Katie Ledecky finished fifth this morning in her 100m freestyle heat with a time of 54.96 to take 0.26 seconds off her all time personal best and finish 13th overall this morning. That swim however won’t be her focus tonight as she’s scratched that final to focus on the 800.
Ledecky has everyone talking of a possible world record after she swam a time of 15:34.23 to break the 1500m free world record, and a time of 8:11.00 to break the 800m freestyle record in Texas at the end of June. With the 800m freestyle coming up, everyone’s on their seat wondering whether or not she’ll be able to do it.
Consider the 100m freestyle she swam this morning, out in 26.87 and back in 28.09, great splits. Although it’s a sprint, it’s clear that Ledecky’s pacing is on point based on that swim. Ledecky hasn’t been faster than that this season, in fact that swim was a new lifetime personal best for her in the 100m freestyle beating the 55.22 she swam earlier this season in Mesa.
With a personal best in the heats, it causes you to wonder if Ledecky is rested heading into this race. She doesn’t need to be, as she’s the clear favorite in the distance freestyles and a serious contender in the mid-distance freestyles rested or not, but with a rest you can almost bank on the fact that Ledecky will break or be close to her 800m freestyle world record.
She was unrested when she broke both records in Texas, and with the personal best in the 100m freestyle it could very well mean that she’s rested and raring to go here in Irvine. We’ve seen a fairly steady improvement from Ledecky over the season in the 100m free. She was a 55.57 at the Austin Grand Prix, a 55.22 as already stated in Mesa, but only a 56.02 at the same meet where she broke the world records.
Her 100m freestyle is over a second faster than she was when she broke the records, a significant amount that points to the fact that Ledecky is rested, or at least more rested than she was when she broke those records. Considering her time this morning, it’s very fair to say that the 800m freestyle world record could be in jeopardy tonight.
