Superstar Katie Ledecky just broke the only major distance freestyle record she’s yet to take down, the 1000-yard freestyle.
Swimming at the NCAP Invitational live on Swimming World, Ledecky crushed the record by more than 10 seconds, dropping the record under the 9:00 barrier.
Ledecky clocked a time of 8:59.65 while swimming the 1000-yard free open championship.
That swim demolished the previous mark of Katie Hoff, who set it with a 9:10.77 back in 2007 in Baltimore while swimming for NBAC.
That’s a remarkable progression in the event, considering that Hoff shredded Kate Ziegler’s previous American record of 9:21.57 from the previous year.
Comparative splits:
Event 123 Girls 15 & Over 1000 Yard Freestyle
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Name Age Team Seed Finals
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1 Ledecky, Kathleen 18 NCAP 9:11.31 8:59.65
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)
Event 1 Girls Open 1000 Yard Freestyle
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Name Age Team Finals
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1 HOFF, KATIE 18 NORTH BALTIMORE 9:10.77
25.93 53.73 (27.80) 1:21.75 (28.02) 1:49.87 (28.12)
2:18.02 (28.15) 2:45.83 (27.81) 3:13.62 (27.79) 3:41.50 (27.88)
4:09.27 (27.77) 4:37.02 (27.75) 5:04.58 (27.56) 5:32.24 (27.66)
5:59.78 (27.54) 6:27.23 (27.45) 6:54.62 (27.39) 7:22.05 (27.43)
7:49.37 (27.32) 8:16.93 (27.56) 8:44.31 (27.38) 9:10.77 (26.46)
Ledecky now owns the 500, 1000, 1650-yard freestyle American record trifecta as well as the 400, 800, 1500-meter free World record triple.
[table “” not found /]More to come.
Wow!
Negative split (4:28.75 coming home)!
The distance goddess
A machine….a 25.5 on the last 50!
Love this sport.
The awesomeness of this win can be dissected many ways, but consider this: Katie swam two back to back 500s in average times faster than any other woman has swum a single 500. Simply incredible. In my mind, she’s the most exciting swimmer, male or female, in the world today.
I’d say we’re only a couple years away from calling her the greatest female swimmer of all time!
Maybe a couple of minutes.