Amazing Katie Ledecky Completes 400-800-1500 Sweep With World Record

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BARCELONA, Spain, August 3. IN just a year, Katie Ledecky has cemented herself as the top distance freestyle swimmer ever as she accomplished the 400-800-1500 freestyle sweep with an exclamation point of a world record in the 800-meter freestyle at the FINA World Championships tonight.

Tonight’s remarkable swim in the women’s 800-meter freestyle proved to be game of cat and mouse with Denmark’s Lotte Friis. Friis pushed the pace early and often, at one point pulling nearly a second ahead of Ledecky until the 500-meter mark when Ledecky made her move.

Ledecky began outsplitting Friis at the 500, pulling even at the 650-meter mark with a 6:41.91 to 6:41.92 slight lead. She never looked back as she continued to throw down sizzling split after sizzling split before clocking a 29.79 final 50 meters for the world record in 8:13.86. That effort surpassed the previous world record of 8:14.10 set by Rebecca Adlington at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and smashed Ledecky’s textile best of 8:14.63 from the 2012 London Olympics.

Comparative splits
Katie Ledecky
50m ﴾2﴿ 28.53 100m ﴾1﴿ 59.04 30.51 150m ﴾2﴿ 1:30.07 31.03 200m ﴾2﴿ 2:01.23 31.16
250m ﴾2﴿ 2:32.56 31.33 300m ﴾2﴿ 3:03.90 31.34 350m ﴾2﴿ 3:34.93 31.03 400m ﴾2﴿ 4:06.44 31.51 450m ﴾2﴿ 4:37.44 31.00 500m ﴾2﴿ 5:08.72 31.28 550m ﴾2﴿ 5:39.90 31.18 600m ﴾2﴿ 6:11.03 31.13 650m ﴾1﴿ 6:41.91 30.88 700m ﴾1﴿ 7:13.12 31.21 (1) 7:44.07 30.95 (1) 8:13.86 29.79

Rebecca Adlington
28.67, 59.37 (30.70), 1:30.17 (30.80), 2:01.32 (31.15), 2:32.33 (31.01) 3:03.58 (31.25), 3:34.57 (30.99), 4:05.72 (31.15), 4:36.47 (30.75) 5:07.62 (31.15), 5:38.84 (31.22), 6:10.30 (31.46), 6:41.39 (31.39) 7:13.24 (31.55), 7:44.44 (31.20), 8:14.10 (29.66)

Lotte Friis
50m ﴾1﴿ 28.51 100m ﴾2﴿ 59.23 30.72 150m ﴾1﴿ 1:29.82 30.59 200m ﴾1﴿ 2:01.07 31.25 250m ﴾1﴿ 2:32.11 31.04 300m ﴾1﴿ 3:03.18 31.07 350m ﴾1﴿ 3:34.04 30.86 400m ﴾1﴿ 4:05.24 31.20 450m ﴾1﴿ 4:36.10 30.86 500m ﴾1﴿ 5:07.63 31.53 550m ﴾1﴿ 5:38.92 31.29 600m ﴾1﴿ 6:10.68 31.76 650m ﴾2﴿ 6:41.92 31.24 700m ﴾2﴿ 7:13.69 31.77 750m ﴾2﴿ 7:45.26 31.57 (2) 8:16.32 31.06

Dating back to her maiden international trip at the 2012 London Olympics, Ledecky has yet to lose at an international meet. She won the 800 free in London to announce herself to the world. This week, she broke through in a big way with four gold medals with wins in the 400-800-1500 freestyle as well as the 800 freestyle relay. She joins Hannah Stockbauer as the only woman to accomplish the 400-800-1500 freestyle sweep, who accomplished that feat in 2003.

She accomplished this with an American record in the 400 free and a world record in the 1500 free as well as the global standard in the 800 free tonight. Aside from Federica Pellegrini’s techsuited world record in the 400 free, Ledecky is the top distance freestyle swimmer of all time in all three events.

If not for Missy Franklin staring down history with a potential sixth gold medal in the 400 medley relay, Ledecky would be garnering 100 percent of the spotlight this week for her outstanding efforts.

Friis, meanwhile, wound up second in 8:16.32. That’s off her third-ranked lifetime best of 8:15.92 from the 2009 FINA World Championships. New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle set her continental record with a bronze-winning time of 8:18.58 to move to ninth all time in the rankings. That smashed her previous best of 8:21.00 from prelims.

Hungary’s Boglarka Kapas (8:21.21), Spain’s Mireia Belmonte Garcia (8:21.99), USA’s Chloe Sutton (8:27.75), Venezuela’s Andreina Pinto (8:29.37) and Italy’s Martina De Memme (8:37.29) comprised the rest of the championship field.

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