The great Ledecky

Up in the Washington suburbs north of here, they had the high school Metro Championship swim meet a few weeks ago.  This is essentially the state championships of Maryland, a state that doesn't have swimming statewide as a sport, but nonetheless seems to be regularly producing pretty good swimmers (Mike Barrowman, Anita Nall, Katie Hoff, Jack Conger who set the 500-yard freestyle record for boys last year, some guy named Phelps, too).

Well, now Metro Maryland is also the home of Katie Ledecky.  Katie looked a bit tired in December, but at the Metros she was rested and ready.   So she proceeded to become the first woman ever to break 4:30 in the 500-yard freestyle, a new American, U.S. Open, and of course high school record.   She did this in the prelims, because she had something else to do in the finals, which was to smash the high school record in the 200-yard freestyle.

Now, I looked around and around and around, but could not find a video of the record-breaking 500-yard swim end-to-end. I did find what I think is the end of that race; see below.  She won the 500 in the finals, about 3 seconds slower, and that video is available.  If you're interested, go find it.  I did find the 200, which is also below.

It may sound trite to say that is pretty impressive swimming.  But it sure is.


The 500

The 200