Above, watch American superstar swimmer Katie Ledecky answer questions from the media prior to Wednesday’s first session at the 2015 Pro Swim Series – Mesa meet.
Early on in the 11-minute press conference, Ledecky is asked about how she felt coming down from altitude, alluding to the fact that last year, she came from altitude to break a surprise mid-year World Record at a meet in Texas. Ledecky comments that she “feels the same way” this year as she did last year, which could mean spectacular times at the meet.
Ledecky is entered in the 1500 free on Wednesday, and will continue on to potential swims in the 200 free, 400 IM, 400 free, 100 free, and 800 free, later in the meet.
One guy wants to see her win 7 medals in Rio next year? 🙄
Let Katie first win the 400 free, the 800 free and the 4X200 free relay and it will be a very successful meet.
The other 4? I would like to know them.
You will answer me the 200 free. Ok, she can medal. But first she will have to qualify in that event and it means beating either Missy Franklin or a resurgent Allison Schmitt. Not so easy guys.
The 100 free? No way she qualifies in that event. And for which olympic goal anyway? A semi-final at best? Useless and wasted energy.
The 400 IM? Perhaps for 2020 if she… Read more »
I won’t post of all Ledecky’s top ten 100 free times, but here’s a sampling of her progression…
56.00 — 2013 Mesa Grand Prix
55.22 — 2014 Mesa Grand Prix
54.96 – 2014 Summer Nationals
54.55 — 2015 Austin Pro Series
I’m thinking Ledecky will be at least 53-mid by next summer. No, she probably won’t get an individual spot, but I’d take 3:1 odds in favor of her being on the 4×100 free relay at Rio. Heck, she might even get a spot on that this relay this summer at Kazan. In the interview she pretty much said she wants to sprint, too. She’s going to Stanford this fall, train along some top-notch sprinters there, and… Read more »
She’ll be right around 54-flat this week.
Very relieved to see MP coming out of rehab with self-acceptance of his actual and complete self. I wish everyone would do what he has done. Very best of luck to him, and really looking forward to a re-energized young man really reach his full, well-rounded potential in all aspects of his life. And by the way, I think by the time he’s 60 he’ll think differently about masters, like many Olympians before him.
My take-away from the MP press conference: If last summer he could get the #1 ranking in the 100 fly by just “going through the motions” of training, and now he’s doing the kind of training he did before Beijing, feeling happy and motivated and “passionnate” about swimming again, then we are going to see some FAST swimming this summer and leading up to Rio! I’m excited! 🙂
Ledecky did an amazing job of handling both the Rowdy Gaines and the Michael Phelps questions, and she was very good throughout the interview. I am impressed.
And the Phelps press conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwEsMMHEucA
It sounds like Katie is planning to swim the 400 IM, and I’m interested to see her racing in the other competitive strokes.
Agreed – she rules the world in 400+ events, so let her have some fun before she dives head first into ’16 trials training.