Katie Ledecky Swims a 4:26.08 in the 500 Free at the Florida-Florida State Dual Meet

Florida State vs Florida

• January 31, 2025
• Ocala, Florida
• SCY (25 yards)
• PDF Results

While Florida State was upsetting their in-state rivals from Florida in the collegiate dual meet, the University of Florida pros took to the lanes between races to put some short course times on the board.

That included a 4:26.08 in the 500 yard free from Olympic superstar Katie Ledecky. While it’s unclear if these results will be submitted for official results to USA Swimming, that goes down as the third-fastest 500 yard free of her career, which means it is also the third-fastest 500 yard free in history. She now holds the 8 fastest swims in history and 19 of the 25 fastest swims in history.

Splits:

By comparison, in her record-setting 4:24.06 at the 2017 NCAA Championships, Ledecky split 50.65-52.84-53.58-54.07-52.92 by 100.

Other notable results from the night (compiled by SwimSwam reader Swamspeed):

• Bobby Finke, 200 breast – 2:00.35
• Katie Ledecky, 500 free – 4:26.08
• Kieran Smith, 1000 free – 8:45.65
• Isabel Ivey, 200 fly – 1:55.25
• Bobby Finke, 400 IM – 3:42.72
• Katie Ledecky, 400 IM – 4:00.75
• Isabel Ivey, 100 free – 49.12

Ledecky also swam 4:00.75 in the 400 IM, which is about four seconds off her lifetime best. This is her second meet since winning her 8th and 9th gold medals at the Paris Games in the 800 and 1500. Earlier this month, she swam 1:57.27 in the 200 meter free and 15:42.73 in the 1500 meter free in long course.

In other results, that swim for Smith is his lifetime best by 16 seconds, improving on a 9:01.86 that he swam in a late-season college dual meet as a sophomore at the University of Florida. That makes him the 23rd fastest performer in history.

Isabel Ivey, who was 3rd at the Olympic Trials in the 200 IM, swam a lifetime best in the 200 fly, improving her time by 1.23 seconds.

The full meet replay is below, with the pros popping in around the 1 hour, 14 minute and 2 hour marks: