Ledecky Bid To Join Phelps In Quad Club & Dressel 100 ‘Fly Defence Are Game On
Katie Ledecky will bid to become the first woman to claim an Olympic swimming crown in the same event at four Games when she takes to her blocks for the 800m freestyle on the eighth of nine days of action in the French capital from July 27.
Ledecky’s dominant 8:14.12 win over 800m on the penultimate day of U.S. Trials sealed the 800-1500 double defence for the American.
After her fourth consecutive Trials victory in the 800m freestyle and to mark the end of Trials, Ledecky said: “I’m happy to have gotten the job done here in Indy tonight and this week. It was a thrill to race in front of this crowd all week, and of course tonight to reminisce a bit on 12 years ago when my international career got kickstarted by that 800 in Omaha (2012).”
Ledecky’s Team USA mate and fellow forever-Gator Caeleb Dressel is back in the hunt for the 100 ‘fly crown, a thumping 50.19 win in Indianapolis marking his fastest swim since he claimed Tokyo gold in a World record of 49.45.
The 12th swiftest of his career, Dressel’s return to form gets him 0.01sec inside his last effort in that 50-sec rattling ballpark, a 50.2 at 2022 trials for World titles in 2022 leading to a trip to Budapest cut short as the sprint king flew home without contending, burnout having set in.
The man closest to him in the 100m, on 49.68 in Tokyo, Kristof Milak, the 200m Olympic champion, has faced similar issues in the past quad-cut-short three years beyond Tokyo and Covid quad-extended five years from Rio to Tokyo.
Both World titles at the two full global gatherings since Tokyo have gone to men on 50.14, the time clocked by Milak at Budapest 2022 and France’s Maxime Grousset at Fukuoka 2023.
Dressel is the man to beat when it comes to 49-sec experience: he’s been that way eight times and will be one of seven men to defend titles in Paris.
The Games swimming venue, Paris La Défense Arena, has just the right name for the majority of races at the Games as the form guide closes Sunday June 23 with the men’s 1500m free at U.S. Trials the last event to be settled. And in all likelihood, it is settled, Bobby Finke in lane 4 and in the kind of form to make it so.
Of the 28 solo events on the swimming program, 19 of the the titles will be defended or, as Adam Peaty likes to put it “attacked again”, for each passing race and Games is an entity in its own right. The holders will stand up to be counted once more in 10 women’s events and nine men’s events, assuming all goes well for Finke.
It may also be 10 for the men, depending on whether Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, the unexpected upset 400 free champion in Tokyo, shows up or not, African swimming authorities having suggested he would not, the swimmer’s comments not quite do definitive.
Ledecky Among The Holders of Titles To Be Defended:
Men: 50 free (Dressel); 800 (1500? – Finke goes today); 100 breaststroke (Adam Peaty); 200 breaststroke (Zac Stubblety-Cook); 100 ‘fly (Dressel); 200 ‘fly (Milak); 200IM (Wang Shun); 400IM (Chase Kalisz) Women: 200 and 400 free (Ariarne Titmus); 800 and 1500 free (Ledecky); 100-200 backstroke (Kaylee McKeown); 200 breaststroke (Tatjana Schoenmaker); 100 ‘fly (Maggie Mac Neil) 200 ‘fly (Zhang Yufei); 200IM (You Ohashi)
- – * – swimmers currently embroiled in the investigation into 23 Chinese positives for banned heart-booster trimetazidine in January 2021
Dressel Among The Holders Of Titles That Won’t Be Defended:
Men: 100m free (Dressel); 200m free (Tom Dean); 400 free ?; 100 and 200 back (Evgeny Rylov, barred from the Games owing to his support for Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine)
Women: 50 and 100 free (Emma McKeon); 100 breaststroke (Lydia Jacoby); Yui Ohashi (400IM)
Day 8 Finals At U.S. Trials
Katie Ledecky‘s time of 8:14.10 is one surpassed by only four swimmers in history: herself, Summer McIntosh, the Canadian teen who ended Ledecky’s 800 unbeaten bull run this year when she beat the American with an 8:11.39 Commonwealth record that is yet to make the official World Aquatics ranking list, China’s Li Bingji and Australia’s 200-400 Olympic champion and World record holder Ariarne Titmus.
