Produced by Coleman Hodges.
Reported by Tony Carroll.
Connor Jaeger took out his 1500m freestyle aggressively to challenge the World Record Holder, Gregorio Paltrinieri, in the front half of the race. It worked well for the first 700 meters, but after that it was an 800 meter shoot-out. Paltrinieri stayed slightly ahead through 1100 meters before Jaeger inched back into the lead.
With 300 meters to go, Jaeger continued to get faster. The beautiful, long stroke he opened the race with disappeared and he gained a powerful gallup. Paltrinieri’s stroke rate was much higher than Jaeger’s throughout the entire race.
With 150 meters remaining, both swimmers came alive! Paltrinieri flipped hundredths ahead of Jaeger. It was an all out sprint that continued to get faster each and every lap. The crowd was on their feet for the final 4 laps and the crowd got just as loud as they were last night during the relays as Jaeger powered away from the World Record holder down the final 25 meters.
With new American and US Open records, Connor Jaeger won the men’s 1500m freestyle with his time of 14:19.29. That record was the oldest American record on the books. Eric Vendt set the record in at 14:31.02 back in 2000. Paltrinieri finished second with a final time of 14:20.24.
After the men’s 1500 freestyle, Team USA leads 86 to 54. PDF Results
Great interview. Gregorio joining Connor for the post-race interview was one of the class moves of the event, a credit to both guys. The other really exciting race on the men’s side was the 400 free (IMO) which was also really close with the guys pushing the hell out of each other, and James Guy giving props to the field in a great interview. And CJ’s sentiment that distance swimming is on the up–yes because of Katie, but also because of the strategy and gamespersonship he describes in this interview–is spot on. Well done!