See Women’s 1500m Free World Swimming Rankings here, powered by TYR.
WOMEN’S 1500 FREE (FIRST HEAT)
Meet record: 15:55.01, Kate Ziegler (USA)
American record: 15:34.23, Katie Ledecky
Australian record: 16:01.53, Melissa Gorman
Canadian record: 16:07.73 Brittany Reimer
Japanese record: 15:58.55 Ai Shibata
Australia All-comers record: 15:53.05 Kate Ziegler (USA)
With her fifth World Record of the summer, Katie Ledecky drops six second to improve her World Record to 15:28.36! To put that in perspective, the world record at this time last year was still 15:42, and she would have finished 18th at the US National Championships in the men’s 1500 meter freestyle.
The silver medal went to Lauren Boyle of New Zealand at 15:55.69. Brittany Maclean of Canada claimed the bronze with her time of 15:57.15. Cierra Runge finished fourth at 16:04.48.
I would like to share my conversion formulas for elite women in the 400/800/1500 free LCM races.
Add 2% to lap times going from 400 to 800 and another 1% going from 800 to 1500.
Going backwards her 15:28.36 we get corresponding times of 8:10.22 for 800 and 4:00.31 for 400m. That would make this her fifth best swim after her 4 sub 4 minute 400s.
It’s great that this swim was accomplished in Australia, where the 1500 meter free has been a very admired event for a long time. Still hoping to see the whole race online somewhere… I am jealous of the fans who witnessed the race in person that day. So inspiring. Way to go Katie!
I think people should take note of Ledecky’s comment that the 1500 is not a focus for her since it is not an Olympic event. Few women put much emphasis on such a long grueling race that is not an Olympic event.
Ledecky has taken about 14s off Ziegler’s 1500 WR and only 0.78s off Pellegrini’s 400 WR–but those figures are misleading. I have no doubt that her 400WR is better than her 1500WR.