2022 U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS
- April 26-30, 2022
- Greensboro, NC
- Greensboro Aquatic Center
- LCM (50m)
- Start Times: Prelims – 9 am ET / Finals – 6 pm ET
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Katie Ledecky won the women’s 400 free at U.S. Trials Friday night with a time of 3:59.52, qualifying for her third individual event at the FINA World Championships in Budapest this summer. She is the first woman under the four-minute barrier in 2022, and bests Ariarne Titmus‘s mark of 4:00.03 to claim the number one ranking in the world in this event.
2021-2022 LCM Women 400 Free
Titmus
3:56.40 (WR)
| 2 | Katie Ledecky | USA | 3:58.15 | 06/18 |
| 3 | Summer McIntosh | CAN | 3:59.32 (WJR) | 08/03 |
| 4 | Tang Muhan | CHN | 4:01.95 | 09/20 |
| 5 | Leah Smith | USA | 4:02.08 | 06/18 |
Arguably, the Titmus-Ledecky rivalry is the biggest in the sport right now. Since they will not be directly racing against each other at worlds this year, as Titmus will not be competing in Budapest to focus on the Commonwealth games, all we can do is see them fight for the #1 ranking while being separated by continents and seas.
Ledecky took out her race in a relatively pedestrian manner, being just over a second faster than second-place finisher Leah Smith at the 200-meter mark. However, she widened the gap in the second half of the race by a considerable margin to win the race over three seconds ahead of Smith.
The newfound back half strength that Ledecky had was put even more on display this morning, when she dropped 29.73/29.17 splits on her final two 50s to swim a time of 4:00.38 in prelims. She was a bit slower tonight, splitting 30.09/30.11 on her final 100.
Titmus famously ran down Ledecky in the final 100 of the 400 free at the Olympics last year, going a blistering 28.67 on the final lap. In order for Ledecky to reclaim the throne in the 400 free, she needs to continue her trend of closing fast in order to beat Titmus in the future.
The Aussie swam her 4:00.03 time at the New South Wales Championships this March, and is set to swim at the Australian Championships from May 18 to 22, 2022 where she will most likely be faster.
You can compare their splits here:
| Katie Ledecky, 2022 U.S. Trials (current #1 time of 2022) | Ariarne Titmus– 2022 New South Wales Championships (former #1 time of 2022) | |
| 50m | 28.07 | 27.70 |
| 100m | 30.09 (58.16) | 30.03 (57.73) |
| 150m | 30.15 (1:28.31) | 30.40 (1:28.13) |
| 200m | 30.71 (1:59.02) | 30.77 (1:58.92) |
| 250m | 29.82 (2:28.85) | 30.22 (2:29.12) |
| 300m | 30.47 (2:59.32) | 30.66 (2:59.78) |
| 350m | 30.09 (3:29.41) | 30.31 (3:30.09) |
| 400m | 30.11 (3:59.52) | 29.94 (4:00.03) |
| Total | 3:59.52 | 4:00.03 |
Although Titmus is more known for her back half speed, she was actually faster than Ledecky in her first 200, splitting 1:58.92 compared to Ledecky’s 1:59.02. However, Ledecky split 1:59.87 on her final 200, over a second faster than Titmus’s 2:01.13.
Ledecky previously won the 800 free and 200 free at U.S. trials with times of 8:09.27 and 1:55.15 respectively, with her 800 free time being the fastest she’s gone since 2018.
Interviews with Katie Ledecky are so empty. Practically no information: if she is satisfied with the results; what her targets were coming to this meet; how much she is in training mode now; was anything wrong with her races in this meet: what is she working on now; etc. We have to read her body language when looking for the answers. In this she is more frank. She was in batter condition after 8:09 than after 1:55. It looks that one day-off before today’s race made a difference. Has she become sensitive to load of her program and become one-good-race-for-the-meet swimmer? That is how it looked in Tokyo. Or maybe she just planed one dedicated race in her program and… Read more »
Sounds like you want an interrogation instead of an interview.
I would like to know about swimmers and their abilities more than I can find in this forum. Don’t you?
Something different than flooding emotions expressed with f-word.
Everyone on the women’s national team should get a restraining order against you.
Just out of curiosity, I would have loved to see Katie Ledecky time trial the women’s 100 meter freestyle.
she went 54.7 in San Antonio. Would have just missed finals at this trials.
It will be interesting to watch Aussie trials knowing some of the heavy hitters will probably win their events but already know they’re not going to Worlds.
Will be interesting to see the reaction of Titmus takes the top time back but we know she won’t be going.
Does this virtual competition between Ledecky and Titmus in minds of swimming fans make any sense? Unless it is a world record there is no reason of doing that. They are racing under different conditions having different goals at their meets.
I view it as a kind of manufactured rivalry-type drama meant to make watching 8 laps of freestyle more meaningful to those who don’t follow the sport much.
Same as MP vs Le Clos/Cseh etc in the summer of 2015, that was a fun one.
phelps/le clos was the energy that I was trying to go for with the “virtual competition” line lol
The Duel in the Pool is scheduled later this yesr.
Also, 3:59.52 vs 3:59.42. What up with that?
This is a general question about SwimSwam articles rather than this specific article.
Specifically those eye-catching tables that list the top times in the world this season.
I notice sometimes they include the times & swimmer from the article and other times they do not.
Am I missing something or what’s the logic? I kind of started ignoring them when I realized I may have to do actual math in my head — even elementary arithmetic — in order for that list to make sense.