Katie Ledecky has broken her 2nd distance World Record thus far of the 2014 Woodlands Swim Team Senior Invitational in Conroe, Texas on Sunday, going an 8:11.00 in the women’s 800 free.
That crushes the 8:13.86 that she did at last year’s World Championships, and though splits were not immediately available through Meet Mobile, all indications are that the majority of the difference came in the back-half of this race (she was 3:34.93 at Worlds at 350 meters, and 3:34.34 at the Woodlands Invite at 350 meters).
That time from Ledecky would have placed her 29th in the men’s 800 free at last year’s World Championships. That’s what Ledecky’s times have come to: the only fair comparison is to start classing her against male swimmers.
When splits are unveiled, they will likely reveal something around a 4:05 at 400 meters, which would rank her among the top 10 in the world on its own.
The next-fastest 800 freestyler in history is an 8:14.10 done by Rebecca Adlington at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
She’s coming back from an altitude training camp in Colorado Springs, and that seems to be working splendidly for her. It’s suddenly terrifying where she might be at when Nationals and Pan Pacs come around this summer.
Rounding out the competition that’s given her two world records, Ledecky grabbed a win in a sprint event: the 100m freestyle. Ledecky swam a 56.02 to beat Heather MacDougall who finished behind her in 58.13.
With the completion of that meet, Ledecky might’ve swam the greatest individual in-season performance in quite some time. With her times in the 1500 and 800 freestyles she became the first female swimmer to break a long course world record at an event that wasn’t the Olympics or the World Championships since the ban of the high-tech suits.
I can’t believe I have been able to see two female distance freestylers as dominant as Janet Evans and Katie Ledecky in my lifetime!
I can’t believe the little state of Maryland is producing so many swimming legends! 🙂
I think we must also pay a tribute to her coaches.
Yuri Suguiyama a few years ago
And now Bruce Gemmell
Fantastic job guys!
I’m starting to believe that my prediction of 2011 (“Katie Ledecky will dominate the mid-distance and distance events in the next years”) wasn’t enough strong. 🙂
Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!
After all the races she has swum this week!
It’s absolutely amazing!
Congrats champion!
What can we expect from her in August at Pan Pacs?
When you dominate like that, you must probably still have bigger and bigger goals.
Swimming world records for ages.
Swimming under 8.10 in the 800 free and 15.30 in the 1500 free.
And breaking the suited 400 free world record of Pellegrini.
I hope breaking that 400 free WR is her main goal now.
… Read more »
He only broke the indoor world record and will very … very likely never break the real (outdoor) world record of Bubka. Yesterday at the team european championships he only managed to jump 5.62, which is about 0.5m less than bubkas world record.
He has jumped 6m16, the highest bar ever jumped in history.
That’s all!
He struggles since then. He has been injured.
And it’s hard to revover from all these emotions.
But he’s world record holder and I think he’s gonna hold that WR for a very very very long time.
He is indoor world record holder thats a fact, but that doesnt count as an outdoor world record thats another fact. His outdoor best ist 6.02 (just look at iaafs website), just because france has this weird rule of counting indoor records as outdoor records, doesnt mean every country has to do it that way. As i already mentioned he will very … very likely never even jump 6.10 outdoor, just because its way harder to do it outdoor with the wind and everything else. But now let us stop this discussion and come back to swimming.
I have never said he had the outdoor record!
He holds the indoor record.
But the fact is he has jumped higher than anyone in history.
I agree with you it’s harder to do it in outdoor.
But I wouldn’t say he will never jump 6m10 outdoor.
It looks like you underestimate him a little.
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
We were all waiting for Bobo’s response as this swim came just midnight in France.
Any new predictions for this summer and Kazan next year?
sorry see was supposed to be say:)
It really makes no sense of accusing her being doped. Just look at her time, at her progression, listen to her voice and then everyone can decide on its own what to believe. I think everyone of us sometimes likes to believe that the impossible can be down, if you just work hard and believe in it.
Nevertheless its unfair to see she works harder than her opponents, because no one of you really knows how Carlin/Fries/Belmonte are training or how Adlington has trained.
Its funny to say that she now can only be compared with men, although she would be chanceless (in germany there is a 16 year old who swam already 8.12 this season and probably… Read more »
It is safe to say that 2016 we can all say that Ledecky is the greatest female distance swimmer ever, if not this year.
Apology to ms. Evans
Her free technique is much better than Franklin’s free technique.
Not quite yet, not in my books. She’s very close, and could get very very very close in the summer.
If she wants to be considered as great as Evans first she has to break the WR in either the 1500 and 800 a little more, and by say at least a second, before she retires. She also has to get at least more world titles and ideally Olympic gold in the 400 and 800/1500.
Janet Evans was like, really, really, really good. She won worlds medals from the 200 to 800 and Olympic gold in the 400 IM. Ledecky doesn’t yet have those “X-factors” in her resume yet.
Evans beat the non-East German field by over… Read more »
Stanford coaches are having ‘Christmas-like’ summer!