![\"katie-ledecky-world-championships-2015](\"http:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/katie-ledecky-world-championships-2015-2-700x500.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo Courtesy: Maria Dobysheva<\/p><\/div>\n
NBC OlympicTalk\u2019s Rachel Lutz wrote<\/a>\u00a0that Ledecky plans to add the 100 free to her event schedule at Olympic Trials next year. Sure, that seems like a perfectly reasonable decision; after all, she\u2019s already swum times in the 54-mid range this season in the midst of heavy training, so an appearance in the event at Olympic Trials will show whether Ledecky could provide a boost to the U.S. 400 free relay in Rio. Given her status as World Champion in the 200 free, her 100 may indeed prove serviceable for relay action.<\/p>\n Lutz adds that Ledecky has also considered adding the 400 IM for Trials if only to give herself a swim for the first day of the meet. With a lifetime best of 4:41.70 right now in the event, Ledecky would not need to drop much time to make the final in the event in Omaha. So for anyone doing the math, that would give Ledecky five individual events, which, combined with three relay swims, would give her a shot at\u2026 EIGHT GOLD MEDALS!<\/p>\n Wait, hold on there, people! I will go out on a limb right now and predict that Ledecky will not, under any circumstances, match Michael Phelps\u2019<\/b> 2008 performance and win eight gold medals in Rio. Yes, she will go to the Olympics heavily favored to win gold in the 400 and 800 free and as a strong medal favorite in the 200 \u2013 but, of course, a lot can change in a year. Swimming two extra events at Trials may lead to an extra relay swim at the Olympics, but it would be a huge shocker to see Ledecky even qualify for a fourth individual event in Rio.<\/p>\n So for anyone calling Ledecky a female version of Phelps, remember how many people said the same thing about Katie Hoff<\/b> during the spring of 2008. Hoff entered that year as the reigning World Champion in both IMs and had emerged as a legitimate force in the freestyle events as well ranging from the 100 to the 800. Could she win eight or even \u2013 GASP! \u2013 nine gold medals in Beijing?<\/p>\n Hoff ended up having a solid Olympics in 2008, winning three medals. She earned a bronze in the 400 IM \u2013 her best time in the event would not have come close to the record-breaking performances posted by Stephanie Rice<\/b> and Kirsty Coventry<\/b> \u2013 and swam a lifetime best to win silver in the 400 free, where she was just touched out by Rebecca Adlington<\/b>. A decision to swim the 200 free and 200 IM finals in the same session did backfire, as she finished fourth in both races.<\/p>\n But, combined with her 800 free relay bronze (Hoff swam a strong anchor leg in that event), the medal haul looked like a disappointment after the female Phelps hype. Similarly, casual American fans were shocked when Missy Franklin<\/b> did not win a medal in either the 100 or 200 free during her stellar performance at the 2012 Olympics. Franklin, of course, swam a best time in the 100 and just off her top mark in the 200 and thus had absolutely nothing to be disappointed about.<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: R-Sport \/ MIA Rossiya Segodnya<\/p><\/div>\n So over the next year, when people on the outside of the sport talk about Ledecky and her chances at a record-breaking gold medal haul in Rio, remember to pump the breaks and keep expectations in check. She\u2019s never swum either the 100 free or 400 IM at a major meet, and chances are, she\u2019s not on the same level in those events that she is in the middle distance and distance freestyles. And just like it was for Hoff and Franklin, that\u2019s perfectly ok.<\/p>\n *For swim fans, it\u2019s hard to imagine that any athletic performance can top the show Ledecky put on in Kazan. Still, Ledecky probably won\u2019t receive much support as the top female athlete for 2015, and that\u2019s not because of anything she did not do in Kazan or even because she\u2019s a swimmer in a non-Olympic year. It\u2019s just that Ledecky, a very-hard-to-stop force, has come up against an immovable object: Serena Williams<\/b>.<\/p>\n A 2015 US Open title clinches Female Athlete GOAT status for Serena… and she knows it.<\/p>\n \u2014 Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) August 24, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Whoa, there! We\u2019re not just talking about the best female athlete of the year but rather, potentially the greatest female athlete ever. And that\u2019s deserved; beginning next week, Williams goes for a sweep that only three women have ever before achieved. The last woman to win a Grand Slam in tennis \u2013 sweeping all four major championships in one year \u2013 was Steffi Graf<\/b>, who did so in 1988, 13 years before FINA even offered the 1500 for women at the World Championships.<\/p>\n Ledecky has been truly dominant in her events this year, and she deserves all the praise she has received and will continue to receive from swimming media and multi-sport media alike. Yes, even the giants like Sports Illustrated and ESPN will laud what Ledecky accomplished in 2015. But Williams is on a whole new level. If she does not win the U.S. Open, it will be her third loss in any match all year. Five world titles was great, but a Grand Slam trumps all.<\/p>\n *On Monday, FINA announced<\/a> that it would attempt to provide a live stream of the World Junior Championships in Singapore after earlier nixing such an idea. Of course, swim fans around the world had been clamoring for the opportunity to see future stars, including U.S. National Champions Claire Adams<\/b> and Maxime Rooney<\/b>, in action at their showcase meet, and FINA thus responded to the pressure.<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick<\/p><\/div>\n Oh, how far we\u2019ve come. Just eight years ago, a live stream of Nationals seemed like a radical idea. Now, in a world where every stop on the Arena Pro Swim Series live streamed in full and even televised, any meet without such video offerings seems primitive and backwards. With the sport\u2019s increasing popularity \u2013 some guy named Phelps deserves some major credit for this \u2013 the standards and expectations have gone through the roof. Swim fans, appreciate it.<\/p>\n *Beginning this Friday, I will stream a weekly Periscope<\/a> chat to discuss the happenings in swimming and around the sports world in general. I will take any questions fans might have and discuss whatever feels appropriate on a given day. This week, I have a feeling the results from World Junior Championships might be on the agenda. The videos will be streamed live at 3pm Eastern time (12 noon Pacific), and the links will be available on Twitter<\/a>. Check it out!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By David Rieder For those of you who may have spent the past month living under a rock, Katie Ledecky did a pretty decent job at the World Championships in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":148504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,17,7,10],"tags":[54124,26341,25031,18619,6302,25136,17553,20046,25356,4750,1508,35088,639],"class_list":["post-151814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-commentary","category-usa","category-world","tag-bill-simmons","tag-katie-hoff","tag-katie-ledecky","tag-kirsty-coventry","tag-michael-phelps","tag-missy-franklin","tag-oussama-mellouli","tag-peter-vanderkaay","tag-rebecca-adlington","tag-serena-williams","tag-steffi-graf","tag-stephanie-rice","tag-u-s-open"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n![\"FINA](\"http:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/franklin-ledecky-world-championships-2-700x500.jpg\")
<\/a>Quick Hits<\/h2>\n
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![\"claire-adams-100-backstroke-\"](\"http:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/claire-adams-100-backstroke-usa-swimming-nationals-2015-1392-700x500.jpg\")
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