American Katie Ledecky has crushed her own World Record in the women’s 1500 meter freestyle on Saturday at the 2014 Pan Pac Championships on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Ledecky’s 15:28.36 broke the 15:34.23 that she swam at an untapered meet in The Woodlands, Texas in June of this year. Year-over-year, her World Record from 2013 was a 15:36.53 done at last year’s World Championships.
As we’ve seen from Ledecky all meet long, en route to two World Records, the difference here came almost entirely on the back-half of her swim. As compared to her old World Record splits, on Sunday she was out in just 8:16.90, as compared to 8:16.18 in the Woodlands in June.
After that, though, in her last 14 splits, she only twice went over 31 seconds on a split, and actually negative-split this race by 800s: 8:16.90/8:14.11 (with 100 meters of overlap).
That is now 7 times in the last three years that Ledecky has broken a World Record, out of 25 total World Records broken across the sport, meaning she’s done 28% of the rewriting in that time period.
What’s more, her best 800 meters worth of splits add up to an 8:10.99 in the 800 free – under that World Record. That won’t count as anything official, with those splits not being her first 800 meters. Those sorts of comparisons are more fun than a realistic representation, as for athletes of her caliber, there’s some small amount of recovery even on a 31.3 or 31.4 seconds split (as mind-boggling as that is to the rest of us). That doesn’t make them any less impressive.
Early in 2013, before Ledecky first broke this record, Kate Ziegler’s 15:42.54 looked like one of the most impressive World Records on the books. It broke an almost 20-year old record, held by Janet Evans, by 10 seconds, and then stood up against the 2008 and 2009 suited years.
In 13 months, however, Ledecky has lowered it by another 14 seconds, or roughly 1.5% of the original time. That would be the equivalent of someone popping off a 46.2 in the men’s 100 free, in textile, on a flat-start: something we may not see for a long, long time in swimming.
In Kindergarten Cop, the teacher saw bruises on the little boy. He suspected child abuse. The mother told him the bruises were from a fall. He was skeptical about her story. I cannot be skeptical about Ye Shiwen’s swim in London, I can only be skeptical about a claim regarding the swim. When Dee says she is skeptical about Ledecky’s performance she is really misusing the English language since she can only be skeptical about some claim regarding the swim. But native speakers of English probably misuse the English language more often than they use it correctly–so I am going to assume that she means she would be skeptical about a claim that Ledecky’s performance was without the assistance of… Read more »
I would like to invite Dee to look at the recent Swimswam post praising the British cycling coach whose athletes won 16 gold medals at the last two Olympics. Would she be so kind as to express her skeptism there, and not just on a post praising an American swimmer?
J you said the japanese are doping. japan is probably the cleanest big nation in sports.no japanese athlete has failed a doping test in the history of the olympics.akihiro yamaguchi is inconsistent but japan also has one of the most consistent swimmers in the history of swimming in ryosuke irie. tyler clary is inconsistent but somehow manages to beat irie in the big meets. I would say tyler clary is suspicious.
katie ledecky is all by herself in the 400,800 and 1500 meters freestyle. i don,t see any reason why the other women should compete with her either at the world championships or at the Olympics. If you don,t have a chance of winning an Olympic gold medal or even coming close to a gold medal then why compete. I heard lotte friis was thinking about retiring about two years ago but changed her mind and continued to compete. i think she should retire as she has no chance of winning a gold medal at the world championships next year.Her best time in the 1500 is15.38 while ledecky is 15.28. That,s a huge 10 second difference so no need for her… Read more »
Th eorder of the comments is now getting random, I couldn’t even reply to a comment and now automatically out at the bottom.
I think some people are missing the point here about how big the doping industry is. China and the Asian countries are spending MILLIONS on drugs that are undetectable to the tests. Although technology on these tests are rising, I’m positive that there is doping being done in the sport of swimming and that even the best tests won’t be able to clearly say the person’s been doping. I’m quite surprised no one here spoke of any suspicion on the Japanese doping. It’s clear, especially since Akihiro Yamaguchi broke the world record in 2012, that the Japanese have been doping. Their drugs have bypassed the tests since 2012. Just think about it. In the Japanese trials of 2012, Akihiro Yamaguchi… Read more »
i give katy ledecky the benefit of the doubt but if she wasn,t american she might be ripped on this site.A lot of bad stuff was said about ye shiwen on this site but such comments were never removed.lance armstrong is a doping genius though,he fooled the anti doping agency for years.
Dee, so if anyone does something that is EXTRAordinary, this is cause for alarm? Meagher? Evans? Caulkins? Egerszegi? Please stop thinking in the box and step OUTSIDE the box. There are athletes who can do phenomenal things which then force others to play catch up and do what they thought was not possible. For goodness sakes, thank God for the geniuses who make us all better…Mozart, Beethoven, DaVinci, etc. And thank God for those who are not “in the norm”. And why do you have to label them as being in or not in the “norm”???? We all agree that Katie is a gifted athlete. So can we please stop labeling her achievements as not being “in the norm”. She… Read more »
No, don’t be so silly – I have not suggested nor have I stated that I believe Kathleen is a cheat in any way, shape or form. On the contrary, I have heaped praise on her and stated numerous times I believe she is quite simply a sublime athlete with an innate ability for swimming and a passion for winning.
My scepticism is at elite sport generally – We have all been fooled in the past, by “greats” who turned out to be ‘Not so great’ without the PEDs. I feel it would be naïve of me not to at least have a few reservations about great sporting achievements. Scepticism is a normal reaction to something extraordinary occurring, not just… Read more »
I can read and am able comprehend Dee’s posts very clearly and fully.
And English is not my first or second language.
And yet, I see many commenters (whom I presume are americans) here whose first language is Englsih, I suspect, getting so emotional and not able to get what Dee has been writing in his/her posts.
By the way, I am in fully agreement with Dee’s posts and s/he wrote eloquently what I want to try to say.