Epic Swims: Katie Ledecky Unites Long Course Distance World Records in 2014

Two years after she shot into the international consciousness with her 800 free Olympic gold, Katie Ledecky was yet to establish herself as the commanding force in 400 free. She had won gold at 2013 Worlds, but her record-breaking performance at the 2014 U.S. National Championships in Irvine, CA would spark a career of dominance that was not disrupted until an untimely illness hit five years later at the 2019 FINA World Championships.

Let’s set the scene: the prior 400 free world record was held at 3:59.19 by all-time great mid-distance freestyler Federica Pellegrini, set in July 2009 – just sneaking under the wire of the super suit era. From July 27, 2009 until Ledecky’s 2014 swim, Ledecky herself was the only swimmer to break four minutes (3:59.82 in 2013), Pellegrini was never under 4:01.97, and Camille Muffat had won gold at the 2012 Olympics with a 4:01.45.

Ledecky, then 17, busted out a 3:58.86 in finals at Nationals, winning by nearly six seconds (Olympian Cierra Runge, then 18, was an impressive second place at 4:04.57). Ledecky started out her race obliterating world record pace, but that’s what she had to do to take down a 2009 Pellegrini time – the Italian was negative-splitting or at least very-nearly even-splitting everything during that period.

Comparative splits:

With the swim, Ledecky became the first woman to hold the 400-, 800-, and 1500- meter free world records in long course simultaneously since the 1980s, when Janet Evans had all three. Evans held the 400 record from 1987-2006, the 800 record from 1988-2008, and the 1500 record from 1987-2007.

Later that summer, Ledecky won the event at the Pan Pacific Championships in Gold Coast, besting her world record by half a second. She went on to sweep the 200, 400 and 800 free at the 2016 Olympics, where she destroyed the 400 world record in 3:56.46 for her first individual win in Rio. That time has gone unthreatened – Australian teen Ariarne Titmus became the third woman ever under 4:00 at the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships, and dropped to 3:58.76 in her 2019 Worlds win to become the No. 2 performer in history.

Ledecky grew her winning streak to six years at the major international level before taking her first silver last year.