There was plenty of fast swimming this week between the Winter Junior Nationals and the Duel in the Pool, which made picking the stand out performance no easy task. But even with all the NAG, American, and World records set across the country this week, there was one that stood out above all the rest: Katie Ledecky’s incredible 1,000-yard freestyle from last day of the NCAP Invitational.
With that swim, Ledecky became the first woman to break 9:00 in the 1,000 freestyle as she continues to push distance swimming to new, otherworldly heights. Her swim broke Katie Hoff’s old record of 9:10.77 from 2007 by over 11 seconds en route to a 4:30.90-4:28.75 negative split. By the way, nobody other than Ledecky has swam a 500 faster than 4:28.75, and she did it after splitting 4:30.90! Her 500 splits from that 1,000 would rank her eighth and fifth respectively on the all-time fastest 500 list.
To put that swim into greater context, she did it after posting the fourth fastest 200 freestyle with a 1:41.04, winning the 400 IM in 4:01.69, and winning the 500 free in 4:28.17. To see the race video and all recaps concerning Ledecky’s swims at the NCAP Invitational, head over to our Meet Landing Page.
Congratulations Katie Ledecky on earning the Swimming World Performance of the Week!