Disclaimer: Dolfin Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Dolfin Swim is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
Janet Evans: widely considered the greatest distance swimmer of all-time when she retired in the 1990s. Katie Ledecky: the new bearer of that title with world records in the 400, 800 and 1500 frees.
Bridging the gap between the two household names is a swimmer who smashed Evans 1500 free world record on this day in 2007 and held the record for more than six years.
Kate Ziegler crushed Evans world record by almost ten seconds in 2007, and wasn’t even swimming at a national or world championship. Ziegler was competing at the Meet of Champions in Mission Viejo, California. 18 years old, Ziegler entered the meet with a career-best time of 15:53.05 in the mile, set at the World Championships, which were held in March of that year.
Just three months after Worlds, Ziegler blasted a 15:42.54 at the Meet of Champions, crushing a 19-year-old Evans world record of 15:52.10.
Ziegler represented The Fish, a club out of Virginia. Her world record would stand for six years before a 16-year-old Ledecky went 15:36 at 2013 Worlds.
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I feel as though her and Katie Hoff are often forgotten on how good they were. They were icons on the women’s swimming scene in the 2000’s. I would love an article on Katie Hoff and her historic 2008 U.S. trials meet.
Tough Lady…respect.