2019 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
- July 31 – August 4, 2019
- Prelims 9:00 AM/Finals 5:00 PM (U.S. Pacific Standard Time)
- Avery Aquatics Center (Stanford, CA)
- LCM (50 Meter Pool)
- Meet Site
- Psych Sheet
- Pre-scratch timeline
- TV & Livestream Schedule
- Omega Results
As reported, Katie Ledecky suffered from a virus during the 2019 world championships. She swam in the prelims of the 1500, but scratched the final heat the following day. After 2 days of rest, Ledecky was able to return to competition in the 4×200 free relay as well as the 800 free, where she took gold in a tight battle.
Katie is now back in Palo Alto on Stanford’s Campus, and was kind enough to spend some time with the media today answering questions about her experience at world champs. She noted that during that 1500 prelims swim, she had never felt that way in a race, and nearly exited the pool.
To add to my earlier comments, Katie swam like the 12th fastest 1500 free in history in her prelims too – while sick.
Katie was low on energy because of the virus, and then had to swim a 1500 free prelim that drained away whatever energy she had after the previous nights 400 free final.
She knew she wasn’t up to swimming another 1500 free in the final. So she rested to see if she could swim some of her remaining events. She did OK considering how bad she was feeling.
Titmus is a legitimate rival now and will be ready to challenge her in Tokyo.
I prefer to wait and see what happens next year.
The taper topic in some of the comments are interesting – what is the reason for not doing at least one or two taper meets in a year? Will that really affect the outcome or training for Olympic? Is it taper also a learned art that involves some try and error? If one has to practice racing strategies, why shouldn’t one practice how to taper as the athlete carrying different training load and getting older? I remember a talk where Gemmell talked about how he learn to adjust taper for Katie. But a coach can only know by doing it with the swimmers. Just curious what is the theory and benefits of not doing more tapered meets.
She was sick, dropped a few races, and still swam well. I don’t worry about Katie Ledecky much – she’s always seems to have her poop in a group and I suspect she has very few regrets. No doubt she’ll train like a fiend, swim her best next summer (and very successfully), and continue to move forward be it in swimming or something else. I cannot think of someone that needs anonymous swimming or life advice less than she does.
The last two years were obviously a little bumpy, with some great swimming including a world record but tapers that obviously weren’t on point. This was going to be a fascinating summer – her in-season times were similar to past years (ie amazing), nut with no college season or March taper meet to break up training. She reported training as fast or better than ever (thanks SwimSwam). Could she nail the taper and get back to beat times? Sadly this illness robbed us of the answer, for 2019. She’s at an age when you can’t take anything for granted, and it’s hard to maintain such excellence, but there’s no reason to say she’s in decline yet. A great taper and… Read more »
22 is old? Check out winners of marathons and Tour de France etc. Over thirty is not rare. This is just an attack on a woman’s integrity (implying that she “faked” an illness), and we know Katie has oceans of integrity. I think Janet Evans (also amazing) was hit harder and faster by a dramatic change in body type- from a skinny little girl to a mature woman. While Katie is perhaps a bit more muscular, I have not noticed a dramatic body change. Go Katie, do your thing and kick ass in Tokyo!!!
We know actually very little about Katie Ledecky. Her interviews have almost no useful information most of the time. To predict her performance at major meets of the season is becoming a very difficult task. She has seemingly unsuccessful (by her measures) three seasons after Rio. And at the same time just a year ago she makes her second ever fastest split in 200, swims 3:57 at 400, 8:07 at 800 and 15:20 at 1500. The only real trend I noticed was at her in-season times. But she isn’t a school girl any more but an adult woman who has something else to do and care about in her life besides swimming.
The only thing that caught my attention… Read more »
My question is, why did she change up her stroke so much? That’s the change I’m honing in on. Why fix it if it ain’t broke?
I wish the journalists would ask these type of questions during interviews instead of the same formulaic nonsense.
agreed
Totally agree. Meehan has mentioned more than once that’s he tried to change up her stroke technique. I’m very curious to what that motivation for that is.
Often in interviews (especially interviewers who don’t work for swim swam) repeatedly ask questions about “bouncing back” after bad swims, DQs, etc. Swimmers often give (understandably) similar responses. There are many more thought-provoking questions to ask these athletes and they rarely get asked.
I’d guess it’s mileage on the shoulders. If she doesn’t have shoulder issues, she’s bionic.
Quite possible. She had a really “torquey” stroke rather than a classic, Thorpe style super smooth freestyle.
That style looks as though it would be more wearing on the body than some others.
The understatement of the century.
MP a number of years ago said Katie “had a guy’s stroke. She’s a stud.” Anyone who watched her swims saw how she literally & fearlessly attacks each race, including but not limited to the last 50 of that comeback 200 free in Kazan where she won. Further, a number of elite male athletes have weighed in on her insane workout sets where she beat THEM, sometimes consistently. Point being, she is one tough cookie & (still!) a fierce competitor, not a quitter as some intimate in this & other threads in chats. Give her a break for having a virus for crying out loud. Who of us can do what she has done?