2023 ATLANTA CLASSIC
- Friday, May 12 – Sunday, May 14, 2023
- McAuley Aquatic Center, Atlanta, Georgia
- LCM (50 meters)
- Meet Central
Another chapter in one of the most intriguing rivalries in swimming will be written later this month, as female superstars Katie Ledecky and Summer McIntosh have both been confirmed to be racing at the Atlanta Classic.
Although official psych sheets have yet to be released, meet host Swim Atlanta confirmed that Ledecky and McIntosh would be in attendance for the May 12-14 competition, along with Olympic champions Caeleb Dressel, Bobby Finke and two-time World Championship gold medalist Natalie Hinds—all three of whom train with Ledecky at the University of Florida.
Dressel was first reported to be attending the meet on Monday in his what will be his first competitive meet since last June.
Despite Ledecky and McIntosh being nearly 10 years apart in age, the two have had a few head-to-head battles over the last few years as McIntosh has emerged onto the scene.
At the 2022 World Championships, Ledecky won gold in the women’s 400 freestyle over McIntosh by just over a second, 3:58.15 to 3:59.39, and then they had a memorable clash in the SCM pool at the FINA World Cup stop in Toronto a few months later, with McIntosh (3:52.80) edging out Ledecky (3:52.88) in the 400 free as they produced two of the three fastest swims in history.
Just over one month later at the 2022 U.S. Open (Nov. 30-Dec. 3), they went toe-to-toe once again in the 400 free, with Ledecky (3:59.71) earning a victory over McIntosh (3:59.79) by eight one-hundredths, the same margin the Canadian McIntosh got the better of the American Ledecky at the World Cup.
At the Pro Swim Series stop in Fort Lauderdale in early March, McIntosh topped Ledecky in the 200 free by eight-tenths of a second in what proved to be a precursor of what was to come at the Canadian Swimming Trials at the end of the month.
The 16-year-old McIntosh had an unbelievable performance at the World Championship qualifying meet, setting new world records in the 400 free (3:56.08) and 400 IM (4:25.87) while also establishing new World Junior Records in the 200 free (1:53.91), 200 fly (2:04.70) and 200 IM (2:06.89).
Ledecky has only been under 3:57 once in her career in the 400 free—her mark of 3:56.46 from the 2016 Olympics in Rio stood as the world record for five years.
McIntosh will now be in full training mode as she prepares for the World Championships in July, while Ledecky (along with Dressel, Finke and Hinds) will be using the meet as a stepping stone to the U.S. National Championships in late June, which serve as the qualifying meet for Worlds for the Americans.
Psych sheets are out: https://www.teamunify.com/gssa/UserFiles/Image/QuickUpload/atlanta-classic-psych-sheet-5-4-23-rev1_023039.pdf
Dressel: 50/10/200 free, 100/200 fly, 200 IM
Ledecky: 200/400/800 free
McIntosh: 100/200 breast, 100 fly, 50 free, 100/200 back
Finke: 200/400/800/1500 free, 400 IM, 200 fly
Liendo: 100/200 fly, 50/100 free
Liendo takes down dressel
Summer’s program… beautiful!! Arckey is a genius. Concentrate on the less strong areas now. It’s particularly necessary, I think, for her to tighten up the breast of the 2 IM, especially in the aftermath of McKeown’s 2:24 200 recently. That Paris 2 IM, whew, is gonna GO.
What’s on my mind about that? A good model for Summer, in breast, is Huske’s new, improved breaststroke style — moving more forward in the water than up, out and above it. I know Summer gets a lot of mileage out of that high rising pull, but… she’s going to need some better speed on that third leg of the 2, and has said as much.
It’s genius to concentrate on an IM’ers weak stroke? How did no other coach ever think of this?
Not sure why they have the 1500 right after the 800? Can’t imagine that even Ledecky would want to do that double. LOL
Summer for the win.
Is there a website to buy tickets for the meet? There doesn’t seem to be a tickets link on the meet central page
I believe it’s free
No tickets, free to attend.
Summer Just have fun and getterdone BPARK
on a somewhat unrelated note the entries for the Sydney Open (also May 12th -14th) were just released the most notable absences (from my quick skim of it) are the entirety of SPW, Mckeon, JES, Cooper, Strauch and Wunsch, pretty much everyone else you’d expect to be there is going and entered in the events you’d expect, Mckeown’s off event of the meet is the 400im, Bronte Campbell is entered in the 50/100 free for Cruiz
theres also a bunch of NZ entries most notably Fairweather
Jack did say to BH that they would do their usual Cairns training camp in roughly 2 weeks. I recall the whole Australian team did a camp there leading into Tokyo Trials.
Rackley also missing.
thanks I knew I had missed some people out
Bronte said on the Here if you need podcast with Cate the other day that she was only swimming the 50. Something like “I’m not up to swimming two laps yet.”
For lack of a better place to mention this, some gossip from a podcast:
C1 has moved to Chandler under Vince Raleigh
Seebohm is back training with Bohl in prep for Paris
Cannot wait!
Swimming is changing. We’ll see 3.53, 7.59, 15.10 in 400/800/1500 free in few years.
The first one could be plausible in maybe a decade or so but the last two are out of control zany
Well I’m not sure in a few years and especially not in 800 or 1500 cause that gonna take years to go to that time and Ledecky is the only one I can think of right now the only swimmers that maybe could broke one of her world record in the longest distance events.
3:53 400 may happen in a few years, although I severely doubt it.
7:59 and 15:10 is not gonna happen in a few years.
The Georgia Tech pool is amazing! Even used for the 1996 Olympics!
This meet always has the best swimmers racing each other. I wish I lived nearby to watch!
Pity the rest of the Coca Cola Olympics was not as good, especially for the Para athletes.
Beg to differ, I was a track crew volunteer for the Paralympics in 96 and it was great, except for lack of spectators. I will never forget my experience being right on the field in the old stadium for a week, despite temps n the 90s.Amazing athletes.
Swimming in 1996 Olympics was by far the slowest (only four WRs were broken)