14-year old Katie Ledecky of the Curl Burke Swim Club is on fire at this weekend’s National Age Group Challenge meet that annually pits some of the best times along the Eastern seaboard against each other. This year’s meet was hosted at the Germantown Swim Center in Maryland.
Ledecky broke two National Age Group Records at the meet, starting with a blistering 4:35.14 on Saturday in the 500 free. That breaks one of the great NAG marks in the country by over four seconds. The previous mark was held by the legendary Cynthia Woodhead all the way back in 1978 at 4:39.94.
Not only was that time a National Age Group Record, it was about 1.7 seconds short of the National High School Record as only a freshman, and would have placed her 3rd at NCAA’s last year.
She continued her great introduction to the broader swimming community earlier on Sunday with another monstrous win in the 1000 free where she touched in 9:29.81, which is another National Age Group Record. That mark too was an ancient one, and again Ledecky made dust of it. The previous mark was held by Michele Richardson at 9:33.39 in 1984.
For those who are interested in her pacing, in the 500 free she swam 100’s of 52.9 – 56.1 – 56.0 – 55.6 – 54.3. In the 1000, she very-nearly negative-split the race by going out in a 4:46.88 and coming back in a 4:43.0, which is phenomenal pacing for such a young swimmer. When you compare that to the other swimmers in her age group at this meet, who are also outstanding swimmers, that pacing was more like 5:08-5:19, which is a more
She also put up very fast times in her other events – the 200 free was 1:47.76 (which is still three seconds away from Missy Franklin’s record) and a 2:04.25 in the 200 IM (which is again eons away from what Missy did at 14). She also led off both Curl-Burke free relays in splits of 23.8 and 51.7. That comes to a total of 5 meet records in 6 flat-starts for Ledecky (the 100 didn’t quite clear Cierra Runge’s 50.93 set last year).
Ledecky won two races at this summer’s Junior Nationals, the 400 and 800 LCM freestyles, and nearly set meet records in the process. She did set a Meet Record in the 1500 free in 16:24.26. She doesn’t turn 15 until March 17th.
Her times are amazing… in yards!I hope she does a nice transition to LCM.
Her 500 time is something around 4.07 in 400 free LCM.I believe at her age(14), only Li Xuanxu(or was Shao Yiwen?) was faster with a 4.05 something.
2:04 IM? C’mon Yuri, get this girl in the pool, and start training her.
But seriously – those times are just insane. Nice kid in a good group with a good coach. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Continued Success.
Thank you Josh, but I think it wasn’t difficult to see the fantastic potential of this young girl. She impressed me the first time last year at the Tom Dolan Invitational. Next I saw her at the NCSA Junior Nationals this year. And she confirmed her talent at Junior Nationals this summer in long course with great times in the 200 free, 400 free, 800 free and 1500 free. I’m just a swimming fan here from France and I’m happy to watch new talents. I don’t know if she can swim faster next month but it will be very interesting. Look at her splits. In the 1000 free she swims the first 500 in 4.46.88 and the second 500 in… Read more »
It’s really hard to believe she took down a Sippy record by that much. I mean, that record is 33 years old, and she took it down by 4+ seconds. That’s just mind-boggling and speaks to this girl’s potential.
What you guys see going on with Missy Franklin now is nothing compared to where Cynthia “Sippy” Woodhead was in her time. Sippy should have been the star of Moscow. She qualified for six events in 1980 and ranked #1 in the world in the 100/200/400/800 free at 16 years old. Can you imagine being able to dominate every Olympic freestyle distance, especially when you’re only like 5’6 to begin and had to compete against East Germans who had legs bigger… Read more »
I agree with a lot of the other comments. If she continues to improve, she could be a serious contender at the Olympic Trials.
WOW, amazing. She is at that magic time that young women have when the times are ridiculously fast. I remeber when Ziegler was hitting other wordly times, and she had started swimming year round much later than Ledecky.
I think her coach is doing a great job with her, not pushing the high profile meets too fast and having her focus on swimming.
It’s scary for Chloe Sutton, Allison Schmitt or Kate Ziegler. The young generation is coming. Katie Ledecky, Chelsea Chenault or Gillian Ryan are very talented. And Katie Ledecky has a good chance to go to the next olympic games.
Katie Ledecky is a future legend in distance swimming and in freestyle events in general. Her times are absolutely incredible. Was she rested for this meet? Perhaps she will go to Junior Nationals or to the Tom Dolan Invitational where she swims generally. Or her coach will choice to put her against big names in the next Nationals in Atlanta in long course. Congrats to her. She can go to the Olympic Games next year. Instead of the men, the women’s level in freestyle events in USA seems to become incredible.