Report is courtesy of Jared Anderson. Video is courtesy of Swimming World. That’s Brent Rutemiller with the call.
Katie Ledecky has become the first woman ever under nine minutes in the 1000 yard freestyle, going 8:59.65 at the Nation’s Capital Swim Club Invite Sunday.
Ledecky popped the time at the 2015 NCAP meet hosted at the University of Maryland, shattering the American record in savage fashion.
In an already star-studded career, this is among Ledecky’s best swims ever relative to the rest of history in the event. The previous American record was a 9:10.77 set by Katie Hoff in 2007, meaning Ledecky is a full 11 seconds faster than anyone else in history.
Ledecky previously approached that record, going 9:11.31 in November of 2014, but her swim today still stands up as a drop of 11.66 seconds en route to the fastest swim in history.
Hoff’s time was also the 17-18 National Age Group record, so that mark transfers to Ledecky’s trophy case as well. Ledecky also now holds the U.S. Open record, with Hoff’s 9:10.77 standing as all three records since 2007.
Ledecky’s splits ranged from 26.8 to 27.5, with twin 25.5s bookending the swim on the opening and closing 50s. Maybe most impressive was that she was out in 4:30.90 to the 500 and actually negative split the race, coming home in 4:28.75 over the final 500 yards. As individual 500s, those would rank as the 8th and 5th fastest 500 yard freestyles in history. Nobody besides Ledecky herself has swum a 500 free faster than 4:28.75, and she did it immediately after swimming a 4:30.90.
Earlier in the meet, Ledecky had put up the fourth-fastest 200 free of all-time at 1:41.04, posted a 4:01.69 in the 400 IM and won the 500 free in 4:28.17.
Her full splits, per the meet’s live results page:
25.53 52.42 (26.89)
1:19.94 (27.52) 1:47.36 (27.42)
2:14.50 (27.14) 2:41.79 (27.29)
3:09.06 (27.27) 3:36.53 (27.47)
4:03.82 (27.29) 4:30.90 (27.08)
4:58.16 (27.26) 5:25.18 (27.02)
5:52.11 (26.93) 6:18.99 (26.88)
6:45.98 (26.99) 7:13.18 (27.20)
7:40.35 (27.17) 8:07.47 (27.12)
8:34.13 (26.66) 8:59.65 (25.52)
Tom Frisoe, her best swim remains in my humble opinion the 800 free from last world championships in 8.07.39. WR improvement by 3.61s.
It was in long course, at the world level and after an exhausting week.
But that swim is very close.
The craziest thing is that she was not fully tapered for that local meet.
I would like to bounce an idea off of you. Suppose the conversion is based on a solid scientific estimate of an equivalent LCM time for a typical swimmer, but assume the converted time is 98% of that estimate. If you want to use an LCM converted time for a SCY qualification it cannot just be a borderline time. It has to be at least 2% better than the estimated LCM equivalent–that is to say, it has to be at least as good as the converted time.
As fans we want the equivalent time. Our estimate will be for a typical swimmer, but for what it is worth Ledecky’s equivalent time would be 8:11.46. In the case of the… Read more »
She negative split the race…. amazing. Seriously maybe the best swim ever. I dare a male swimmer to go under 9:00 min right now. the list is small.
Headline would even more appropriately include the word obliterate just like for Ryan Hoffer. In fact, Katie’s middle name ought to be Obliterate, since that’s what she has been ding to the records for a few years now, with no end in sight.
Those were single lane lines .. and they were not even very tight.. she can go faster…
Her time in this event makes her the only female to post a time that would make the 17-18 boys SCY All-time top 100 list. And it would rank her 33rd.
Ledecky must have passed 800 meters at about 7:50, no?
About 7:53 at 875 yards (800.1 meters) by my estimate, which would be roughly about 6 seconds under Belmonte Garcia’s SCM world record, eh?
In doing 875 yards she gets more turns though. However she hadn’t started her final kick really, so 6 seconds might be a fair estimate.