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How Katie Ledecky Smashed The 800m World Record At Rio

12/8/2016

3 Comments

 
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...
Picture
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
Picture
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...!
Picture
 This handy calculator from Swim Smooth HERE shows how this effects her speed in the final 100m...
Picture
100m-700m
Picture
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...
Picture
Picture

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...
Picture

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! 
3 Comments
Tapan Panigrahi
14/8/2016 03:32:54 am

First of all hearty congrats to her and the coach, excellent job done by supporting staffs also.
Her stroke rate flacktuates may be due to varied Early vertical forearm angle of pull, if that can be controled sinchronisation with exclerated push she could have had little longer stk length with the controled stk rate. And sub 8 time for her is possible at her next targated meet. Good luck.

Reply
laura
16/8/2016 12:46:07 pm

This article is not correct. There is a definite pause, there are 39 strokes per length, the tempo is .7 which is not uncommon. The big thing that makes her fast is the high elbow. The rest of the article is not correct.

Reply
Adam
16/8/2016 10:39:45 pm

Thanks for your comment Laura! I can assure you the stats are correct... I did sit and re-watch the event 5 times collating them...!

Reply



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