the 18-year-old who was over 10 seconds quicker than Boyle.
Lauren Boyle is a great swimmer and has a great mindset but she should just concentrate on finishing second.
Any woman in the same pool with ledecky should not believe in themselves, I mean they should not believe they can win. They should just think of finishing second. second is not bad.
I’d rephrase that somewhat, Carlo. For the 400/800/1500 most certainly but the 200 is a totally different matter. Ledecky COULD win it Rio but its essentially a level playing field with a lot of potential contenders; she’s only one of them.
Ahhh, more “should” advice, supposed wisdom from an armchair fan to a multi world-champ medalist. Boyle is quoted above as saying ” I usually swim my best races when I’m totally involved with my own race.” The point being that she “should” and does concentrate on what she can control, herself–not Ledecky nor the other 6 women in the final. She does well, Carlo, precisely because she has other (and better) ideas about what she should or should not do than the one you offer.
As weird as this sounds, I used to feel the same about the East German female swimmers. Yes, they were on PEDs and this was absolutely an unfair advantage. But, the rest of the world’s female swimmers had two options: Stagnate in self-pity or go faster than you ever thought possible. As a result there were significant time drops in all of the events from 1972-1976 (and beyond) because they had to. Lauren Boyle has her act together. She judges her performance on HER performance and not based off of what someone else is doing in the next lane or three lanes over. She may not win the gold medal, but she is a magnificent swimmer, champion and human being.… Read more »
And to your excellent points — let’s all remember that Kim Peyton, Jill Sterkel, Wendy Boglioi and Shirley Babashoff did just that (“go faster than you ever thought possible”) when they did the unthinkable and beat the East German women in the 400 free relay at the ’76 Olympics.
Worth a look back at that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LinqPGZPqUw
That was – is – one the greatest – if not the greatest – relays of all time.
Agreed. You can hear the roar of excitement from the entire non-communist world after Jill Sterkel’s flip turn at the 250.
Do you know that there is a documentary being filmed about that relay???? I believe it is called (I am probably wrong) The Greatest Story Never Told. I think…..
It will be released next year before the Rio Games. Babashoff, Sterile, Ender, Thuemer, Schubert, etc. and others will be in it discussing what happened leading up to and during the Montreal Olympics. I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHOMPING AT THE BIT!!!!!! LOL
Saw a preview of it at Hall of fame doings in Santa Clars with 3 who are part of it and interviewed in it. It was Shitrley Babashoff, Wendy Boglioli and John Nabor. It wil be something to see for everyone. It will be something when completed.
Nice! I still remember 1973 to 1976 as if it was yesterday. There was something about Montreal which still holds me. Probably the questions and wishing I could have seen the East Germans in person. I heard a lot and was told a lot, but wish I could have seen this for myself. I am excited for the film. Will probably be the first in line.
Also, there is a great video on Youtube where Wendy actually semi-confronts Petra Thuemer about the East Germans being on steroids at the 1976 Games. It was a little uncomfortable because Wendy wanted answers and Petra wasn’t going to give them. Still, it was incredible to watch. I wish I could remember the name or place a link here.
Two things:
1.) I did see the East German women when I raced. They were freakin’ huge!! I see some Wikipedia pages where their weights are given as “135 – 145lbs” and that is a massive understatement. They were a good 30+ pounds heavier than that and they were cut! In hindsight, PED use was obvious.
2.) I’ve never seen the video you’re referencing where Boglioli confronted Thuemer but if it did happen, I’m betting that Thuemer couldn’t or wouldn’t admit to PED use because they, for the most part, didn’t know. Those young women – the East Germans – suffered what I believe to be one of the most egregious violations of basic human rights ever committed in the… Read more »
Please tell us your memories. I would love to know!!!! Your answer can be as long as you wish. I will read every single word with pleasure. 🙂
It’s a documentary called “Doping for Gold.” It’s mainly about the structure of the state-sponsored doping program, the fact that the younger athletes were largely unaware of what they were taking, and the long-term ill health effects they suffered. The part where Wendy B. meets with Thumer is just a small part of the documentary starting at around the 44:00 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKQ2kVBwTU
For me, that relay was my greatest sports memory of all time.My mother and I screamed and pounded and jumped up and down hugged each other. To me, the USA women were even bigger underdogs (vs. the doped up DDR amazons with their deep voices) than the USA mens hockey team was vs the professional Russians. It was like our girls were competing against a different specie (or gender, at least). It still hurts me to this day thinking about the medals and world records our fine women were robbed of. Shirley, Wendy, Jill, Kim and the rest of the team:You are all winners to us!!!! We know the truth.
The supersuits of 2008-2009 had a similar effect of pushing the psychological limits.
All of you seem so sure that only east germany was doped at the time… would it be a surprise if we learnt that US relay was doped too? I mean, strong swimming countries like USA or Netherlands are also known for a history of doping: heard about Lance Armstrong? Marion Jones? LaShawn Merritt? Tyler Hamilton? Jerome Young?
Lauren Boyle is a great swimmer in her own right. Coming in second to Ledecky is nothing to be ashamed of.
Great mindset.
But if she sounded too eager in wanting to race Ledecky, you’d chastise her.
Nobody races Katie Ledecky.
Chuck Norris tried race Katie Ledecky once. Katie lapped him twice and, on the third time, Chuck burst into flames and was never seen again.
There are guys who race her every day in practice.
Boyle may have Cotterell but, Ledecky has Bruce Gemmell!