World Record Swim of the Year: Katie Ledecky’s 1500 Freestyle At Pan Pacs

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr
Commentary by Jeff Commings

PHOENIX – Katie Ledecky won’t easily forget 2014. It was the year in which she broke the world records in the 400, 800 and 1500 freestyles. No woman had been able to do that in the same year. For her efforts, USA Swimming and Swimming World Magazine both honored Ledecky’s 1500 from the Pan Pacific championships as the performance of the year. If FINA were to dole out a similar award, I bet the international governing body would also follow suit.

We’ve seen some astounding swims in the months since Ledecky’s race for history in August. Katinka Hosszu’s assault on the short course IM and backstroke records. Mireia Belmonte’s 200 fly/400 IM world record double at short course worlds. Connor Jaeger’s 1650 at the USA swimming nationals. They all were amazing in their own right, but none could match what I saw in Australia from Ledecky.

Compared to everything in the years since Michael Phelps’ perfect 8-for-8 in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Ledecky’s 1500 free at the Pan Pacific Championships stands tall above the rest. Better than anything done in the supersuits of 2008 and 2009. Better than Rebecca Soni’s sub-2:20 in the 200 breast. Better than Sun Yang’s 1500 at the 2012 Olympics. Better than Missy Franklin almost skipping over 2:04 in the 200 back in London.

Ledecky’s 15:28.36 is light years better than anything that was previously thought possible. Those of my era thought Janet Evans’ 15:52.10 from 1988 was Beamonesque. Now, we have to start coining the term Ledecky-esque.

Here are five reasons why Ledecky’s 1500 free is the best swim of 2014.

1. Katie Ledecky made distance swimming cool again.

It’s been tough to convince swimmers to lean toward distance events. Very few people want to put in the training, and the biggest stars of the sport specialize in races 200 yards/meters or less. But now little girls are seeing Ledecky breaking barriers, and suddenly Missy Franklin has some competition for America’s Swimming Sweetheart. And that’s a good thing in a sport where the idols tend to be mostly male.

I would imagine Ledecky is inspiring male swimmers, too. Only about 50 men in the United States who race the 1500 free regularly can swim the mile faster than Ledecky. If I were a teenage male who sees a girl swimming faster than me, it would get me out of bed a little bit earlier every morning to put in the extra work so my friends can stop saying that a girl swims faster than me.

2. She’s churning out the meters by herself.

If you saw Ledecky’s 1500 free, you noticed that she was not challenged after 200 meters. By 1300 meters, she was lapping people. That meant she was a full 100 meters ahead of someone, in a race where the other seven swimmers are not slouches. That takes a lot of mental fortitude to keep pushing your body harder than it wants to be pushed with the goal of shocking the world.

Photo Courtesy: Delly Carr

3. The second gear in the final third of the race was astounding.

I was feeling a little sad when Ledecky started falling off her world record pace around 500 meters. Even though it was a few tenths slower, I felt Ledecky’s engine was running out of gas. She had swum a lot already in Australia, including gold medals in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles and the 800 free relay.

But once she pushed off the wall at 900 meters, something must have clicked, because an entirely different swimmer emerged before me. This wasn’t a swimmer who – understandably – was a little too ambitious in her final race of the meet. This was someone who downed a can of spinach, flexed her muscles and took down the Brutus that was the world record line. By the 1000-meter mark, she was seven tenths of a seconds ahead of record pace. One hundred meters later, that grew to 1.5 seconds. And it kept growing to six seconds by the end of the race.

How does that happen? Whether Ledecky was “saving up” for a final push or whether she really did get over the wall in terms of dealing with her fatigue, it’s an astounding feat to switch from an average of 31.21 per 50 meters to 30.94 in the final 500. Three tenths might not seem like a lot, but it is.

4. She is only 17.

I am going to knock on as many wooden surfaces as possible before saying the next statement.

Now that I’ve done that, I want to say that, barring injury, Ledecky is bound to take the 1500 freestyle to even more spectacular places. The same goes for the 400 and 800 free as well, but let’s talk solely about the mile. Since it’s not an Olympic event, very few women put any concentration on it, even when preparing for the world championships when it is a featured event. Since she’s just a teenager, there is a possibility that many more years of lifetime bests are in the cards. We might not see that from Sun, her male distance counterpart, as he’s likely to call it a career very soon. But Ledecky’s ceiling is ever-changing, and could continue to rise in this final year of training with coach Bruce Gemmell.

And what will happen when Greg Meehan takes over for Ledecky’s training at Stanford? I’m sure it’s an awesome burden for Meehan to have, but he would not have recruited her if he didn’t think he could handle the challenge. Evans didn’t break any world records in her 20s, something that is commonplace for female distance swimming stars. But I sense that Ledecky has a tight rein on her career, and aims to challenge the myth that female distance swimmers can’t continue to improve as they age. I’m looking forward to that.

5. It wasn’t the best day for a world record swim.

In fact, the entire meet didn’t set anyone up for swimming at their best. Strong winds and rain were a problem, but the cold Australian air in the middle of the country’s winter was likely the biggest factor in the slower-than-expected times at the outdoor facility. Ledecky probably looked at the sky before setting off on her epic 1500 and said “Whatever.”

Every athlete who was at the Pan Pacific championships will tell you the weather was miserable. Athletes were huddled inside tents, wrapped in parkas and wearing boots. The fact that Katie Ledecky was the only swimmer to break a world record (two, when you count her mind-blowing 400 free) was not lost on anyone. Many in the media agreed that Ledecky is not of this world.

Ledecky is definitely human, born of Earth parents with red blood coursing through her veins. But she is of a new mold in swimming, one that might not be found in many years.

We said this of Phelps, too. And of Missy Franklin. And of Matt Biondi. And of Mark Spitz. It’ll take time, but the next woman to shatter our expectations might not be too far away.

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Dunc1952

9 years ago

Ledecky is remarkable; her 1500 and other Olympic event races were remarkable. She was consistent. The duration of the event certainly allows more opportunity to appreciate Jeff’s points 1-5 as it unfolded. But I still can’t shake the otherworldliness of Sjostrom hitting the 50 LC Butterfly ON THE HEAD. Sarah was not as consistent and neither event is currently in the Games, but my gut reaction is that another person will reach Ledecky’s times before another matches Sjostrom’s LC 50 Fly.

Francene

9 years ago

@Jeffry Commings: To your #1 point about men: 50? Seriously? Did you just pick that number out of a hat? Considering it is very easy to see the ranking on USA Swimming’s website, I’m a little surprised. A quick look at those shoe swam the 1500m between Sept 1, 2013 and Aug 31, 2014 (which I think is a reasonable minimum criterium for those “who race the 1500 free regularly”) shows there were a total of 22 males who swam a best time faster than Ledecky during the same timeframe.