5 Best Performances of the Year 2015 – Women’s Edition

katie-ledecky-world-championships
Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

By David Rieder

With the FINA World Championships and U.S. Nationals having both wrapped up, no major long course meets remain before Olympic Trials season gets underway in full force next spring. The world’s elite swimmers can now put every their entire training focus into their Olympic preparation. But before the Olympic season begins in earnest, let’s take a few minutes to look back at the best performances of the year from 2015.

Ranking swims in different events is not an objective exercise. Sure, FINA has a points scale that measures how a time compares to the world record in each event. My admittedly-subjective analysis here takes into account more than how much an athlete won a race by or whether or not the world record survived. So if you disagree with my choices here, I can’t really apologize, but please do let me know your rankings using the comments box below.

We’ll start with the women, who accounted for six individual world records in four different events at the World Championships in Kazan. Short course swims don’t count for this countdown – with apologies to Missy Franklin’s 200 free from the NCAA Championships. But there’s plenty of swift swimming to discuss, mostly from the past two weeks.

Honorable Mentions

Five women won at least two individual gold medals at Worlds, but one of them did not quite make the countdown. Bronte Campbell won both the 50 and 100 free in Kazan, but her most shocking effort came on the 400 free relay that opened the meet when she pulled away from the field with a 51.77 split… Not to be outdone, Femke Heemskerk pulled the Netherlands ahead of Sweden and the United States to win the silver medal with a 51.99 anchor split… Lauren Boyle’s won two silver medals in Kazan, but she was completely overshadowed by Katie Ledecky. Boyle, though, moved into third in the all-time rankings in the 1500 with her 15:40.17, and she also claimed a spot in the top-ten for the 800… It was a rough week in Kazan for Missy Franklin, but she put forth a gutty effort anchoring the mixed free relay, passing Heemskerk over the last 10 meters with a 53.31 anchor split… Maya DiRado finished a tough-luck fourth in the 200 IM, despite swimming under the 2:09 barrier, but she rebounded with a big swim in the women’s 400 IM to claim silver in 4:31.71. That moved her to 11th all-time in the event, and among Americans, only Katie Hoff and Elizabeth Beisel have swum faster.

bronte-cate-campbell-world-championships-2015

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

5. Katie Ledecky’s 200 Free at World Championships

It was billed as the race of the week. Federica Pellegrini, Missy Franklin, and Katinka Hosszu all had lanes in the middle of the pool, while Katie Ledecky and then-world number one Femke Heemskerk swam from the outside. Ledecky had to use a finishing surge to even get lane seven for the final after swimming the 1500 free just 30 minutes before the semi-finals of the 200, but still, with two gold medals already in her pocket, many considered her the favorite.

Ledecky held her during the opening stages of the race before she made a surge on the third 50. She still trailed Heemskerk with 50 meters to go but not by much. Ledecky than pushed ahead and help off last-ditch efforts from both Pellegrini and Franklin to get the gold, the third of the five she ended up winning in Kazan. The time (1:55.16) did not blow anyone’s socks off, but Ledecky proved to the world that she could stand up to the best of the best in an event as short as the 200 and also that she simply had no intention of losing all week – which she did not.

FINA World Championships Katie Ledecky Missy Franklin

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

4. Emily Seebohm’s 100 Back at World Championships

Before Kazan, no one doubted Emily Seebohm’s speed or consistency in the 100 back. She had been in the four previous World Championship finals in the event and had taken silver at the Olympics after setting a still-standing Olympic record of 58.23 in prelims. But up until last week, Seebohm had never taken an individual gold medal at a World Championships or Olympics, and she had never beaten Missy Franklin in one of those finals.

Seebohm won the World title in dominating fashion, as her 58.26 eclipsed fellow Australian Madison Wilson by almost a half second. Reigning World and Olympic champion Franklin ended up fifth. Only Gemma Spofforth and Anastasia Fesikov (formerly Zueva) have ever swum faster than Seebohm’s effort, and both of those swims came during the tech suit era. And top off her performance in the 100, Seebohm swam an incredible 31.14 final split in the 200 back to defeat Franklin again, her 2:05.81 final time earning her another honorable mention performance.

emily-seebohm-fina-world-championships

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

3. Sarah Sjostrom’s 100 Fly at World Championships

Sarah Sjostrom had as impressive a meet of anyone without the surname Ledecky. Sjostrom set a World Championships record in winning gold in the 50 fly, split the Campbell sisters as she took silver in the 100 free, and she also grabbed a bronze in the 50 free. She earns two honorable mentions for her relay performances; her 1:54.31 swum leading off the 800 free relay would have won the individual 200 free, and the 55.28 that Sjostrom swam on the medley relay almost single-handedly propelled Sweden to silver.

But Sjostrom gets the nod here for a record-breaking performance in the 100 fly. She had made clear her intentions of taking down Dana Vollmer’s world record of 55.98, and she did just that in the semi-finals, clocking 55.74. She then lowered that mark to in the final to 55.64, coming home more than a second faster than anyone else on the second 50 and crushing rival Jeanette Ottesen. Ottesen, who just last year touched out Sjostrom in the event at the European Championships, finished 1.41 seconds back, winning silver in 57.05.

sarah-sjostrom-world-championships-2015

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / Mia Rossiya Segodnaya

2. Katinka Hosszu’s 200 IM at World Championships

Raise your hand if you saw anyone breaking Ariana Kukors’ world record in the women’s 200 IM. No one? That’s what I thought. Most viewed Katinka Hosszu as a big favorite entering the event, but she would have to swim almost two seconds faster than the 2:07.92 she clocked at the Worlds in Barcelona two years ago to get down to Kukors’ suit-aided 2:06.15.

