Category Archives: Katie Ledecky

USA Swimming announces 2013-14 National team

There were really no surprises as to who will represent USA for the upcoming season whether in national or international competition.

Ryan Lochte, Nathan Adrian of Bremerton, Cullen Jones, Matt Grevers, Natalie Coughlin and Missy Franklin.

Here’s the press release from USA Swimming:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Headlined by 2013 world champions Missy Franklin (Centennial, Colo.), Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill.), Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md.) and Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.), USA Swimming today announced the 112-member roster of the 2013-14 USA Swimming National Team.

Additionally, USA Swimming named over 100 of the nation’s top 18-and-under swimmers to its 2013-14 National Junior Team roster. Gunnar Bentz (Atlanta, Ga.) and Becca Mann (Homer Glen, Ill.) qualified for the squad in five events apiece.

Fresh off winning four medals at the 2013 FINA World Championships, Lochte qualified for the National Team in a team-best five events – 100m free, 200m free, 200m back, 100m fly and 200m IM. Franklin, who became the first woman to win six gold medals at a single FINA World Championships, made the National Team in four events – 100m free, 200m free, 100m back and 200m back.

Ledecky, who won four gold medals and set two world records at 2013 Worlds, earned a National Team roster spot in the 200m, 400m and 800m free events. The reigning world and Olympic champion in the 100m back, Grevers made the squad in the 100m back and 100m free.

Other swimmers to qualify for the National Team in at least three events include: Elizabeth Beisel (Sanderstown, R.I.; 200m back, 200m IM, 400m IM), Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.; 200m back, 200m fly, 400m IM), Maya DiRado (Santa Rosa, Calif.; 200m free, 200m fly, 400m IM), Sarah Henry (Garner, N.C.; 400m free, 800m free, 200m IM, 400m IM) and Megan Romano (St. Petersburg, Fla.; 50m free, 100m free, 100m back).

Swimmers were selected for the USA Swimming National Team based on their times in Olympic events from the combined results of the 2013 FINA World Championships, the 2013 Phillips 66 National Championships, the 2013 U.S. Open and the 2013 World University Games. Swimmers with the top six times in each event made the National Team, however, relay lead-offs and time trials were not included.

The 2013-14 National Junior Team is comprised of athletes with the six fastest times, in Olympic events only, from the combined results of all USA Swimming or FINA sanctioned meets from Jan. 1, 2013, to Sept. 2, 2013. Also, all members of the 2013 FINA World Junior Championships team are included on the roster. The complete roster for the 2013-14 USA Swimming National Junior Team can be found online.

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Recap of Wednesday’s action at World Championships

If you haven’t read the story on Nathan Adrian and the rest of the 100 free finals field, check it out here.

Here’s a recap from USA Swimming on day four of the world championships in Barcelona.

BARCELONA – Missy Franklin (Centennial, Colo.) won her third gold medal of the meet Wednesday at the 15th FINA World Championships, finishing atop the field in the women’s 200m freestyle in 1:54.81.

Michael McBroom (The Woodlands, Texas) also brought home hardware for the U.S., winning silver and setting an American record in the men’s 800m freestyle in 7:41.36.

Halfway through the competition at Palau Sant Jordi, the Americans’ medal count for pool and open water swimming stands at 16 – seven gold, five silver and four bronze. They lead all teams in both gold medals and total medal count.

In the women’s 200m free, Franklin and France’s Camille Muffat jumped out to a quick lead, with Muffat holding a slight lead over Franklin at the first turn. Franklin took the lead at the 100-meter mark and looked poised to walk away with the race as the field approached the final wall.

Italy’s Federica Pellegrini made a move in the final 50 meters, but Franklin was able to hold her off down the homestretch for gold. Pellegrini took silver in 1:55.14, while Muffat won bronze in 1:55.72. American Shannon Vreeland (Overland Park, Kan.) finished seventh in 1:57.41.

“I knew (Pellegrini) was going to have a really strong second 100, so I tried to take it out with Muffat and stay ahead of Pellegrini in the second 100,” Franklin said. “I’m really, really happy with my swim there. You kind of use each swim to motivate the next one. That’s a best time for me. I told myself if I go a 1:54, I would be the happiest girl alive, so I’m happy with the 1:54, and it happened to be a gold medal, too, which I’m thrilled about.”

Franklin also won gold in the 400m free relay on the first night of competition and the 100m back Tuesday.

