Katie Ledecky Scratches 1500 Freestyle On First Night Of 2024 San Antonio Pro Swim Series

2024 TYR PRO SWIM SERIES – SAN ANTONIO

  • April 10-13, 2024
  • Northside Swim Center, San Antonio, TX
  • LCM (50m)
  • Start Times
    • Wednesday Distance: 5pm (Central Time)
    • All Prelims: 9am (Central Time)
    • Thurs-Sat Finals: 6pm (Central Time)
  • Meet Central
  • Psych Sheets
  • Live Results
  • Livestream (USA Swimming Network)

The first night of the 2024 San Antonio Pro Swim Series is filled with many scratches. With only two events on tonight’s docket, nine swimmers dropped the women’s 1500 free while seven have opted out of the men’s race.

World record holder Katie Ledecky no longer appears on the women’s start list, meaning she won’t be in the competition pool for tonight’s fastest heat. She owns the fastest time in the world this season (15:38.81), which she recorded at the first stop of the Pro Series in Knoxville. Ledecky is entered in the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles for the rest of the meet in addition to the 200 IM.

Olympic silver medalist Erica Sullivan is also scratching the event along with #2 seed Ashley Wall (Twichell). The 1500 was Wall’s only entry for the meet while Sullivan is slated to swim the 400 and 800 freestyle races.

The only other top-8 seed to drop the women’s 1500 is Jillian Cox of Longhorn Aquatics. The Texas commit owns a best time of 16:18.40 to her name, which she put on the board at the 2023 U.S. National Championships. Cox had a big breakthrough last June when she qualified for the U.S. World Championship team in the 800 free. She dropped time at Worlds, ultimately placing 6th in 8:19.73.

With those scratches, World Junior Champion Kate Hurst (16:09.37) moves up to top seed status. She’ll swim right next to Paige Madden in tonight’s fastest heat, with Madden coming off a win at last month’s Westmont stop, where she punched a new best time of 16:09.93.

There is only one top-8 scratch to report in the men’s field: 2nd seed Daniel Matheson. The Arizona State Sun Devil was entered with his best time of 15:01.95, which he threw down last July at the TYR Pro Championships.

Defending Olympic Champion and American record holder Bobby Finke (14:31.59) remains on the heat sheet for tonight.

FULL WEDNESDAY SCRATCH LIST

Women’s 1500 Freestyle

Men’s 1500 Freestyle

  • #2 Daniel Matheson
  • #10 Norvin Clontz
  • #11 Connor Lamastra
  • #13 Gabe Machado
  • #15 Alexander Lyubavskiy
  • #22 Tristan McCain
  • #25 Michael Sachau

In This Story

40
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

40 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
BingBopBam
7 months ago

Imagine if there were like 3 NBA games per year and Lebron, Curry, and Durant just decided not to show up to 2 lmao

Admin
Reply to  BingBopBam
7 months ago

The NBA equivalent of this used to happen, then they put in incentives/disincentives for it to stop, and it did.

The NBA understands that “what’s best for the athletes” is actually a balance between “what’s best for the athletes” and “what’s best for the fans.”

Steve Nolan
Reply to  Braden Keith
7 months ago

Yeah, but it’s still not clear those NBA changes are good for the players.

I’m not sure who these meets are good for – don’t seem to serve pros, sub-pro swimmers or fans very well right now.

Georgia Rambler
Reply to  BingBopBam
7 months ago

So how many really fast 1500’s do you think Ledecky has left in her body? She has done more than anyone else for a decade. This is an Olympic year, hopefully her fourth, scratch could even be a coaches decision. Love to watch her swim distance but don’t see how she gets slammed for this. Swimming a 1500 is not like the stop and start lf basketball.

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
7 months ago

The TYR Pro Swim Series has become one massive scratch-athon. How the hell is USA Swimming suppose to grow the sport?

Comet16
7 months ago

So it’s not only dressel doing. I know he got a bad wrap in the past. This last minute scratching has become endemic. No wonder these meets are poorly attended.

Former Big10
7 months ago

They need to penalize the teams, monetarily. This is a ridiculous trend.

I looked forward to the Grand Prix meets, as an athlete, and getting the opportunity to race the Michigan pros. Especially when Phelps was there… Lochte would make the trip to Minneapolis, too.

The scratch culture sucks for fans and young athletes.

Mr Piano
Reply to  Former Big10
7 months ago

They need to make pro swim meets not boring first, incentivize team competition and scoring

Horninco
Reply to  Former Big10
7 months ago

God forbid the athletes do what is best for them

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  Horninco
7 months ago

What about the fans?

Stewart Fenwick
Reply to  Horninco
7 months ago

Then don’t enter if you don’t want to swim.

People and fans are paying real money to watch their favorite swimmers swim.

whoisthis
7 months ago

anyone know why she scratched?

Hank
Reply to  whoisthis
7 months ago

We will have to wait and see if she scratches the entire meet. Maybe she is recovering from some illness and just scratched Day 1 to get more rest for the other events?

Lisa
Reply to  Hank
7 months ago

It’s unlikely she’s gonna scratches the entire meet and she just tweet that she’s gonna swim the remaining events.

Rebecca
Reply to  Lisa
7 months ago

She was there today warming up

Lisa
Reply to  Rebecca
7 months ago

I think it’s likely she’s scratches to focus on other events and she wouldn’t swims this week if she has injury.

Stewart Fenwick
Reply to  Lisa
7 months ago

Then why did she enter 1500 in the first place?

All these excuses are bs

Lisa
Reply to  Stewart Fenwick
7 months ago

Pretty sure she have her own reason and that’s why she’s making this decision in the last minute.

Mike
Reply to  Stewart Fenwick
7 months ago

All of the pros enter to keep options open. Then make choices based on their current situation as the meet approaches. Continually whining about it is pointless.

Stewart Fenwick
Reply to  Mike
7 months ago

Continually scratching is lame bs especially for PROFESSIONAL SWIMMERS

Not happy
7 months ago

Ah, 24% scratch rate for women’s 1500. And to think the entries closed almost immediately taking opportunities away from swimmers who actually want to be there.
We have a problem!

Andysup
Reply to  Not happy
7 months ago

To be fair. Unless things have changed recently. The top pros do not enter the meets the same as everyone else and I don’t think they count towards the cap. They can come in later and select what they want to swim. I don’t think anyone would tell ledecky that she can’t swim the 1500 because the event is full.

Stoyle
Reply to  Not happy
7 months ago

Aren’t these meets usually capped by # of entrants, not entrants per event? So if the ladies on that list swim some other race later in the meet, then there’s effectively no difference.

Ranger Coach
Reply to  Not happy
7 months ago

I read through entry procedures and the top people were exempted from a lot of the entry criteria.

RealCrocker5040
7 months ago

I’ll admit that Ledecky has not been that robust in-season this year when compared to the last two

applesandoranges
Reply to  RealCrocker5040
7 months ago

She’s getting older.

Lisa
Reply to  applesandoranges
7 months ago

Yeah but at the same time it’s not surprising considering she’s focusing more on the Olympics.

Mr Piano
Reply to  applesandoranges
7 months ago

That’s true, but I’m wondering if there’s something else going on, like an injury

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  Mr Piano
7 months ago

Overtraining?

doe
7 months ago

That is cool Ledecky is swimming 2im! I didn’t realize that.

doe
Reply to  doe
7 months ago

Apparently her best yards is a 1.56 and best meters is a 2.14

96Swim
Reply to  doe
7 months ago

Odds she actually swims it?

Weinstein-Smith-Ledecky-Sims
Reply to  96Swim
7 months ago

100 to 1