This weekend, at the Woodlands Senior Invitational in Conroe, Texas, American 17-year old Katie Ledecky broke the Junior World Record in the 400 free, the 800 free, and the 1500 free.
First on Thursday came both the 800 free record as a split (8:16.18) en route to her overall and junior World Records of 15:34.23 for the whole 1500 meter swim.
That 1500 final results is significant, as it comes away as one of the few records that is united now between “all-time junior world best” and “Junior World Record.”
The 800 swim initially broke Ledecky’s 8:20.11 done at the Mesa Grand Prix, and the 1500 broke the 16:18.63 Junior World Best done by Tjasa Oder of Slovenia at the 2011 Junior World Championships.
Oder’s time was not technically the Junior World Record, as it was done before Junior World Records were recognized by FINA on April 1, 2014, and so instead it was just the standard that had to be cleared to set the first Junior World Record in the event – which Ledecky has now done.
Then, in the individual 400 free on Friday, Ledecky swam a 4:03.09, which while not her personal best (she’s been 3:59) improved upon her 4:03.84 from Mesa as what should become the recognized FINA Junior World Record.
Then, finally, she put up the swim, the best swim out of them all, the big show, Katie Ledecky raced an 8:11.00 in the individual 800 free. That knocked 5 seconds off of her Junior World Record from Thursday, and more than two from the overall World Record.
See video of that 800 free here.
Ledecky came close to the 200 free record as well, where she, in which Ledecky swam a 1:56.45 to win. That’s again just shy of her personal best (this time by a couple of tenths) which in this case is the pending Junior World Record, and well shy of Missy Franklin’s 1:55.06, best-time-by-a-junior, but italmost gave her a 4th record in a weekend.
This is the second time Ledecky has gone for three Junior World Records in one go.
Ledecky 2014 thus far:
Sub 4:30 in 500 free (4:28) – AR
Us open/AR/World Jr Rec/WR 800 free
Us open/AR/World Jr Rec/WR1500 free
World Jr Rec 200 free
World Jr Rec 400 free
Anything I’m missing? Her 15:15 in the 1650 was in December I believe. Can’t keep up with this girl!
throwing out some predictions for this summer:
1500 free – 15:29.8
800 free – 8:09.7
400 free – 3:58.9
200 free – 1:55.1 Also, by Rio will be faster than Missy here
100 free – 54.8
I agree with you on everything except the 100 free. She was 55.2 at Mesa, where she was “only” 8:20 in the 800. I feel like she has at least 54.5 in her, maybe even a 54.1. I feel by Rio that Ledecky will be on the finals 4×100 relay.
I don’t know if USAS ever bothered to send the paperwork in, but Becca Mann’s 16:08 from Charlotte should probably count as the first junior world record in the 1500M that happened after FINA’s start date for counting that.
She held the World Records in the 800/1500 Free, and since these are her best times, they ARE “proper” WR’s. FINA had not announced the creation of “Junior World Records” before last year’s World Aquatics Championships when her former WR’s were set though. FINA specified that he initial standards for the Junior WR would be the winning times at last year’s Junior World Championships, I believe (which Katie did not attend because she was preparing for World Champ’s), and that from the date of that meet forward any times swum by athletes who would be 18 or younger on 12/31 (somebody correct me if I’m wrong) of the year when their times were recorded would be eligible to break those… Read more »
very good clarifications ! spot on ! thanks very much …
I believe the standard for the new Junior World Records on April 1st was the Championship Record for the World Junior Championships and not just the winning time from 2013.
Thank you for clarifying things further!
She broke both.
Definitively still leaning toward long distance (relatively speaking of course – she’s Olympic material whatever she swims). I wonder if it’s part of a strategy (focusing on long distance now and then focusing on middle distance when she gets older) or it’s just a natural development … or none of the above! 😀
Well she has the endurance but is missing the front end speed perhaps. We’ll see in August. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she wins the 200 free at Nationals and takes down the 400 WR too.
I would be VERY surprised if she won the 200 free at Nationals, considering the field. The 400 WR? Less surprised.
Missy hasn’t been swimming faster Yet if i am not wrong ! we didn’t see huge times from Vreeland or Schmitty yet as well . Katie is dangerous for that 200 free spot as well in my vieuw .
I do think it depends how well Missy and Alison do of course. But Ledecky is probably capable of something much faster than a 1:56 this year given that she was quicker at the Mesa GP than she was in Barcelona.
amazing races by Katie! She’s in a league of her own. Can’t wait to see what she does this summer
I think some JR WR fell down on Japan Open and Mare nostrum right?
Rafael – as you know, JR WRs are new. We’re working on this. FINA has been supportive pulling data for media outlets to report. Because this is a new category, we’ll be updating as best we can as the data comes in. I imagine these comments will help everyone pick up times that are not in the database yet.
Mel.. found the result
Ippei Watanabe, born 1997, went 2:10:23 on 200 breast..breaking Palatov 2:10:75