Katie Ledecky Edges Summer McIntosh For American Female Swimmer of the Year Recognition (See Full Voting)

Katie Ledecky Edges Summer McIntosh For American Female Swimmer of the Year Recognition

The era of Katie Ledecky’s domination of swimming has now reached a full decade. That’s how long it has been since Ledecky tasted defeat in either the 800 or 1500 freestyle. After her third Olympics last year in Tokyo, Ledecky chose to move her training to Gainesville, Fla., where she began training with the University of Florida team under Coach Anthony Nesty. The first year of that partnership worked out perfectly as her performances in 2022 were some of her finest in years, even by the ridiculous standard she has set.

Ledecky qualified for the U.S. World Championships team in all of her primary events, the 200, 400, 800 and 1500 free, and although she dropped the 200 free from her individual lineup, she secured gold medals in her other three events along with the 800 free relay in Budapest. Because of those accomplishments, Ledecky is the Female American Swimmer of the Year for the eighth time in her career. Since 2013, she won every year except for 2019 (and 2020, when it was not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The 400 free Worlds final occurred less than a month after Ledecky lost her world record to Australia’s Ariarne Titmus, and with Titmus choosing to skip the meet, Ledecky had to fight off Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh. She held on to win by more than a second, and the time of 3:58.15 was the fourth-best of her career.

In the 30-lap race, Ledecky’s margin of victory was almost 15 seconds over fellow American Katie Grimes, and her time of 15:30.15 for 1500 meters was her sixth-best ever. Two days later, Ledecky swam the third leg of the U.S. women’s 800 free relay, and after entering in third place and more than a second off the lead, she blasted a split of 1:53.67, the fourth-fastest in history, to put the Americans in front and on track for a gold medal.

Finally, in the 800 free, she won by 10 seconds in a time of 8:08.04, the fifth-fastest mark ever and the fastest in more than four years. Ledecky completed a sweep of 400, 800 and 1500-meter world titles for the fourth time in her career, and that particular gold medal gave Ledecky a fifth consecutive world title in one event, making her the first swimmer, male or female, to ever accomplish such a feat.

“Year after year it’s really hard work,” Ledecky said that night. “In London, I won my first gold 10 years ago. Back then, they said I was a one-hit wonder—and here we are, 10 years later and I have another gold.”

But the World Championships would not be the end of the line for Ledecky this year. She returned to compete in late July at the U.S. nationals, where she won titles in a pair of her usual events, the 800 free and 200 free, before venturing into some other strokes. She raced the 400 IM at a championship-level long course meet for the first time in her career, and she pulled off a come-from-behind win over familiar rival Leah Smith. Ledecky swam a lifetime-best mark of 4:35.77, which would have been fast enough to win a bronze medal at Worlds!

Finally, Ledecky dipped her toe into a format in which she had rarely raced throughout her career: short course meters. At FINA World Cup stops in late October and early November, she broke world records in the 1500 free (15:08.24) and 800 free (7:57.42) while also setting an American record in the 400 free (3:52.88).

Still, it was a close call for Ledecky to secure this award. McIntosh, 16—almost a decade younger than the 25-year-old Ledecky—also made a very strong case for recognition. She won world titles in the 400 IM and 200 fly along with her silver medal in the 400 free plus a relay bronze. At the Commonwealth Games, McIntosh added two more individual golds along with four additional medals. Most notably, she swam 4:29.01 in the 400 IM to become the third-fastest performer in history.

But the longevity of Ledecky, her continued utter dominance over her two best events and that head-to-head triumph over the teenager at World Championships gave the nod to Ledecky once again.

TOP 5 AMERICAS (Women)
1. KATIE LEDECKY, USA (8) 52
2. Summer McIntosh, Canada (3) 47
3. Torri Huske, USA 22
4. Kylie Masse, Canada 16
5. Regan Smith, USA 10
(First-place votes in parentheses)

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JAS

1 year ago

I think the heading is supposed to be AmericaS not AmericaN.

Superfan

1 year ago

Title is “deceiving” in that Summer is not American. Maybe “of the Americas” would have been more appropriate!

Veronica Davila

1 year ago

Katie deserves it!!!