Katie Ledecky swam the second-fastest 1500m freestyle in history in her first top-level race since the Paris Olympics, winning her heat by 39 seconds to extend a win streak dating to 2010 in the event.
Ledecky, who owns the 22 fastest times in history in the event, clocked 15 minutes, 24.51 seconds to open a Tyr Pro Series meet in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She lapped four of the other nine swimmers in the race and smashed her right hand into the water in celebration after finishing.
“I’m pretty fired up,” Ledecky said, according to USA Swimming. “I’ve been training really well and feeling good going into this meet, but you never know. It’s not like it’s the biggest meet of the year or anything, I just wanted (my time) to be a season best, which would have been 15:36. I’m pretty ecstatic.”
The only faster time in history is her world record of 15:20.48 from 2018. The second-fastest performer in history — behind Ledecky’s top 22 times — is retired Dane Lotte Friis, who swam 15:38.88 for silver behind Ledecky at the 2013 World Championships.
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Ledecky’s last 1500m free defeat came when she was 13 years old — to a 17-year-old Kaitlin Pawlowicz at the July 2010 Potomac Valley Championships in her native Maryland.
“She was leading and her cap came off,” Pawlowicz said in 2016 of the 2010 race, according to Yahoo Sports.
The Fort Lauderdale meet continues Thursday with finals at 6 p.m. ET, live on Peacock.
Ledecky, who owns 14 Olympic medals, including nine golds (both records for an American woman), is entered in the 400m free on Thursday. As is Canadian Summer McIntosh, who won three individual golds at the Paris Games.
McIntosh and Ledecky are the second- and third-fastest women in history in the 400m free and took silver and bronze, respectively, in the event in Paris behind world record holder Ariarne Titmus of Australia.
The Fort Lauderdale meet also includes France’s Leon Marchand, who won four individual golds in Paris, and the other individual American gold medalists from Paris: Bobby Finke, Torri Huske and Kate Douglass.
Fort Lauderdale marks the last Pro Series meet before the U.S. Championships from June 3-7 in Indianapolis, where the team will be determined for the World Championships in July and August in Singapore.
