With Her Latest Record, Katie Ledecky Continuing to Break the Mold, Achieve Greatness

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Katie Ledecky -- Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

With Her Latest Record, Katie Ledecky Continuing to Break the Mold, Achieve Greatness

At this stage of her illustrious career, Katie Ledecky does not need to hit best times to be successful. Already entrenched as one of the greatest female swimmers in history, Ledecky added more accolades in 2022 with a sweep of gold medals in her three main events at the World Championships. Later in the year, she broke her first world records in four-and-a-half years as she made a rare appearance in short course meters and easily claimed the global standards in the 1500 free and 800 free.

While Ariarne Titmus and Summer McIntosh have made inroads on Ledecky (and in Titmus’ case, surpassed her) in the 400 freestyle, Ledecky remains virtually untouchable in the 800 and 1500-meter events. At Worlds, her winning margin was 10.73 seconds in the 800 and 14.74 in the 1500. And while Titmus would have undoubtedly made the 800 a closer contest, the Australian’s best time is more than five seconds behind Ledecky’s top effort in 2022. Ledecky has been winning these races since she was a 15-year-old at her first Olympics in 2012, and she turns 26 Friday.

Following the 2021 Olympics, Ledecky moved her training east to Gainesville, Fla., and the move immediately paid dividends with some of her quickest times in years. But her fastest times ever? Those were not really in the conversation — but this weekend, she did just that.

The swim came at Florida’s senior championships, a meet with zero fanfare while serving as a focus meet for a few hundred high-school-aged swimmers. Many of those in attendance, particularly those without qualifying times for a TYR Pro Swim Series meet (like the event one week earlier in Fort Lauderdale) or even without Sectionals cuts, must have been thrilled to see an all-time great on deck Sunday afternoon for the 1650-yard free.

And in that race, Ledecky swam her best time. She clocked a mark of 15:01.41 to knock almost two seconds off the American and U.S. Open records she established in 2017, in the midst of her sophomore year at Stanford. Her 1000-yard split of 9:02.82 was the second-fastest time in history, just three seconds off the American record of 8:59.65 she set in December 2015, just eight months before her historic performance at the 2016 Olympics. It makes sense that in a straight-up 40-lap race, Ledecky could have seriously threatened that mark.

To the outside world, yards records carry far less prestige than even short course meters records, but Ledecky raced yards extensively throughout her career up until the end of her collegiate career in 2018. Hence, these times are directly comparable to her past form, unlike the hardly-touched short course meters. And in the distance races, she is currently faster than she ever has been.

For what it’s worth, she pulled off this latest record in the muted environment of an age-group meet, a far cry from the adrenaline-pumping, team-focused college championship stage, and it seems unlikely that Ledecky fully prepared to be at top form in what was essentially a glorified time trial, not with lofty goals at stake at the next World Championships coming up later this year.

Now, it’s only natural for the speculation to grow. Could Ledecky hit best times — world records — in the long course pool? Maybe. Again, she will not need to swim best times for continued dominance, but any competitor’s natural instinct is to seek improvement, and for a swimmer, that means best times. It’s that pursuit of improvement that drew Ledecky to step outside the familiar and seek out Florida and Gators head coach Anthony Nesty in the first place.

But whether this 1650 free ends up as her last record-breaking swim or not, just appreciate that almost-26-year-old Ledecky is faster than her 20-year-old or teenage self ever was, and in a distance race to boot. Yeah, that’s impressive. Nearly unheard of, actually. But in the big picture, Sunday’s record was just another example of Ledecky showing off the traits that have made her an all-time great.

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Elsa Nystrom
Elsa Nystrom
1 year ago

if you read the following quote, I think her motivation is still quite clear, 5 years later…

“I love the feeling of pushing myself to the edge and pushing beyond what I think is possible.”
Katie Ledecky, National Geographic interview, 2018,

T Hill
T Hill
1 year ago

What’s most impressive is she/coaches are finding ways to get better, which is not always an easy task when your at a high level, extended period of time, an older female (later college/beyond) and in mid-sprint/mid distance events (real distance is 5k-10k up). Compare this to man. By going out in 4:29 she’s pushing the limits & seeing what she’s made of – no fear of failure it appears. It’s somewhat laughable when I hear/see other coaches question her & coaches training. Kudo’s to her & all that are helping her progress & stay completive at the highest levels of sport- as we know it not easy.

Kathy Frost
Kathy Frost
1 year ago

We were there for my son’s championship meet (he did great!) and it was a super bonus to see Katie Ledecky swim an American record…only regret…my 14YO daughter (rocked her age-group championships the weekend before) was not in attendance and absolutely loves Katie!!

Jennifer Brinegar
Jennifer Brinegar
1 year ago

The article’s title is misleading. As a reference point, the Indiana Senior State Championships were held last weekend and there were no age group divisions … everything was “open” … and swimmers from ages 12 to 27 competed against each other. The Indiana Age Group State Championships are this weekend, with the 10&U, 11-12 and 13-14 age groups competing. The title of the article is misleading, as is the second reference to Ledecky competing in an age group meet. Also, while there weren’t any American or US Open records set, there were several runs at national records and several state (association) and/or meet records were broken. The atmosphere was loud and exciting, especially during close swims or if a record was being chased. If Ledecky was swimming in our Senior State and throwing down splits that looked like she was having a great swim, the announcer at most of our State meets would have informed the crowd and I would have been cheering her on, as would many of the other coaches and swimmers on the deck, as well as family and friends in the stands. I would like to think much of that happened as well at the Florida Senior Champs during Ledecky’s 1650.

Melissa Mizwa
Melissa Mizwa
1 year ago

Let me fix that second sentence for you: The initial clause should read, “Already entrenched as one of the greatest swimmers in history…” There’s no need to add a qualifying adjective in front of “swimmers.” In the future, please do better.

Hammer
Hammer
1 year ago

It’s simple. Listen to ur coach, do the work , t

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