There’s no shortage of “Katie Ledecky beat ___ so badly” videos out there, but most of them are from her blowing away college swimmers while at Stanford. This one is a little different, because it comes from the World Championships in Budapest.
Ledecky was competing in one of her best events, the 1500m freestyle, and while it was expected she’d win, nobody really thoughts she’d beat the field by a full 14 seconds. It was so pronounced that at the finish she basically just chilled in the pool, looking around, wondering when the next competitor would touch the wall too.
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It was by no means Ledecky’s best finish. Heck, it was 10 seconds slower than the 15:20:48 world record she set in Indianapolis in 2018 — but that didn’t matter, nobody else in the world was close. U.S. teenager Katie Grimes finished second at 15:44:89, with half the field failing to crack the 16:00:00 mark.
Ledecky now begins the march to Paris, where the Olympics will take place in 2024. She’ll look to defend her 1500m gold from Tokyo.