The record chase looked more possible (but still a long shot) after Hosszu checked in with a semi-final time of 2:06.84, the second-fastest performance of all-time. The next day, in the final, Hosszu swam well ahead of world record-pace and held off the superimposed line on the screen by just three one-hundredths of a second. Hosszu, who would later take gold in the 400 IM and bronze in the 200 back, burst into tears upon seeing her time as she realized just how vaunted a record she had just taken down.

Katinka Hosszu world-championships

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

1. Katie Ledecky’s 800 Free at World Championships

At first, it was just another dominant win for Katie Ledecky – sure, she was more than a bodylength ahead of the world record line, but that’s what she had done earlier in the week in the 1500. At the 750 meter mark, a comfortable eight second lead was not going to disappear. The 8:10 barrier, one previously thought to be impossible to crack, was in serious jeopardy already. But then, after 6150 meters of racing on the week, Ledecky wanted to finish up her World Championships on the right note.

Having hardly kicked the entire race, Ledecky suddenly switched into overdrive, vowing to leave nothing behind in the pool. Ledecky kicked 10 meters underwater off the final wall and then kicked like she was sprinting a 100 as she pulled even further away from world record pace. She finished in a mind-boggling 8:07.39, more than three and a half seconds inside the previous mark she set last June. No better way to put a cap on a truly historic week.

FINA World Championships Katie Ledecky

Photo Courtesy: R-Sport / MIA Rossiya Segodnya

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Dunc1952
Dunc1952
8 years ago

Excellent choices, though I’d lean toward putting Bronte on the list and giving Katie’s 200 honorable mention recognition.

Dunc1952
Dunc1952
8 years ago

Yup.

commonwombat
commonwombat
8 years ago
Reply to  Dunc1952

Congratulations on another excellent piece, David. Even more so for putting a “real world” criteria to all potential nominations as SCY, whatever its relative merits, has no “real world significance” outside the NCAA/US high school bubbles.

All very worthwhile & defensible selections. Like Dunc, I may have leaned towards C2’s 100 but I fully understand & accept your rationale.

Looking forward to your corresponding piece on the men’s side.

commonwombat
commonwombat
8 years ago
Reply to  commonwombat

To reply to your’s below David.

Very fair points with regards to SCM and I do completely agree that performances in that pool should be seen on a different & lower tier to LCM.

Whilst I would agree that the level of international “commitment” to SC racing is distinctly variable; I would be cautious on using it as more than a useful reference for Europe given not all European swimming nations are currently given much emphasis (case in point GBR).

It will be interesting to see what the future of the FINA World Cup series will be. Will this years transfer to LCM be only a one-off ? If permanent, then this brings into the question the future of SC Worlds given the only remaining SC competitions would be domestic championships & Euro SC. Maybe it may revert to a pattern of SCM except for the World Cup season preceding an Olympics ?

Natee
Natee
8 years ago

What About Ryan Lochte’s 4th Straight World Title In 200 IM

James
James
8 years ago
Reply to  Natee

Last I checked, Ryan still competes under the “male athlete” category….

Yozhik
Yozhik
8 years ago

David, imagine for a moment that Sarah Sjostrom was just a little bit faster at 100 and 50 free. She did show such times before. Imagine her not skipping 200 free race. Than even Ledecky’s success at long distances would probably be taken less significant than Sarah’s 5 personal golds with the amazing world record. She was so close to greatness. Is she great now? This imaginary exercise just proves how subjective our opinions are.

Yozhik
Yozhik
8 years ago

David, to your criteria of great performance I would add the factor of surprise. Ledecky’s last year 15:28 was considered the greatest race of the year. Now when this time was casually beaten in prelims then 15:25 is not that exciting any more. The 8:07 was so unexpected step forward though that no doubts it will be considered the best race of 2015. But if Ledecky made below 8:10 in the middle of the season, then this 8:07 would be taken as a given. Therefore I think that 400IM record is of the same level of surprise as 800 free one.

Yozhik
Yozhik
8 years ago

Correction: 200IM not 400IM

Yozhik
Yozhik
8 years ago

I have to agree with you on Sjostrom’s “misfortune”. Most likely it wasn’t meant to be. I am pretty much sure that the decision to not race 200 was made under serious consideration after multiple tests at practice of how much this race will affect her sprinting abilities. It is possible that should she swim 200 she would end out of podium at sprints. Despite she improved her personal best at 200 free her relay time showed that this year she was much slower than she was in Berlin last year. Her free of pressure exhibition relay cannot be used as indicator of what could happen in real race. For instance, who could imagine that Heemskerk after leading 150m will end up at 8 place? All major contenders failed to show their personal best times and only Ledecky did. That is why she is #1.

john26
john26
8 years ago

David, if you had polled all the swim fans in the world which swim was more likely to happen this year: a 8:07.3 or a 2:06.12, I would put much more money on the former.

In terms of actual level of performance, I would argue that Ledecky’s swim may get the nod, the truth of the matter is that there really wasn’t a transcendent 200IMer since the beginning of the century, so the 200IM was perhaps more vulnerable than it appeared (I also feel this way about Liu’s 200fly). The purpose of this post is to highlight the “surprise” factor as discussed above.

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