U.S. International Team Trials: Katie Ledecky Records 4:00.83 in 400 Free Prelims; Paige Madden Scratches

Katie Ledecky -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

U.S. International Team Trials: Katie Ledecky Records 4:00.83 in 400 Free Prelims; Paige Madden Scratches

After posting impressive wins in the 800 free and 200 free to begin the U.S. International Team Trials, Katie Ledecky had Thursday completely off from racing. She was back in the pool Friday morning to contest the 400 free, and she clobbered the other swimmers in her heat by 9.4 seconds. Ledecky was out in 2:00.09 at the 200-meter mark, and from there she almost even-split the race as she came home in 2:00.29. She touched in 4:00.38, about a second quicker than her previous season-best time for 2022.

In the world rankings, Ledecky sits behind Australia’s Ariarne Titmus (4:00.03), the swimmer who out-dueled Ledecky for Olympic gold in an exciting showdown at the Tokyo Olympics. In the final, Ledecky will look to become the first sub-4:00 performer thus far in 2022 to set herself up for the World Championships coming up in June in Budapest. Ledecky won three straight world titles in the event in 2013, 2015 and 2017, but she finished behind Titmus in the event in 2019. Titmus, however, is expected to skip this year’s Worlds, which would make Ledecky the strong favorite for gold in the 400 free.

The second-place qualifier in prelims was Leah Smith, the 2016 Olympic bronze medalist in the 400 free and a medalist in the event at the past two World Championships. Smith missed the 2021 Olympic team, but she has already qualified for Worlds with a second-place finish in the 800 free and a third-place result in the 200 free. Smith’s prelims time was 4:04.83, about five second faster than the third-fastest swimmer overall, and she eclipsed the time that Paige Madden swam to finish second to Ledecky at Trials last year.

Speaking of Madden, she withdrew from the event after revealing on Instagram that she has been battling symptoms from Hashimoto’s disease this season and that she was also diagnosed with the flu three weeks before Trials. Madden was a B-finalist in the 200 free earlier in the meet, but she was well off her career-best efforts in the event.

Third-place in the morning went to Sandpipers’ Bella Sims in 4:09.78, while Hali Flickinger took fourth (4:10.03) and Sims’ Sandpipers teammates Claire Weinstein (4:10.90) and Katie Grimes (4:11.39) took fifth and sixth, respectively. Flickinger has already clinched a spot on the World Championships team in the 200 butterfly and as part of the 800 free relay, while Weinstein (200 free) and Grimes (400 IM) are also on the team and Sims will likely be added as an 800 free relay alternate.

Long Island’s Cavan Gormsen (4:13.76) and Nation’s Capital’s Erin Gemmell (4:14.04) also qualified for the A-final.

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