BUDAPEST — Some cars go from zero to 60 really fast. Not a 1975 AMC Pacer. It requires a touch over 14 seconds.
Got the picture in your mind of that wide-as-it-as-long, weirdo-bubble-glass, frog-like thing belching, lumbering, wheezing toward 60? Take out your cellphone, go to the stopwatch function, click start and watch it go tick, tick, tick. And keep on ticking. One Mississippi, two …
Fourteen-plus is a lot of seconds. Usain Bolt is already in the midst of a second 100-meter dash.
In the women’s 1500 freestyle at these 2022 FINA world championships, 14-plus is how much time winner Katie Ledecky put between her and runner-up Katie Grimes, a 16-year-old from Las Vegas.
Ledecky at the end of Monday’s 1500 // Getty Images
Ledecky, who has the 13 best marks in history in the 1500 and who at 25 is determined to still get better at this racing thing, put on something of a master class to be studied and appreciated by swim nerds or, for that matter, anyone and everyone who might appreciate watching the best do what she does better than anyone in human history (not hyperbole) has ever done it. She finished in 15:30.15. Grimes was 14.74 seconds back. Australia’s Lani Pallister took third, 18.81 seconds back.
Grimes became the youngest American medalist at a worlds since 2013, in Barcelona. Since, well, Ledecky. Who in 2013 was also 16.
The race Monday was Ledecky’s 17th world championships gold, 20th overall — 20 puts her in a tie, with Natalie Coughlin, for most by a female.
A third of the way through Monday night’s race, Ledecky was under world record pace. A hundred meters after that, she eased off. No stress. By 750 meters, halfway, the big-screen display at Duna Arena showed only Ledecky. The others were at least a half a lap behind.
On press row, a European radio reporter said, “Sometimes I think they ought to stop this and just give the gold medals to Katie. She is a beast.”
A few moments later, same reporter: “Can you imagine being the other competitors, thinking to yourself, ‘What am I lacking?’”
Pallister, afterward: “I don’t think anyone will be topping Katie for a little while. But I definitely think it’s a goal for everyone moving forward. You know, she definitely set the standard of distance swimming in the world.”
Moesha Johnson, also of Australia, fourth in 15:57.77, 25.6 seconds back: “It’s truly an honor just to get to swim beside her and she just keeps going from strength to strength.”
Ledecky, for the record, fully and completely respects each and every one of her competitors; each race in which she competes; and, assuredly, the sport, meaning its present and its history. It would never — never — occur to her, the way it obviously would to journalists, that she might somehow be so superior to anyone else that someone might in some way be “lacking.”
In her typically self-effacing way, after the race she first and foremost offered praise for Grimes: “It is just awesome to be on the blocks next to her, be in the lane next to her and to share this moment with her is really special.”
As well, Ledecky had kind words for the eighth-place finisher, Chile’s 36-year-old Kristel Kobrich. This is a story. Kobrich is now the first swimmer to compete in 10 FINA world championships — her first was in 2003, also in Barcelona. Not once — never — has Kobrich earned a medal. She finished fourth in 2009 and 2011. Easy math: she is 20 years older than Grimes. She finished Monday in 16:20.24, last, 50.09 seconds behind.
Nonetheless, a world championships finalist.
Ledecky said, “I told her after the race: it was incredible. To make a final at worlds at that age — is incredible.”
What’s truly incredible — the apt word, really — is Ledecky’s feel for and control within the water. It ought to be considered, understood and appreciated (again, not hyperbole) as both athletic and intellectual genius.
She and her coach, Anthony Nesty, had planned for her to complete each lap in — swim talk here — “31-ohs, like one or two-lows,” meaning 31 seconds or, on the outside, 32, the “low” signifying that the fraction of each second ought to be under five if possible. Say, 31.4 or 31.35. Like that.
Of course, swimmers do not communicate with anyone while racing. This is not like, for instance, football, where the quarterback wears a helmet and after each play gets direction from the sideline. Or basketball, where you get to call time-out and regroup. In the pool, you’re on your own. In this race, for 15-plus minutes.
Now, consider the Ledecky and Nesty plan to go “31-ohs, like one or two-lows,” with Ledecky’s splits, especially after she settled into the rhythm of the race (and apologies, because even broken up into 250-meter chunks these are a lot of numbers):
28.35; 30.26; 30.59; 30.84; 30.77
31.0; 31.16; 31.28; 31.05; 31.6
30.95; 31.04; 31.05; 31.18; 30.97
31.41; 31.10; 31.48; 31.43; 31.32
31.32; 31.63; 31.29; 31.57; 31.53
31.45; 31.11; 31.32; 30.98; 29.56.
“I was having a good one,” she said afterward, “and could just kind of tell and the goal was to just lock into pace and push.”
Ledecky won gold in the first Olympic women’s 1500 last year at Tokyo. Monday’s race made for her fourth worlds 1500 title: 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2022. She fell ill at the 2019 championships.
Here’s the thing.
The 1500 is not Ledecky’s best race.
That would be the 800 free. History’s top 26 times? Katie Ledecky.
That race comes up later this week.