Category Archives: Katie Ledecky

Phelps, Ledecky winners on first night of Pro Swim Series

Per Bill Fay of The Associated Press…

 

ORLANDO, Fla.  — The first day of the Arena Pro Swim Series went as expected with Olympians Michael Phelps, Katie Ladecky and Conor Dwyer winning the featured events.

Michael Phelps practices for the U.S. Swimming Nationals at the Northside Swim Center, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015, in San Antonio. Phelps is scheduled to compete in four events. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Michael Phelps practices for the U.S. Swimming Nationals at the Northside Swim Center, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2015, in San Antonio. Phelps is scheduled to compete in four events. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Phelps ran down Tom Shields in the final 50 meters and held on at the wall to win the 100-meter butterfly in a time of 52.28. Shields was just behind at 52.35

Ladecky easily beat a field packed with Olympians in the 200-meter freestyle. The 19-year-old from Capital Swim Club in Washington D.C., swam a 1:55.73 to beat fellow Olympians Missy Franklin, who swam 1:57.67 and Allison Schmitt, who was third at 1:58.16.

Dwyer was swimming competitively for the first time in two months. He jumped ahead of Dion Dreesens on the final turn and coasted home to win the men’s 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:46.96. Dressens was second at 1:48.17.

The three-day meet concludes Saturday.

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Adrian named to national team roster

It was a foregone conclusion, but USA Swimming made it official on Tuesday when it released it’s national team roster for 2015-16 which included Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian.

Here’s a link if you want to check out who else made the team and their Twitter handles. All the big names are there (Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Missy Franklin, Katie Ledecky, etc.) as well as plenty of fresh new faces. Among them is the only other Washingtonian — Lisa Bratton of Richland.

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Adrian back in water at Austin Pro Series

Bremerton Olympic champion Nathan Adrian is one of several headliners that is scheduled to compete in the Arena Pro Swim Series at Austin, Jan 15-17. The series was formally known as the Arena Grand Prix. Also scheduled to swim are Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte, Tyler Clarey, Ntalie Coughlin, Anthony Ervin and Matt Grevers.

The three-day meet will take place at the University of Texas’ swimming center. Prelims are at 7 a.m. with finals at 4 p.m. Pacific time.

Universal Sports Network will air TV coverage of the meet Jan. 16 and 17 (check local listings for time). Also, USA Swimming will webcast the complete meet.

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Adrian, Ledecky highlight winter nationals

Gold medalists Nathan Adrian and Katie Ledecky will compete at USA Swimming’s winter nationals at the Greensboro Aquatic Center in North Carolina next week.

More than 800 swimmers are expected to participate in the meet, Dec. 3-6. Prelims are at 6 a.m. Pacific with finals at 2 p.m. Also expected to join Adrian and Ledecky are Andrew Gemmell, Connor Jaeger, Cullen Jones and Micah Lawrence.

Adrian holds the American record in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events. He is coming off a Golden Goggles appearance where he was nominated along with his teammates for relay performance of the year in the 400 medley relay from the Pan Pacific Championships.
Ledecky won three Golden Goggles Monday in New York.

A live webcast of the meet can be found at usaswimming.org.

Also, here’s extra footage from Nathan at the Arena Grand Prix in Minneapolis where he talks about his 200 free race strategy. And, how he felt about his 50 free time.

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Former Islander Williams commits to Stanford

Former Bainbridge Islander Kim Williams, who moved to Bellevue and how swims for the Wolverines, verbally committed to Stanford University on Wednesday according to Braden Keith of swimswam.com.

Williams swam for Bainbridge Island Swim Club before her family moved to Bellevue when she was 12. Keith calls Williams an incredible all-around swimmer and a true IM star. She recently competed for Team USA at the 2014 Junior Pan Pac Championships in Hawaii where she placed third in the 200 individual medley in 2 minutes, 14.18 seconds. She is also the long-course Junior National Champion in both the 200 IM and 400 IM.

Joining Williams for the 2015 freshman class at Stanford are Olympic and world champion Katie Ledecky, the sixth-ranked recruit in the nation Kaitlyn Albertoli.

Williams is the two-time defending state champion in the 3A 200 IM and the three-time champion in the 100 breaststroke.

You can read more on Keith’s story here.

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Adrian part of “fantasy camp” for USA Swimming Foundation

If you’ve ever had the dream of training like an Olympic champion, here’s your chance.

USA Swimming Foundation is offering a chance to live, eat and train like an Olympian at the U.S. Olympic Training Complex Aquatic Center in Colorado Springs. The fantasy camps for ages 12-17 will be October 9-12 while the adult camp, 18 and over, is October 17-19.

Bremerton’s Nathan Adrian, a USA Swimming Foundation ambassador, will participate in the adult camp along with Rowdy Gaines and three-time Olympic champion Debbie Meyer. Serving as head coach is Bruce Gemmell, coach to Olympians Andrew Gemmell and Katie Ledecky. The youth camp will be attended by national team assistant coach Todd Schmitz, foundation ambassador and gold medalists Anthony Ervin, Mel Stewart and two-time Olympian Chloe Sutton.

