Reason #23 Why I Love To Blog -- Reading My Own Blog -- December 23, 2015; Ledecky Sets New All-Time Record In The 1000-Yard Freestyle

At the sidebar at the right, at the very, very bottom, about as far down as you can go before you hit Mexico, you will see the last link, under the section called "Bored?"

I had not visited the one link in that section for some time. Wow, wow, wow. A must read. A travelogue from Lisa on her recent cross-country trip. If you read the intro and you are from North Dakota you will be hooked. But if you start to sense disappointment by paragraph 3, best martini, do not give up. At least skip ahead to paragraph 5.

Thank you. That is all. 

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The Ledecky Page

First sub-9:00 1000 free in history. SwmSwam is reporting:

Katie Ledecky has become the first woman ever under nine minutes in the 1000 yard freestyle, going 8:59.65 at the Nation’s Capital Swim Club Invite Sunday.

Ledecky popped the time at the 2015 NCAP meet hosted at the University of Maryland, shattering the American record in savage fashion.

In an already star-studded career, this is among Ledecky’s best swims ever relative to the rest of history in the event. The previous American record was a 9:10.77 set by Katie Hoff in 2007, meaning Ledecky is a full 11 seconds faster than anyone else in history.

Ledecky previously approached that record, going 9:11.31 in November of 2014, but her swim today still stands up as a drop of 11.66 seconds en route to the fastest swim in history.

Hoff’s time was also the 17-18 National Age Group record, so that mark transfers to Ledecky’s trophy case as well. Ledecky also now holds the U.S. Open record, with Hoff’s 9:10.77 standing as all three records since 2007.

Ledecky’s splits ranged from 26.8 to 27.5, with twin 25.5s bookending the swim on the opening and closing 50s. Maybe most impressive was that she was out in 4:30.90 to the 500 and actually negative split the race, coming home in 4:28.75 over the final 500 yards.

As individual 500s, those would rank as the 8th and 5th fastest 500 yard freestyles in history. Nobody besides Ledecky herself has swum a 500 free faster than 4:28.75, and she did it immediately after swimming a 4:30.90.

Earlier in the meet, Ledecky had put up the fourth-fastest 200 free of all-time at 1:41.04, posted a 4:01.69 in the 400 IM and won the 500 free in 4:28.17.

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Added December 15, 2015

The video of the post-race interview with Katie after the Ledecky 1,000-yard freestyle under 9:00 minutes was just posted on YouTube. Here is the video of the race itself.