1500 free World Record race footage is courtesy of Universal Sports Network.
Naturally, after destroying the World Record in the 1500 freestyle on Tuesday, Lotte Friis and Katie Ledecky must have the World Record in the 800 free lined up in their sights next.
The 1500 World Record had sort of a weird feel to it. It was done before the supersuits, it was done at an in-season meet (the Swim Meet of Champions), and nobody had really been all that close to it (Alessia Filippi was a 15:44.93, about two-and-a-half seconds away from it, Friis had been 15:46 in rubber and 15:49 in textile, and Janet Evans was a 15:52 all the way back in 1988).
But the 800, we know is a great record. Rebecca Adlington’s 8:14.10 was unbelievably fast when it was done in 2008. At the time, it was a World Record by two seconds (which we used to think was a large amount by which to break a World Record.
And it doesn’t stand a chance.
After pushing each other to such great heights, Friis and Ledecky will undoubtedly be feeling a little bit of week-long fatigue. Ledecky, you’ll note, has had the 400 already, which Friis has not. Ledecky will also be coming off of the 800 free relay final, which means a late night before the 800 starts.
That’s not a slight against either, but nobody swims a 1500 that fast and pops up fresh the next morning. The good news (for us, bad news for Adlington’s record) is that they get a few days off after their 1500′s.
Regardless, look at the splits. Thanks to our earlier efforts to put the 50-by-50 splits into a spreadsheet, we were able to use some Excel magic to quickly calculate the “fastest” splits for each swimmer by compiling their best 50′s.
| Friis | Ledecky | |
| Best 100 Meters | 58.88 | 57.61 |
| Best 200 Meters | 2:00.39 | 1:58.80 |
| Best 400 Meters | 4:04.60 | 4:02.92 |
| Best 800 Meters | 8:15.47 | 8:13.88 |
Yes, you read that right. In theoretical meters, Ledecky already broke the 800 World Record by two-tenths of a second.
Other interesting observations about the two’s splits: Ledecky’s best 200 meters were about 1.6 seconds faster than Friis’. That’s basically what made the difference in this race. As anyone who was watching this race could tell, Ledecky didn’t chip away at Friis. It wasn’t two-tenths here, and two-tenths there. Ledecky had about three 50′s that blew Friis away (the last three 50′s to be precise), and the two just slugged at each other the rest of the time.
Goodbye World Record. When this one is broken, there will be no women’s long course World Records left from 2008, and only two men’s.
I updated the post to “nearly” complete race footage. Sorry. I though it complete footage as well. Just getting it up as fast as we can!
You all are doing an awesome job – thank you so much for the coverage!
Ditto, Mel. You guys are doing fantastic. Since I can’t see the swimming live, I end up following the commentary by reading then immediately refreshing the page then reading then refreshing then reading then refreshing! It is crazy but it works! And by the time I am done and the race is over, I am emotionally drained. Yesterday’s 1500 race left me needing medical attention.
Happy to hear that all the races comments could bring u into the races somehow .
SwimSwam is doing a positively phenomenal job with coverage of Worlds, and I am thankful for it… but 5:44 of footage is nowhere near “Complete Race Footage” of this race.
I understand that SwimSwam is limited in what it can post due to agreements with FINA etc., but the headline on this article is profoundly misleading and should be changed.
Compared to what is there for her June 2014 record, this is nearly complete.
OK, side comment, but does Friis’s straight are stroke remind you of any one?
I know that this isn’t the swimmer you were thinking of, but when I saw the straight arm stroke, it immediately reminded me of Anke Mohring from East Germany.
Ledecky’s slight “over-rotation” on her left side reminds me of Lezak–lots of torque there, but ripe for shoulder injury. She may do well to mix it with bilateral breathing in her training, if she’s not already doing so…
So I am assuming that when NBC airs this race either Saturday or Sunday, ALL that we are going to see is five minutes and that includes the interview???? One of the GREATEST world records of all time and this is all the time that NBC (National Broadcasting of CRAP) is going to give it? This sucks.
Of course. It’s a terrible shame, but they are already packing a weeks worth of swimming into 2 days. They won’t give 20min to one race. Sadly.
it would be nice that people from other countries can also view the footage
Bobo Gigi posted the entire finals in HQ on the page for today’s prelims… 39 minute mark.
Excellent!