Katie Ledecky, Gretchen Walsh cap Pro Swim meet with world records
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Katie Ledecky pumped up after breaking the world record in the women's 800m freestyle final at Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Centre on May 3.
PHOTO: AFP
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MIAMI – Katie Ledecky broke her long-standing world record in the 800m freestyle and Gretchen Walsh lowered her 100m butterfly world mark twice in a day as the Tyr Pro Swim Series in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, concluded on May 3.
Nine-gold Olympic champion Ledecky clocked 8min 4.12sec to win the 800m freestyle – the event that catapulted her to stardom when she won it at the 2012 London Games when she was 15.
The 28-year-old improved on the previous record of 8:04.79 that she set at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on Aug 12, 2016. Jillian Cox was second, 19.46sec back in 8:23.58. Claire Weinstein was third in 8:26.06.
The performance capped a stellar week for Ledecky, who hadn’t broken a long-course world record since 2018.
“I can’t stop smiling. It has been so many years in the making to do it tonight.
“I flipped at the 750 and it was loud in here and I just told myself I’m not letting this opportunity go to waste and started sprinting,” she said.
Ledecky posted the second-fastest 1,500m free in history on April 30 and swam the second-fastest 400m free of her career a day later – all signalling that she remains a force with the world championships in Singapore approaching from July 11 to Aug 3.
The American said she was “fired up” after her 1,500m free triumph, which launched her first elite competition since the Paris Olympics in 2024.
In Paris, she won the 1,500m free and also claimed a fourth straight 800m free gold as she equalled the record for most Olympic gold medals won by a woman athlete in any sport.
She owns the 10 fastest 800m free times in history, with Canadian Summer McIntosh the second-fastest performer with her career-best time of 8:09.86.
Ledecky credited Walsh with “starting a world record party”.
Walsh became the first woman to break 55 seconds in the 100m butterfly, winning the May 3 final in a jaw-dropping world record of 54.60sec. That came hours after she lowered her own world record with a swim of 55.09sec in the preliminaries, improving on the 55.18sec she set at the US Olympic trials in Indianapolis last June.
The American settled for silver in the event at the Paris Olympics behind teammate Torri Huske, who was a distant second in the final in 56.59sec.
Walsh’s 100m fly exploits came a day after the two-gold Olympic relay champion joined Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom as the only women to break 25 seconds for the 50m fly, clocking 24.93sec to win the final.
France’s Leon Marchand, who starred at the Paris Olympics with four individual gold medals, departed Fort Lauderdale without a victory.
The 22-year-old closed his campaign with a runner-up finish to Shaine Casas in the 200m individual medley – one of his gold medal events in Paris. He had finished second to Bobby Finke in the 400m medley – in which Marchand is the Olympic champion and world record-holder.
He posted a personal best in finishing third in the 400m freestyle – an event he rarely swims.
The meeting was Marchand’s first in four months. He opted out of the short-course world championships in December then sought a change of pace by training in Australia.
He has dealt with shoulder and rib injuries, but has now resumed training with coach Bob Bowman in Texas with the world championships beckoning – and he was energised by his close-up look at Ledecky and Walsh’s records.
“That was crazy. Katie is the GOAT. Doing that well for that long is insane. And Gretchen, too – it’s another level,” he said. AFP