In the men’s 800m free, China’s Sun Yang held a half-second lead on the rest of the field for much of the race, with three or four swimmers sticking to his side the whole way, including McBroom, teammate Connor Jaeger (Fair Haven, N.J.) and Canadian Ryan Cochrane.

At the 600-meter mark, McBroom moved into second position and held off Jaeger and Cochrane over the final 200 meters for silver. Sun won in 7:41.36, followed by McBroom for silver. Cochrane took bronze in 7:43.70, while Jaeger was fourth in 7:44.26.

McBroom was competing in his first World Championship final and became the first American since Larsen Jensen in 2005 to win a medal in this event. The U.S. has never won gold in the 800m free.

“I was just trying to get out there and race, and see what I could do,” McBroom said. “Luckily it worked well for me, and I put down the race I thought I could.”

In the men’s 200m fly final, Tom Luchsinger (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) placed fifth in 1:55.70, and Olympian Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.) finished seventh in 1:56.34. Winning gold was Chad Le Clos of South Africa in 1:54.32. Pawel Korzeniowski of Poland was second in 1:55.01, followed by Wu Peng of China in 1:55.09.

In semifinal action Wednesday, Olympians Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash.) and Jimmy Feigen (San Antonio, Texas) qualified one-two for tomorrow’s finals with times of 47.95 and 48.07, respectively.

In the men’s 200m IM, Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.) posted the top semifinal time of 1:57.07 to advance to tomorrow’s final. Conor Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill.) finished 10th in 1:58.56.

Rachel Bootsma (Eden Prairie, Minn.) qualified sixth in the semifinals of the women’s 50m back with a time of 27.93, while Cammile Adams (Cypress, Texas) posted the second-fastest semifinal mark in the women’s 200m fly in 2:06.75. Maya DiRado (Santa Rosa, Calif.) finished 12th in the 200m fly in 2:08.28.

 

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Catching up with the World Championships

I find myself a little behind on reporting about the FINA World Championships from Barcelona, so I’m posting this to include Monday and Tuesdays’ results from the pool.

FYI, Nathan Adrian will swim at 1 a.m. (Pacific time) and I’ll do my best to post quickly how he does in the 100 free prelims. The semifinals start Wednesday at 9 a.m.

Here’s the press release from USA Swimming from Monday:

BARCELONA –  U.S. swimmers Eugene Godsoe (Greensboro, N.C.) and Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas) both medaled for the United States Monday at the FINA World Championships, with Godsoe taking silver in the men’s 50m butterfly and Vollmer taking bronze in the women’s 100m butterfly.

Their performances on the second night of finals at Palau Sant Jordi brought the Americans’ total medal count in both the pool and open water to eight – three gold, two silver and three bronze. The U.S. currently leads all countries in the medal count for the pool competition.

Other Americans swimming in finals Monday included Kevin Cordes (Naperville, Ill.) and Nic Fink (Morristown, N.J.), who finished seventh and eighth in the men’s 100m breaststroke, and Caitlin Leverenz (Tucson, Ariz.), who finished fifth in the women’s 200m IM.

In the men’s 50m fly, Godsoe powered his way down the pool and got his hand on the wall fast enough to win the silver medal from lane 8 in 23.05. He finished just four-hundredths of a second behind Cesar Cielo of Brazil. France’s Fred Bousquet was third in 23.11

Godsoe was competing in his first long-course World Championship finals Monday. The race marked the first time since 2007 that an American has medaled in the 50m fly.

“Coming in lane eight, I knew I had no pressure,” Godsoe said. “I just had to execute. The 50 fly is just one of those events where if some of those guys are trying too hard, they’re going to be a little bit slower. So I knew if I could go a tenth or two-tenths faster (than I swam in semifinals), I’d have a chance to medal in it.”

In the women’s 100m Butterfly final, Vollmer took the first length of the women’s 100m butterfly out with the rest of field, turning in fourth place, about a half a second behind Jeanette Ottesen Gray and just a fraction of a second behind Ilaria Bianchi of Italy and Sarah Sjostrom of Sweden.

As they raced down the final 50 meters it was a four- or five-way race between the swimmers in the center of the pool before Sjostrom began pulling ahead and then touched first in 56.53. She was followed by Alicia Coutts of Australia in 56.97 and Vollmer in 57.24.

Australia’s Christian Sprenger won the men’s 100m breaststroke in 58.79, with Cameron Van Der Burgh of South Africa and Felipe Lima of Brazil taking silver and bronze in 58.97 and 59.65. Cordes and Fink, both competing in their first long-course World Championships, touched in 1:00.02 and 1:00.10, respectively, to finish seven and eighth.

