Ledecky: Distance Doesn’t Matter, 200 Free Video Interview

Women’s 200 Freestyle – 2013 World Championship Trials – as reported by swimswam editor-in-chief Braden Keith:

Missy Franklin is having no post-Olympic year let down; after a personal best in the 100 on Tuesday, she added a second win and a second World Championship qualification in this 200 free on Wednesday with a 1:55.56. That’s not a personal best for her, but it is over a second better than she was at last year’s Olympic Trials in the final, and puts her second in the world this year (behind only Camille Muffat of France).

Much of the difference was in the front-half, where visibly Franklin pushed much harder than we usually see from her. When looking at the splits, though, as compared to last year’s Trials, the drop came equally in the front half and back half. Instead, it seems that without Allison Schmitt, the rest of this field are just similar back-half swimmers to Franklin.

That includes Katie Ledecky, whose 29.62 closing split was the fastest in the A-Final, en route to a runner-up finish time of 1:57.63. That’s still not close to her best time of the year, when she beat Franklin in Mesa, but is a good result. Ledecky actually has a bit of a decision to make now, as the semi-finals of this 200 free at Worlds comes in the same session as the final of the 1500, where she’s a very good shot at a medal. The race is after the 1500, which is a considerable factor in the decision.

Georgia’s Shannon Vreeland remained hot with a 1:58.13 for 3rd place, meaning those top three all now have double qualifications (freeing up perhaps a few more spots on the US roster for Worlds). Perhaps one would have expected a few more swimmers under 1:58 in this race, but Vreeland proved to be a good relay swimmer in London last year.

The surprise performer is another Georgia Bulldog, the young Jordan Mattern, who was 4th in 1:58.27; that’s two-and-a-half seconds better than she’d ever been coming into the meet. She comes out of that great Georgia women’s middle distance program, and before that was a part of the same Colorado Stars program that Franklin swims for, so the pedigree was certainly there.

Stanford’s Maya DiRado (1:58.41) and the Terrpains Swim Team’s Chelsea Chenault (1:58.74) will await to see if the roster must be limited before finding out if there swims are good enough for Worlds. DiRado is already about a lock to be on the roster in the 200 fly, so she’ll have no concern, but Chenault calculates out to be the last swimmer in the priority queue for Barcelona as of now (behind Pelton, who was 6th in the 100 free).

Texas post-grad Karlee Bispo was 7th in 1:59.10, a small drop from prelims, and 16-year old Quinn Carrozza, her teammate, was 8th in 2:00.15.

Allison Schmitt won the B-Final in 1:58.62; that’s better than she was in prelims, but her stroke still lacked the explosiveness that won her this race at last summer’s Olympic Games. Her last chance at making the World Championship team will be in the 400 free on Friday.

Video edited by Coleman Hodges.