2023 FLORIDA SWIMMING SPRING SENIOR CHAMPS
- March 9 to 12, 2023
- SCY (25 yards)
- Rosen Aquatic and Fitness Center, Orlando, Florida
- Full Results Under “2023 Florida Swimming Spring Senior Champs” on MeetMobile
Let’s just go rapid-fire on the stats here.
Katie Ledecky broke the American and US Open record in the 1,650 freestyle last night at some local club meet in Orlando, going 15:01.41. She is less than a week away from turning 26 years old. All other Top-5 performers in the event went their best time sometime between 18 and 20. She now has the top 7 all-time performances in the event, with the #8 performance (held by Erica Sullivan) being 8.6 seconds behind Ledecky’s 7th best time. She was 4:29/4:33/4:37 in her splitting, meaning her 3rd 500 *of a mile* would currently rank 4th or 5th in the NCAA.
Quick note for the Meehann haters who are saying this is a sign that Nesty’s training is working but Meehan’s didn’t: Ledecky went a best time in this event under Greg Meehan twice. I’m not saying Nesty’s training isn’t working (I think it definitely is), but you can’t argue it one way for Nesty and another for Meehan. She also broke a world record in the LCM version of this event while at Stanford. I could go on, but let’s save that for the comments.
LeGOAT is BACK (she never left but it’s fun to say).
Interesting analysis Coleman. Don’t know if you have ever seen this quote, but I think it explains why Katie continues to surprise us.
“I love the feeling of pushing myself to the edge and pushing beyond what I think is possible.”
Katie Ledecky, National Geographic, 2018
I think her motivation is still quite clear.5 years later…
Yes, unprecedented in swimming – but compared to other endurance sports like cycling, running and triathlon – athletes should reach their peak in late 20’s, early 30’s and beyond. No reason, other than tradition, why swimmers should not be the same! It was not “that” long ago in swimming that females did not even really race past HS & college.
It is not a good choice of sports for comparison: the water is 1000 times denser than air. A slight variation in endurance that will be unnoticed in sport you mentioned will have significant consequences in water.
I would LOVE to see her swim best times in LONG course!! I hope you are right !!
NEVER count out Ledecky. She’s the greatest swimmer of all time.
I reasonable expectation would be Top Five (5) All-Time Performances at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships:
W 400 FR – sub 3:57.36
W 800 FR – sub 8:08.04 (dated 24 Jun 2022)
W 1500 FR – sub 15:29.51
Remember, it will take years not months for Anthony Nesty to unwind the damage done by Greg Meehan.
Perhaps a Top Four (4) All-Time Performance in the women’s 800 meter freestyle at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QLRLeOeq3w
To think, Katie Ledecky’s greatest “race”, especially from a historical perspective, may have occurred back in calendar year 2013.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgNTzvz2hOk
Ziegler – 15:42.54 dated 17 Jun 2007
Ledecky – 15:36.53 dated 30 Jul 2013
Friis – 15:38.88 dated 30 Jul 2013
Agree with your first 3 sentences, but Phelps is the GOAT. 23 Olympic gold. 26 WC gold. 29 long course individual WR. No-one, not Katie, or Spitz, or Thorpe, comes close.
Katie is arguably the female GOAT (maybe Caulkins, maybe Dawn Fraser).
Yeah but she is a GOAT in a woman’s side and Phelps has more Olympics gold and more individual world record because he is more versatile swimmers and competed in more events and Ledecky could surpass his WC gold if she keeps continue in her 30s.
Phelps set individual WRs in 5 events. Katie swims 4 events internationally and has set WRs in 3 of them. She currently has set 14 long course WRs, less than half of Phelps’ tally. Yes, if she swims to 2028 she could surpass Phelps’ tally of 26 WC gold – she is currently at 19. As I said above, she is arguably the female GOAT.
Yeah I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m just pointing out the fact that we can’t really compared between the two because they’re both are in different events and Phelps have a lot more events in his program than Ledecky while she only competes in freestyles except the sprint.
Part of her must feel like she wants to crack that 15 minute barrier. Not that she needs any more accolades, but that would just be one more for a legend.
A race between Bobby and Katie, shaved and tapered, not to see who would win but to see how low would they go…
I reckon it is under 15 mins for 1500 SC equivalent. 1650 yards is 1508m, so subtract a handful of seconds for that.
Granted you get more turns in a 25yd pool, but even so.
TYR should do a “Breaking 15” event for her, like Nike did with Breaking 2 for the men’s marathon. Maybe throw Bobby in there for a Breaking 14 also
If Katie thought that Meehan was as good or better of a coach than Nesty, she’d still be swimming under Meehan.
It’s that simple (no time analysis required)
That’s not how this works.
Sometimes it’s good just to change things up.
It is still almost wholly unverifiable to figure out which coach is best for any individual person.
That’s very true, although you can tell if a specific person is a better coach for a specific swimmer. Sometimes it isn’t even the coach, it could just be the environment that the coach has produced. Katie decided it was time for a change, and it would seem that she made a good decision, that’s all there is to it
The coach is ultimately responsible for the welfare of his/her athletes. No excuses.
Greg Meehan was slow driving Katie Ledecky’s swimming career down the road to obscurity. Meanwhile, Greg Meehan drove Simone Manuel’s swimming career off a cliff. You seriously don’t think Regan Smith noticed the trend?
you realize that it was under Meehan that Manuel won Olympic gold and back to back Worlds gold?
And it was also under Meehan that Manuel was driven too far. Manuel was an American record holder in the 100 yard freestyle and national age group record holder coming out of high school. Manuel was already a nation team member before she got to Stanford. I
That’s how it works. Just ask Regan Smith and it only took one year at Stanford University to see the light.
Eddie Reece in an interview pointed out if a swimmer gets to (x)achievement, the next year he cannot train that swimmer the same way, he has to figure out how to do it differently – stimulus and ‘Principles of adaptation’, which can be mental change just as much as physical.
Same is true of coaches, especially if a swimmer is with 1 coach for an extended period of time.
While there are definitely coaches that are better than others, at the elite levels Meehan and Nesty have achieved, merely saying one is better than the other is too simple.
Give me a break. Stanford University recruits itself. Between its academic reputation and the Avery Aquatic Center, Stanford University is one of the best academic and athletic institutions in the country.
https://gostanford.com/facilities/avery-aquatic-center/4
Many factors could contribute to a decision such as the one Ledecky made at this point in her career. Who is there to train with in a program? For Ledecky, that includes men, definitely. How big of a post-grad contingent is there? Her meet/training schedule post-grad is much different than the varsity swimmers. If she’s the only one, or one of few, she’ll be training alone while the team is on the road, or competing at home, or tapering for meets she isn’t involved in. Plus, having post-grads to train with when you’re a post-grad is a big mental help, since you’re at a different place psychologically at 25 than a barely-18-year old. How cheap is housing? Ledecky probably doesn’t… Read more »
Katie Ledecky under Greg Meehan
Women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay (splits)
2017 – 1:54.02
2018 – 1:53.84
2019 – 1:54.61
2021 – 1:53.76
Women’s 800 meter freestyle (final)
2017 – 8:12.68
2018 – 8:09.13
2019 – 8:13.58
2021 – 8:12.57
Women’s 1500 meter freestyle (final)
2017 – 15:31.82
2018 – 15:38.97
2019 – DNS
2021 – 15:37.34
World Aquatics Championships – 2017, 2019
Pan Pacific Swimming Championships – 2018
Summer Olympics (Tokyo) – 2021
Katie Ledecky under Anthony Nesty
Women’s 4 x 200 meter freestyle relay (splits)
2022 – 1:53.67
Women’s 800 meter freestyle (final)
2022 – 8:08.04
Women’s 1500 meter freestyle… Read more »
You seem to have cherry picked data points? 400 time at the OGs was solid and better than under Nesty, and the 15:20 still matters as others have said.
I still think Nestys record is better so far but you can’t just cherry pick like that.
One (1) out of sixteen (16) does not prove a point.
How about some fun facts:
Katie Ledecky posted a time of 1:54.96 in the final of the W 200 FR at the 2023 TYR Pro Swim Series – Fort Lauderdale which is faster than the time posted in the final of the W 200 FR at the Olympic Team Trials – Wave II and the final of the W 200 FR at the 2020 Summer Olympics (Tokyo 2021).
It is going to take years not months for Anthony Nesty to undo the damage done by Greg Meehan.
And Ledecky was sick in 2019 so not really a fair comparison.
Who was named the head coach of the women’s team at the 2019 World Aquatics Championships?
https://staging.swimswam.com/meehan-and-durden-named-2019-us-world-championship-head-coaches/
Is it not the responsibility of the head coach for the health/welfare of the athletes assigned by USA Swimming?
She had a virus. How was the coach meant to stop that?
You should include her times before Stanford, they are what really show how her time at Stanford hurt her swimming. Stanford cronies will hate these comments, but anyone who knows anything about swimming watched her stroke get shorter and choppier at Stanford. Meehan clearly had no idea what he was doing with her.
Katie Ledecky’s times at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships are listed in the Top Ten (10) All-Time Performance Lists:
W 400 FR – 8th (Championship Record)
https://www.fina.org/swimming/rankings?gender=F&distance=400&stroke=FREESTYLE&poolConfiguration=LCM&year=all&startDate=&endDate=×Mode=ALL_TIMES®ionId=all&countryId=
W 800 FR – 5th
https://www.fina.org/swimming/rankings?gender=F&distance=800&stroke=FREESTYLE&poolConfiguration=LCM&year=all&startDate=&endDate=×Mode=ALL_TIMES®ionId=all&countryId=
W 1500 FR – 6th
https://www.fina.org/swimming/rankings?gender=F&distance=1500&stroke=FREESTYLE&poolConfiguration=LCM&year=all&startDate=&endDate=×Mode=ALL_TIMES®ionId=all&countryId=
Count ’em. Three (3) Top Ten (10) All-Time Performances at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships under the tutelage of coach Anthony Nesty.
Nesty >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Meehan
Erica sullivan at 15:10 is pretty absurd (just based on how unreal ledecky is)
Erica sullivan’s 8 seconds behind Ledecky’s 7th best time, so not 15:10. Somewhere in the 15:20s
Try 15:23.81 dated 22 Dec 2019 instead.
https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/356546/
This may have been covered elsewhere, but KL’s time would have been:
7th at men’s ACCs
8th at men’s Pac12s
18th at men’s SECs
4th at men’s Ivies
5th at men’s Big10s
She’d be the second-fastest all time performer of any gender at Princeton and LSU; third all-time at TAMU
She’d be top-ten all time at Alabama and Utah
She’s within 1.5 seconds of Bobby Hackett
And surely this has been covered: she had already beaten and now is now sitting about 3.5 seconds faster than Yuri Suguiyama’s best time from UNC in 2003 🙂
His 15:05.1 is 7th all time there.
That SEC distance depth is crazy
We all know she’s very good.
A lot more than just “very good”.