The youth camp registration deadline is Sept. 3 and Sept. 10 for the adult camp. Participants will have the opportunity to enjoy workouts, workshops and interact with national team members.

More information on the fantasy camps can be found here, as well as the USA Swimming Foundation.

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Mesa GP sold out, Nathan Adrian seeded 1 and 2

The psych sheets are available for the Mesa Grand Priz meet in Tucson. You can find them here.

The 100-meter freestyle reads like a who’s who of swimming’s best.

Olympic champion Nathan Adrian of Bremerton, who is ranked No. 3 in the world, is seeded first in the 100-meter freestyle in 47.52 seconds. Jimmy Feigen is second in 47.82 and France’s Yannick Agnel is third (47.84). Anthony Ervin (47.89), Ryan Lochte (48.58), Conor Dwyer (48.94), South Africa’s Roland Schoeman (49.00) and Michael Phelps (49.05) round out the top eight.

That’s A LOT of international medals right there.

Ervins is ranked first in the 50 free in 21.42, followed by Nathan in 21.47, Schoeman (21.67), Josh Schneider (21.78), Feigen (21.88), Matt Grevers (22.09), Karl Krug (22.15), Alex Coville (22.19) and Shayne Fleming (22.35).  Nathan is ranked No. 6 in the world in the event.

The 100 free is Thursday and the 50 free is Friday.

Swim fans are dying to get to this event and it’s quickly become a star-studded affair. Within 48 hours of the announcement that Phelps would be swimming, the event was sold out.

Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian share a laugh at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Shanghai, China, July 31, 2011. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Michael Phelps and Nathan Adrian share a laugh at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Shanghai, China, July 31, 2011.
(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

FUN PICTURE OF THE DAY: I really like this picture. It was shot from the World Championships in China in 2011. Would still like to find out what they’re laughing about. Wouldn’t you?

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Nathan Adrian, and some guy named Phelps, headline Mesa Grand Prix

Bremerton gold medalist Nathan Adrian along with long-distance queen Katie Ledecky and Ryan Lochte are set to headline the next Arena Grand Prix meet in Mesa, Ariz.

There’s also this guy named Michael Phelps that will be swimming. Heard he’s pretty good.

The meet is April 24-26 at the Skyline Aquatic Center. Prelims are at 7 a.m. Pacific time and finals are at 3 p.m.

Also competing will be 2012 Olympic gold medalist Matt Grevers, multiple Olympic champion Natalie Coughlin, Anthony Ervin, Jimmy Feigen, Tyler Clary and more.

As for Phelps, his return to the pool is a welcome sight. His 22 Olympic medals are, of course, the most in history.

It’s no surprise that the meet will be televised. Universal Sports Network will show live coverage on April 25 and 26. A live webcast will be available through USA Swimming for the entire meet.

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Adrian, bevy of gold medalists, to compete at Austin GP

Bremerton Olympic gold medalist Nathan Adrian will join several of his Olympic teammates at the Arena Austin Grand Prix meet at the University of Texas Friday-Sunday.

Adrian will be joined by gold medal backstroker Matt Grevers, Tyler Clary, Natalie Coughlin, Anthony Ervin, Katie Ledecky and Allison Schmitt as well as Jimmy Feigen and Michael Klueh.

Universal Sports Network will broadcast live Friday and Saturday at 4 p.m. (Pacific). A live webcast of the entire meet can be found at usaswimming.org.

Prelims are at 7 a.m. (Pacific) with finals at 4 p.m. Prize money is allocated for first ($500), second ($300) and third ($100) for all individual events. Also, for the first time, the highest-scoring male and female U.S. winner will receive a year lease on a BMW ActiveHybrid 3 Series. Currently, Conor Dwyer and Megan Romano lead the GP Series after the first six meets.

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Nathan Adrian, Katie Ledecky, Missy Franklin headline winter nationals

Nathan AdrianMug.jpg
Nathan Adrian

Multi-Olympic gold medalists Nathan Adrian of Bremerton, distance specialist Katie Ledecky and the reigning queen of the pool Missy Franklin are expected to headline the U.S. Winter National Championships, starting Wednesday and running through Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn.

Other top Americans include Olympic gold medalists Natalie Coughlin, Matt Grevers and Cullen Jones, as well as Rachel Bootsma, Caitlin Leverenz, Chloe Sutton and Connor Jaeger, are scheduled to swim at the University of Tennessee’s Allan Jones Aquatic Center.

A strong field of international Olympians will compete, including Yulduz Kuchkarova of Uzbekistan, Russia’s Arkady Vyatchanin, Great Britain’s Adam Brown and South Africa’s Darian Townsend.

Preliminaries begin at 6 a.m. (local time) with finals at 2 p.m. The 50-yard freestyle is Thursday while the 100 free is Sunday.

A live webcast of prelims and finals will be available at usaswimming.org. National TV coverage will air on NBC on Saturday, Dec. 21 from 2-3 p.m.

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