Katie Ledecky, the Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 800 freestyle last year in London, breaks the 15-16 National Age Group record in the 1500 freestyle. The previous record was set at the US National Championship meet in 1988 by Janet Evans. Evans is considered one of the best female American swimmers of all time. Evans’ time was 15:52.10 back in 1988. Ledecky beat Evans’ time by almost 5 seconds with her winning time at the 2013 US World Championship Trials of 15:47.15.
With that swim, Ledecky moves up in the 2013 world rankings to number one, just ahead of Jazmin Carlin from Great Britain. The race will be very interesting next month in Barcelona between Carlin and Ledecky. Lotte Friis of Denmark has the next fastest time in the world, at 16:01.41. Ledecky was under the world record pace for almost half the race until she fell off slightly, missing the world record by 4.5 seconds. With a little more taper, Ledecky has a good chance to break the world record at the World Championship meet in Barcelona.
The 1500 free is Katie Ledecky’s third 15-16 National Age Group record. Ledecky is a member of the Nations Capital Swim Team, coached by Bruce Gemmell.
Does anyone else think Ledecky will drop 200 free?
If she doesn’t, she’s either very confident or very crazy.
On the third day, she will swim:
200 free prelims in the morning
in the evening: 1,500 final and 15 minutes later, 200 free semis.
It was great to see her reaction- pure joy. I am glad the sport continues to be fun despite coming off a gold medal Olympic performance.
She’ll set the 800/1500 world records in Barcelona.
Or she or Carlin.. fun to watch..