Katinka Hosszu of Hungary won the women’s 200m IM in 2:07.92, followed by Coutts of Australia in 2:09.39 and Mereia Garcia of Spain in 2:09.45. Leverenz, the Olympic bronze medalist in this event in London, finished fifth in 2:10.73.

Here’s the press release from Tuesday:

BARCELONA – Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md.) won gold and set a world record in the women’s 1500m freestyle Tuesday at the FINA World Championships, turning in a time of 15:36.53. Ledecky’s gold was one of six medals for the United States on the third night of competition at Palau Sant Jordi.

Also winning gold for the U.S. Tuesday was Missy Franklin (Centennial, Colo.) in the women’s 100m backstroke (58.41) and Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill.) in the men’s 100m backstroke (52.93).

Conor Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill.) took silver in the men’s 200m freestyle in 1:45.32, while David Plummer (Oklahoma City, Okla.) finished second behind Grevers in the 100m back in 53.12. Jessica Hardy (Long Beach, Calif.) won bronze in the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:05.52.

The Americans’ medal count now stands at 14 – six gold, four silver and four bronze. They lead all countries in both gold medals and total medals won.

In the women’s 1500m free, Ledecky and Lotte Friis of Denmark quickly separated themselves from the pack and were about four or five seconds ahead of world record pace the whole way.

Friis held a slight lead over Ledecky through the 1300-meter mark, when Ledecky pulled ahead. The two were neck-and-neck over the next 100 meters before Ledecky surged ahead for good. Friis finished second about two seconds behind in 15:38.88, followed by Lauren Boyle of New Zealand in 15:44.71. American Chloe Sutton (Mission Viejo, Calif.) finished eighth in 16:09.65.

“The main goal was just to come out on top,” Ledecky said. “I knew we were going pretty fast, and I figured whoever was going to come out on top was going to get the world record. I had to be careful not to push it too early, not to push it too late, and just touch the wall first. Around the last 200, I knew I could take off.”

Both Ledecky and Friis finished ahead of the former world record time of 15:42.54, set by American Kate Ziegler in 2007.

“(The world record) means the world to me,” Ledecky said. “Kate Ziegler, who had the world record, is from my area (back home). I’ve looked up to her my whole life, and I really honored to break that world record and to keep it in Potomac Valley.”

Franklin led the women’s 100m backstroke from start to finish, touching a little more than a half-second ahead of her closest competitor, Emily Seebohm of Australia, who finished in 59.06. Japan’s Aya Terakawa was third in 59.23. Franklin’s teammate,Elizabeth Pelton (Baltimore, Md.), was fourth in 59.45.

The men’s 100m backstroke was classic Grevers, who used his trademark back-half speed to pull ahead in the final 50 meters for the win. Plummer was right there with him, finishing 19-hundredths of a second behind. Jeremy Stravius of France was third in 53.21.

In the men’s 200m freestyle, Yannick Agnel of France was in control of the race from the very first turn, leaving the rest of the field fighting for second. Dwyer swam a controlled race, gaining ground on the pack at each wall.

Fifth at the 150-meter mark, Dwyer reeled his competitors in down the final 50 meters for silver. Agnel was first in 1:44.20, while Danila Izotov of Russia was third in 1:45.59. Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla.), who was third at the final wall, slipped to fourth in 1:45.64.

In the women’s 100m breast, everyone was chasing Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte in the women’s 100m breaststroke. On Monday, Meilutyte set the world record in this event in the semifinals in 1:04.35. The former mark, set by Jessica Hardy in 2009, stood at 1:04.45.

Hardy was second behind Meilutyte at the turn in Tuesday’s race, and held on down the homestretch for bronze. Meilutyte won gold in 1:04.42, while Russia’s Yuliya Efimova took silver in 1:05.02. American Breeja Larson (Mesa, Ariz.) finished fifth in 1:06.74.

In semifinals action, Kevin Steel (Mooretown, N.J) finished 12th in the men’s 50m breaststroke with a time of 27.60.  Franklin qualified second in the 200m freestyle (1:56.05) and Shannon Vreeland (Overland Park, Kansas) was eighth (1:56.76). Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.), tied for fourth in the men’s 200m butterfly (1:55.97) and Tom Luchsinger (Mt. Sinai, N.Y.) was eighth (1:56.10).

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