Olympic Trials Day 4 Prelims: Katie Ledecky, Katie Grimes Lead 1500 Finals Qualifiers

Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Olympic Trials Day 4 Prelims: Katie Ledecky, Katie Grimes Lead 1500 Finals Qualifiers

To no one’s surprise, the distance queen, Katie Ledecky, continued her dominance, finishing with the top time in the prelim session of the 1500-meter freestyle. Ledecky held control throughout the entirety of the heat touching in a 15:39.73.

She took out the race in a surprisingly fast first split of 58:91. She settled into the swim with consistent splits of 1:02.84, 1:03.20, 1:03.12, 1:02.58, 1:02.77, 1:02.69, 1:02.82, 1:02.82, 1:02.99, 1:03.36, 1:03.68, 1:03.22, 1:02.80, 1:01.91

Ledecky has already punched her ticket to Paris individually in the 400- and 200-meter freestyle and as a contributor to the newly crowned team of Paige Madden, Erin Gemmell and Claire Weinstein for the women’s 4X200 meter freestyle relay.

Weinstein, who was also slated to compete in this event this morning scratched the event.

Katie Grimes, a distance superstar in her own right, returned to action this morning, diving in for the 1500 as the second seed in the event, dominated her heat and finished in a time of 16:10.13, solidifying her spot as the second seed.

She swam her race with splits of 1:01.34, 1:04.20, 1:04.41, 1:04.65, 1:04.81, 1:05.45, 1:05.09, 1:05.41, 1:05.40, 1:05.33, 1:04.55, 1:04.09, 1:05.40 1:05.49, 1:04.51

Grimes had a stellar performance last night, qualifying for the 400-meter IM; making her the first woman in history to qualify for pool and open water events in the same year. She missed qualifying for the 200-meter freestyle, for both the individual and relay spots.

Erica Sullivan, and Mariah Denigan battled it out during their heat for times of 16:25.33 and 16:22.28, to reach the final. Denigan has already qualified for the Paris Games in the 10k.

This year’s NCAA Champion, Abby McCulloh touched the wall in 16:30.65.

Pan American Champion, Rachel Stege, took to the water and touched the wall with a time of 16:15.59 and will be seeded third going into the final.

Open water 2020 Olympian, Ashley Twichell, took to the water at the age of 35. Even so, she is coming into the final at the Olympic Trials with a time of 16:18.06.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use