Here’s your periodic reminder that Katie Ledecky is a freak of nature.
On Thursday night, the five-time Olympic gold medalist and freshman at Stanford lowered her American record in the 500-yard freestyle in an unreal time of 4:25.15 at the Pac-12 Championships — more than 10 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
To put the time in perspective, NBC Sports noted that the 19-year-old Ledecky’s time is faster than when Ryan Lochte — one of the best male swimmers of all time — was the same age.
That’s not entirely accurate, as Lochte swam slightly faster as a 19-year-old college sophomore at Florida, according to his college bio, but Ledecky’s time is faster than any time Lochte swam in the event until then. Lochte’s fastest 500 freestyle time as a college freshman was 4:25.85, and he swam a 4:25.54 as a 17-year-old high school senior in 2001.
Ledecky, who took a gap year after graduating high school to focus on the Rio Olympics, now owns the top 10 times in the event.
"I felt good. I felt coming in that I could do something like that," Ledecky told the Pac-12 Network. "I was just really excited with how [Stanford’s] been doing and we had a lot of swimmers in Pulibet that [race], so it kind of just felt like practice and we were just really relaxed and ready to go."
Ledecky’s previous American record of 4:26.46 came in October.
In the video of Ledecky’s race Thursday, she finishes before any of her competitors are even in view in the video captured by TV cameras — an increasingly common sight when Ledecky’s in the pool.
U.S. Olympians Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky will sponsor future USS Enterprise
The Navy has named two dominant U.S. Olympians, gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky, as sponsors of the third aircraft carrier in the Gerald R. Ford class. Construction is slated to begin in 2018 at Newport News Shipbuilding.
The Navy has named two dominant U.S. Olympians, gymnast Simone Biles and swimmer Katie Ledecky, as sponsors of the third aircraft carrier in the Gerald R. Ford class. Construction is slated to begin in 2018 at Newport News Shipbuilding.
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