(07-28-2021, 08:55 PM)DC 86 Wrote: Katie Ledecky with a phenomenal anchor leg in the 4x200 gets the silver medal, came from way behind to almost pull it off. Great swim.
It wasn't a race when she entered the pool. She darn sure made it one. Maybe the most excited I've been watching the Olympics so far, in terms of those "OMG will it happen
could it really happen?!?!?" moments. Fell just short, but you can't be made about a relay swim where the team was ahead of the world record. That Chinese relay team was bonkers. They all dropped like 2+ seconds from their best times coming into Tokyo--no way to predict that, especially when that improvement didn't show up in the individual 200.
Wish Katie could've found that same time in the individual 200, as her split would've gotten her Silver behind Titmus in that race, but I think it says good things about one's character when they find an extra gear when they're racing for teammates than when they're racing for themselves.
Also, I don't think she could completely empty the tank in the individual 200, given that the 1500 was just an hour later. Yes, she won by 4 seconds, but that's actually a really thin margin for her in that event. She didn't swim it at Worlds in 2019, but in 2017, she won the 1500 by
19 seconds and swam a 15:31.82. In 2015, she won it by 14.66 seconds and swam a 15:25.48. Here, she won by just 4 seconds and swam a 15:37.34.
The program she's swimming has a lot to do with that, of course. But I don't think it's fair to say that there was no drama in the 1500. Even just seeing someone only a body length behind at that distance was sort of shocking!
At 2017, the last worlds where she fully competed (she didn't race the 1500 in 2019), the schedule was much, much friendlier. She had the 400 final on a Sunday (she won by 3.2 seconds), the 1500 final the following Tuesday (she won by 19 seconds), the 200 the next day (T-2nd), and the 800 final that Saturday (she won by 2.8 seconds). But having to do the 200-1500 double the same day in both prelims and finals is bonkers. I wonder if she'll do that again, assuming she's back for Paris 2024 and beyond. She could let the 200 go in that program while still probably anchoring the 4x200 relay. At some point, someone is going to start swimming the 1500 in the 15:30s, and getting her 400/800/1500 times back to where they were a few years ago will be crucial for regaining her hold on the 400 and keep her hold on the 800/1500. But the competition (especially in the 200/400) is too steep to expect her to pull off this Herculean program again while still medaling in each of those events. The days of her winning 400s by nearly 5 seconds and 800s by 10+ seconds (like she did in Rio) are obviously over, so does she drop the 200 and focus training on longer distances?
I'm excited to see what she can do in a 800 where she's had a full day of rest and she doesn't have to keep anything in the tank for future swims. It's not out of the realm of possibility that she wins it by the same margin she won the 1500, frankly. But I just hope she can hold off Titmus there.
