Stanford Olympian clocks fifth-fastest in 1,500-meter free.
Stanford star crushes field in Santa Clara prep for U. S. meet
SANTA CLARA — Cal assistant coach Yuri Suguiyama had seen this before. After all, he coached Katie Ledecky from age 10 to 15 before leaving Maryland for Berkeley after the 2012 Summer Olympics.
So Suguiyama didn’t blink Thursday evening as the world’s greatest female swimmer charged through the 1,500 meter freestyle race alone at the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara.
“She’s used to it,” Suguiyama said.
Swim fans are getting used to something special from Ledecky, who completes her first year at Stanford next week before likely heading off later in the summer for 2017 World Championships in Budapest.
A year after becoming a celebrity swimmer at the Rio Games, Ledecky was quietly churning out the fifth-fastest time in history at George F. Haines International Swim Center with hardly any spectators watching.
It’d be like Stephen Curry dropping 40 points during a sparsely attended midseason game.
But the native of Bethesda, Maryland, who won four gold medals and one silver in Brazil, can do that. There’s a phrase that goes around: Ledecky, 20, doesn’t swim against people, she competes against herself.
It’s almost a disappointment when Ledecky doesn’t break a record in a distance race. But this week isn’t the time for records — Ledecky and her Stanford teammates are in training for the U.S. championships that begin June 27 in Indianapolis.
The four-day Santa Clara meet is the final tuneup for the meet that serves as a qualifier for the World Championships.
Stanford coach Greg Meehan didn’t have a time he expected Ledecky to swim in a race she last did in 2015. At this point of training, he is looking at other goals.
But no one was complaining after Ledecky won in a time of 15 minutes, 35.65 seconds. Or almost 40 seconds ahead of second place.
It just didn’t feel that fast to Ledecky, who owns the six fastest times in history in this race. Then again, it was about 10 seconds slower than her world record of 15:25.48.
“She didn’t knock it out of the park perfectly, but she did a nice job with it,” Meehan said. “There are some things we can take from that and build a little confidence as we move on.”
Ledecky, who also will race Saturday in the 200meter freestyle, seemed satisfied.
“I was maybe a little aggressive on the first 50, but I was able to settle into a pretty good rhythm and pick it up the last 100,” she said. “I wasn’t able to bring in my legs in the middle of the race the way I wanted to, but that’s where I am with training right now.”
Her Stanford training partners finished way behind but had reasons to celebrate strong performances.
Sophomore Leah Stevens was fourth and fellow freshman Megan Byrnes fifth.