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Katie Ledecky Swims 15:01.41 1650-Yard Free To Break U.S. Open And American Record

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

The women’s 1650 free race at NCAAs later this week is going to look real slow, because Katie Ledecky just went a 15:01.41 in the event to break the US Open and American record at the 2023 Florida Swimming Spring Senior Champs. Ledecky broke her own record time of 15:03.31, which set in November 2017 at the Art Adamson Invite when she was still swimming collegiately for Stanford.

Ledecky finished her race over a minute ahead of Florida swimmer Caroline Pennington, who finished in second with a time of 16:08.78. Keep in mind, Pennington is the 2022 Pac-12 champion in the 1650 free and her time would have qualified for NCAAs this year, and she still lost to Ledecky by a minute and seven seconds.

Now, Ledecky holds seven of the top times in the history of the 1650 free and is over 22 seconds faster than Erica Sullivan, who is the second-fastest performance of all-time in the event and holds a personal best of 15:23.81.

All-Time Top Performances, Women’s 1650-Yard Free

  1. Katie Ledecky, Gator Swim Club — 15:01.41 (2023)
  2. Katie Ledecky, Stanford — 15:03.31 (2017)
  3. Katie Ledecky, Stanford — 15:03.92 (2016)
  4. Katie Ledecky, Stanford — 15:07.57 (2018)
  5. Katie Ledecky, Stanford — 15:07.70 (2017)
  6. Katie Ledecky, Nation’s Capital Swim Club — 15:13.30 (2014)
  7. Katie Ledecky, Nation’s Capital Swim Club — 15:15.17 (2013)
  8. Erica Sullivan, Sandpipers of Nevada — 15:23.81 (2019)

Notably, Ledecky opened her first 1000 in a time of 9:02.82, which would be the second-fastest 1000 free performance of all time behind the US Open and American record time of 8:59.65 she clocked back in 2015. She was also out in 4:29.69 at the 500-yard mark, which would also make her the fifth-fastest performer in the history of the 500 free had she not already been the US open record holder in the event. You can look at her splits for the entire race down below.

Splits:

Katie Ledecky, 2023 Florida Swimming Spring Senior Champs
50y 25.25
100y 26.82 (52.07)
150y 27.19
200y 27.20 (54.39)
250y 27.01
300y 27.13 (54.14)
350y 27.31
400y 27.32 (54.63)
450y 27.22
500y 27.24 (54.46)
550y 27.27
600y 27.06 (54.33)
650y 27.13
700y 27.21 (54.34)
750y 27.34
800y 27.29 (54.63)
850y 27.54
900y 27.41 (54.95)
950y 27.33
1000y 27.55 (54.88)
1050y 27.50
1100y 27.61 (55.11)
1150y 27.79
1200y 27.54 (55.33)
1250y 27.77
1300y 27.74 (55.51)
1350y 27.66
1400y 27.82 (55.48)
1450y 28.04
1500y 27.82 (55.86)
1550y 27.72
1600y 27.36 (55.08)
1650y 26.22
T0tal 15:01.41

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Yozhik
1 year ago

Leave Greg Meehan alone. When he got Katie Ledecky after Rio Olympics he honestly said that he doesn’t know what else he can do to make this unique talent better. It was Ledecky’s decision to get education and college swimming experience at Stanford. And it was probably the best choice for both of these at that tine. Why she stayed with Meehan after becoming pro is another story. Remember that then at the beginning of 2018 she didn’t have any threats from 200m to 1500m and she did valued graduation from Stanford.
Ledecky has never said anything unpleasant about coaches she worked with. But at the same time I don’t recall her saying that she owes her success to… Read more »

Last edited 1 year ago by Yozhik
Walter
Reply to  Yozhik
1 year ago

She is unique in achieving great results with four different coaches.

robert kravutske
1 year ago

saw the first man go under 15:00……..46.years ago…….bamba boy casey converse…….great swim katie…..god I’m old…..on my 13 th president…….

Yozhik
1 year ago

To be a professional swimmer isn’t easy because of specific of this sport. Most time of the year a swimmer doesn’t show exciting results being in hard training in preparation for the major meet of the season. There is nothing to attract the public attention and to raise the interest of potential sponsors at these times.
But Katie Ledecky manages to surface in the media news all year long not letting to forget about her. Great business performance. Is the participation in this low interest, low competition level SCY meet part of this business strategy?

Yozhik
1 year ago

Interviews with Katie Ledecky almost never give some useful information about her plans, targets or how she evaluates her current results, training, coaching staff. I don’t recall a single case when something negative was said. The only situation when you can get some uncensored information from her are ends of the races. Read her body language, there is no control of emotions at these moments. Will be interesting to see the video of this race and how she reacts on this new personal best: happy or unsatisfied or indifferent.

Nance
1 year ago

I’m curious about her race strategy fot SCY pool … her underwaters and stroke rate per lap.

Yozhik
1 year ago

I’m disappointed 😀
After triumphant performance in Rio Katie Ledecky swims in October of 2016 1650SCY in some in-season college meet by 15:03. At this point there were no doubts that the 15min barrier will be broken if not during the season then at NCAA for sure. But no! She bounced back to 15:07, 15:08. Well, what can we do? I accepted 15:03 same as all her personal bests done in 2016. Like 1:53 or 3:56 or 8:04 or 52.6. The peak.
And now, more than 6 years later she swims SCY again. What for?!
Well, none of my business.
But if you do it then do it right – under 15min 😀
Congratulations!,

Autofill
1 year ago

This makes me so happy. Congrats katie.

jeff
1 year ago

Ledecky is far the oldest compared to any of the next 5 fastest in the 1650- I think Sullivan through Ziegler were all between 18 to 20 when they set their PB in this event, and Ledecky is a week away from 26.

It gets interesting though, Friis at 7th all time was 27 when she swam her PB and Twichell at 8th was 30. Friis of course is international and didn’t swim NCAA(?) or anything so it makes sense that her PB didn’t come younger because she just never had the chance to really swim SCY, and Twichell was also the oldest (American?) swimmer to be an Olympic first-timer in Tokyo at the age of 32

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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