Katie Ledecky continues to prove she’s the greatest female swimmer ever whenever she steps foot into a pool.
She finished in 15 minutes and 23.21 seconds, placing first in the Austin championship. Ledecky holds the record time at 15:20.48, which she set back in 2018, per Olympics.com.
‘I’m really happy with that, it was faster than I was all last year,’ Ledecky said after the race. ‘It was my second-best ever. I had pretty low expectations coming into today, so that definitely blew it out of the water.’
Finishing second and third were Brinkleigh Hansen of St. Petersburg, Florida, who finished in 16:31.31 and Becca Mann of Homer Glen, Illinois, who finished in 16:35.09.
Ledecky praised her training staff for pushing her to her limits and preparing her for the competition.
‘Training has been incredible,’ Ledecky said. ‘I have a really great group of distance swimmers at Florida and it’s been really hard the last month. That hard training gives me a lot of good confidence, which always helps.’