7-time Olympic champion Katie Ledecky won the 1500 free at the Knoxville Pro Swim by nearly 100 meters. She touched in 15:38.8, the 17th fastest mile ever–a time just shy of her 2020 Tokyo Olympics win where she stopped the clock at 15:37.
What does this mean, in January, six months out from the Olympic Trials and the Olympic Games? As expected, Ledecky’s locked-in, marching toward two more individual Olympic gold medals (800 and 1500 free), which would bring her total to nine. If Ledecky picks up 400 free and 4×200 free relay Olympic hardware, that pushes her total medal count to 14, another historic metric. For those keeping score, Jenny Thompson, Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin are tied with the most Olympic medals overall, at 12.
In this interview, Ledecky unpacks her recent Florida Gators training, characterizing it as her hardest winter training ever.
I think it’s too early to play the Olympic prediction game, but, please, play your own in the comments. SwimSwam will catch up with Ledecky again in March.
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This is a Gold Medal Media production presented by SwimOutlet.com. Host Gold Medal Mel Stewart is a 3-time Olympic medalist and the co-founder of SwimSwam.com, a Swimming News website.
Curious – If ledecky does the 400/800/1500 in Paris/LA, would she have swam the most Olympic meters of any pool swimmer?
I’m pretty sure yes.
I can’t think of any other distance swimmer male or female that made mid to distance events final in 4 Olympics.
A lot of speculation about KL in LA28, but I wonder if this is one last big push before retirement after Paris. She must be mighty exhausted from the amount of training her events require after 12plus years.
KL is up to her 4th Olympics- Titmus and McIntosh just their second!
You should never compare Katie Ledecky with anyone else.
She is still a human….and cant go on forever.
She will swim in LA if healthy
I think and hope she pushes for LA28. What better way than to go out on top winning a record 5 consecutive gold medals in one event in your home country
…a lot of US verteran elites are saying they want to extend their career to LA28
I read that as “us veteran elites” and thought “Don’t do it, Mel!”
What does the historical data say about distance swimmers as they age? Is it easier to maintain results at longer or shorter distances?
For swimming:
It’s harder to maintain results at longer distances.
Ledecky is an anomaly and an outlier.
The reverse is true for running: marathon runners seems to be faster the older they get. Usain Bolt was peaking at the age of 23 and went slower the older he got
I wonder how much of maintaining the results for swimming has to do with the volume of training required, and the relatively few people, especially until recently, who could afford to make swimming a career and sustain training into their late 20s and 30s. It’ll be interesting to see if that data on that changes in the next 20 years.
The historical data is very mixed on female distance swimmers. It’s rare for best-of-the-best distance swimmers to go best times past the age of about 20. But they can also stay competitive for a very, very long time.
Historical data is also not very good at stuff like this, because it’s clear that there has been a marked shift in the timelines of swimmers over the last 5-7 years.
…and, other than the love of the sport, elites in the past couldn’t earn a living. Ledecky’s earnings are high, will secure her future financially.
Can’t imagine that she hasn’t been a virtual goldmine for TYR since she signed with them and exceeded their expectations. As to LA, if she is still loving training and competition and stays healthy, she will go for iot. But, it might be time to start the next phase of her career.
400 Free: 3:58.14 (4th)
800 Free: 8:05.54 (🥇)
1500 Free: 15:23.56 (🥇)
200 Free Split: 1:54.15
I think Ledecky can still win bronze in 400.
It’s the first day after all.
She’s pretty much a solid third place right now in 400 free and going by your prediction that means Fairweather or someone else could go sub 3:57 which I don’t know if it’s going to happen.
After hitting the hardest winter training she could hold 15:38 (just 1 second slower than last yr PSS & 7 more seconds faster than US open). I am convinced she is gonna do big things in the two long events though I used to keep moderate expectations.
Is there a possibility Ledecky doesn’t even swim the 400free to be primed for her longer events?
She may not swim 400fr in LA.
In Paris
Nope.
She’s guaranteed gold in 800-1500.
Swimming 2×400 in a day is nothing for Ledecky.
It’s her first final at the meet so she’s likely to swim it
The beauty of this set after the Todd Desorbo quote yesterday about winter training makes for great conversation…..
It’s like there’s more than one way to train and training sets is tailored individually.
Most of Jenny Thompson’s and Dara Torres’ medals are relay medals. This made me think of this —>
Tangential Question for Melvin and the commenters:
Which is more highly valued:
— an individual Olympic BRONZE medal (say, for example, Tom Wilkins’ bronze medal in the 200 IM in 2000), or
— an Olympic RELAY PRELIMS GOLD medal (say, Scott Tucker as a prelim relay Gold winner in the 4×100 free relay in 1996).
Tom got to stand on the podium with Dolan and that Italian dude. No podium for Tucker, but he got a gold.
Which would you rather have?
Bronze
Agreed, the whole hype around finals swimming is unreal. Never was at that level but nationals, states etc you make a final and it’s electric
Gold opens a lot more doors than Bronze and allows the swimmer to forever be introduced as an Olympic Gold Medalist.
…gold does open doors. That’s very true. It’s works. (And I’ve never told a non-swimmer my 4×100 relay gold was a prelims relay. Ha!)
It’s like “Dr. Jill” having an Ed.D. (Doctorate in Education). Sounds sort of OK, but upon closer examination, it’s not quite the same.
Sorry, just seeing this. When i was in my 20s, I think individual bronze mattered more. HOWEVER, the older I get the more I love having been on a relay GOLD (prelims) with Biondi and Berkoff. They’re both icons, and I share that moment with them… I see someone else said this, but in the world beyond swim, no one cares what your events were. They want to know color of your medals. That’s it.
You are one of icons too.
…very kind, many thanks. (Side note, for years I’ve considered making one of medals a belt-buckle, but haven’t done it. Maybe one day…..)
Never seen more consistent up votes for both sides of the discussion with few down votes for either.
To me that says…. both are pretty amazing accomplishment that verrrry few will achieve and should be recognized appropriately in history.
One is being third best in an event in the entire World. The other is being 5-6th best in one country.
From a general public perspective: they’re always going to think a gold is worth more.
From a swimming fan perspective: an individual bronze is obviously a more impressive achievement.
But if it was me personally, and I reached the end of my swimming career and could either have the individual bronze or the heat gold medal, I’m going for the gold.
IMO, individual bronze is worthy than prelims relay swim of any medal