How Katie Ledecky Smashed The 800m World Record At Rio

On the 12th of August 2016 at the Rio Olympics Katie Ledecky smashed her own World Record for 800m down to 8:04.79 from 8:06.68. Here is a little insight into how she did it...

Pacing

First lets look at Katie's pacing.
She is incredibly consistent which enables her to hold form and finish strong...

• If we remove the first 100m and final 50m, all of her splits are between 30.22 and 30.85
• 9 of her 50m splits are between 30.60 and 30.85 (within quarter of a second!)
• If we account for the dive on her first length the fastest 50m split is... the LAST one! 

Distance	Split
50m	28.03
100m	29.65
150m	30.73
200m	30.71
250m	30.64
300m	30.70
350m	30.37
400m	30.85
450m	30.22
500m	30.74
550m	30.60
600m	30.76
650m	30.77
700m	30.37
750m	30.36
800m	28.99

Which looks like this...

The most important thing to note on her pacing is how she is able to wind it up in the final 100m. She is swimming perfectly on the limit until this point and when she knows the finish is approaching she gives it everything. If she simply maintained pace she would have fell just short of the record.

Stroke Length vs Stroke Rate

Besides the first 50m Katie's Stroke Length stays at 40/41 strokes per 50m. There are 2 important things to note on her stroke length...

• It is not particularly low for an elite swimmer (but she makes up for it with tempo)
• It is VERY consistent. This means she is holding form and length all the way through the swim. She is able to do this due to her excellent pacing. If a swimmer sets off too fast their stroke will shorten towards the end of a swim.
• She has zero glide or pause in her stroke

Once Katie's stroke rate settles down after the first 100m she settles down at 88/89 stroke per minute, this is higher than most other girls in the race!  This again stays consistent (notice this word coming up a lot?!). When she picks up the pace in the final 100m she holds her stroke length and ramps up her tempo to 92 strokes per minute. If you own a Tempo Trainer try setting it to 92 SPM and see how you get on...!

 This handy calculator from Swim Smooth HERE shows how this effects her speed in the final 100m...

100m-700m

Final 100m

Technique

We covered Katie's technique in detail HERE previously. One thing that looks even better than her 2015 WR is her strong high elbow pull. Check it out on both arms in the images below...

Mental State

Katie also has another thing on her side... less pressure than other swimmers! Katie could swim the 2nd place time any day of the week. She knows she is going to win while stood on the block. This means she can totally swim her own race and not have to worry about racing and responding to other swimmers efforts. This again conserves energy and enables her to have perfect pacing. Some might say that another super fast swimmer might push her on to even faster times... but would it spoil her perfect pacing?! 

Is Sub 8 Possible...?

Here is a quick look at Katie Ledecky's WR progression. She seems to be showing no signs of slowing her progression and at only 19 years of age she certainly has time on her side! Sub 8 minutes is a very real possibility at Tokyo 2020 (or sooner) even if her progression slows slightly...

Summary

• Consistent pacing... which enabled a strong finish!
• Consistent Stroke Length (With no glide!) 
• Consistent (high!) Stroke Rate... and she ramps it up at the end!