Titmus, disappointed with a 8:14.06 at Australia trials, her 800 a work in progress, is the biggest threat to blocking the American’s bid to double the membership of the Quad Club of those who have climaxed the same Olympic swim title at four Games, Michael Phelps the founder in the 200IM at Rio 2016 after victories at Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
The Legend Of Ledecky
Some pre-Paris statistics:
Ledecky has raced inside 8:20 EIGHTY times between 2012 and 2024, nine of those inside 8:10 between 2015 and 2022.
Ledecky has the fastest 54 swims in the United States and the fastest 16 times ever
Ledecky’s Olympic wins:
2012 – 8:14.63 American record inside Janet Evan’s 8:16.22 that lasted between 1989 and 2008 (Rebecca Adlington, GBR, 8:14.10, Beijing gold)
2016 – 8:04.79 World record then and to this day and faster than six of the seven men’s World records set by Australia’s Stephen Holland between 1973 and 1976
2021 – 8:12.57, ahead of 8:13.83 silver for Titmus, who in Paris is likely to be the most serious threat to blocking Ledecky’s quad-club bid, assuming McIntosh is not a late, unexpected entry (the Canadian has at least four other golden shots)
Ledecky’s World records (5):
8:04.79 (2016); 8:06.68 (2016); 8:07.39 (2015) 8:11.00 (2014); 8:13.86 (2013)
No-one else got inside 8:20 in the Indy 800 at Trials, Paige Madden taking the second ticket to the Paris Games in 8:20.71, Jillian Cox, one of six Americans to have raced inside 8:20 since Evans opened the U.S. account in 1989, locked out in 8:22.97:
Dressel Edges Back Towards 49-sec Waters
Out in 23.53, Caeleb Dressel was 0.53 down on his world-record speed; back in 26.66, he was 0.21sec down on his pioneering pace. It added up to 50.19, a dominant victory and evidence that 49-sec waters are back in his grasp and gift, the defence of the Olympic crown game on.
At 2021 trials, Dressel clocked 49.76, one of his eight sub-50 efforts. In Indianapolis today he was a class apart, the second ticket to Paris going to 200m winner, 17-year-old Thomas Heilman in 50.80, locking Dare Rose off the 100 ‘fly roster by 0.04.
Dressel missed the cut for the 100m free defence but will defend the 50 free and the 100 ‘fly crowns in Paris and be a force to reckon with in all the relays he steps up in, including the 4x100m free and the 4x100m medleys, both men and mixed.
Douglass Sets U.S. Record At 2:06.79
Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh, U.S. college teammates in their NCAA days, head back to the Olympics as 2020ne medallists seeking more in the Paris 200m medley.
Douglass, Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, is a contender for gold in Paris, her passage booked with a 2:06.79 U.S. (in competition in the States) record inside her own 2:07.09 previous best. Walsh, silver medallist in Tokyo, clocked 2:07.86 for her ticket, no others in close contention.
Douglass’ time is the second-fastest this year behind the 2:06.63 Commonwealth record set by Kaylee McKeown at Australian trials before she checked into the defence of both the 100 and 200m backstroke titles from Tokyo.
Douglass looked forward to Paris. Speaking through USA Swimming, she said: “I feel like back in 2021 the goal was to make the team, and I feel like this time around, the whole year, making the team was part of the process. But we have bigger goals that we want to accomplish in Paris.”
Walsh, who joins sibling Gretchen Walsh on the team for Paris, was buoyant on American prospects, saying: “We’re definitely more than prepared to go to Paris, and we know what it takes to be able to bounce back after this very emotional and long meet…and get ready for our second nine-day meet of the year, so that’s great. I think Kate (Douglass) and I would say having been NCAA swimmers for a while, we’re definitely used to the back-to-back nature of championship meets. So, I don’t think that’s something either of us are too concerned about, but we’re excited to be heading (to Paris) with Team USA and our head coach, Todd DeSorbo, as the women’s head coach. I think he will do a great job getting the entire team on the same page.”
The race in Indy
In the 50m free semis, Gretchen Walsh, who set a World record of 55.18 in the 100m butterfly at the start of Trials, and Torri Huske, led the way to the showdown in 24.06 and 24.09 respectively:
Qualifiers for the last final at 2024 Trials, the men’s 1500m freestyle:
