Katie Ledecky Posts Top-15 All-Time Performance in 1500 Freestyle At TYR Pro Series
This week’s USA Swimming TYR Pro Series stop in Westmont, Illinois features a star-studded field, and it was one of America’s leading names who got the action underway on Thursday night. Contesting the 1500 freestyle, Olympic champion Katie Ledecky posted a time of 15:39.45 for her 30 laps, good for the 15th-fastest performance in history. Of the top-15 marks in the event, Ledecky owns 14 of them.
Ledecky was one of just two swimmers in the event, so she was racing against the clock. Then again, in this event, the three-time Olympian is typically in that position. Ledecky went through the 400-meter mark in 4:10.77 and touched at the 800-meter mark in 8:21.76. She holds the world record at 15:20.48, which is 18 seconds faster than anyone else has been in the event. Ledecky also became the first female Olympic champion in the event at last summer’s Games in Tokyo.
“I’m pleased with that swim,” Ledecky said. “I swam that event only a couple of weeks ago and I was 15:40, so to be a little better than that is good.”
The men’s 1500 freestyle was won by Marwan El Kamash, as the Egyptian managed a time of 15:18.45.
Although the fields for the Westmont stop are small in size, they feature serious firepower, with Ledecky joined on the psych sheets by the likes of Olympic champions Caeleb Dressel, Lilly King, Ryan Murphy and Lydia Jacoby. The Westmont meet was added to the USA Swimming schedule after COVID-19 forced the cancellation of stops in Knoxville and Des Moines.
Just about 2 seconds off of her gold medal swim, that’s pretty amazing!
faster than the second place time in the Olympics