By Phil Lutton
It didn't take long for Katie Ledecky to outgrow the 23-metre indoor pool at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, in Bethesda, Maryland. It was never a fair contest, really. She started swimming at the age of six and by the time she was 15, had become an Olympic champion.
Now, at 17 and with one year left of high school, there's not a pool on the planet that can constrain her boundless talents. At the Pan Pacs Championships on the Gold Coast, the American has managed to upstage the return to international competition of Michael Phelps, cruising to a host of titles and crushing her own world records like tin cans along the way.
Ledecky celebrates after the 400-metre freestyle final on the Gold Coast. Credit: AFP
Before the final night of competition, Ledecky had already picked up four Pan Pacs freestyle golds (400 metre, 800 metre, 4 x 200 metre relay). It has been another virtuoso performance from perhaps the most dominant swimmer in the sport.
But Ledecky saved her best until last, ending the meeting with the most stunning swim of the Pan Pacs - slicing a staggering six seconds off her own 1500m world record to surge to another memorable gold medal.
Stunning: Katie Ledecky reacts after trimming six seconds off her own world record on the way to gold in the 1500m on Sunday night.Credit: Getty Images
She swam a 15:28.26 to thrash the field in an event she barely trains for, given it's not an Olympic event. On that evidence, it should be included in the Rio program.
"It was probably one of my most painful races but it pays off in the end. I figured pretty early on the race that I was under world record pace but in the middle it really hurt. I was pretty sure I had it but six seconds was a little surprising," Ledecky said.
"I knew it was my last race of the meet and my last race of the season. And I've had a really good season and I wanted to finish on a good note. I just dug in deep in the last 50 and put it all in the last 25m."
Ledecky bettered her own 400-metre freestyle world record on Saturday night, lowering the mark to 3:58.37. It was the sixth time since last year's world championships she had set a new world record and the fourth time in the past two months, after she became the first woman to break the 3:59 mark at the US nationals.
And there appears to be no stopping Ledecky, who won 800-metre gold in London and is the reigning 400-metre, 800-metre and 1500-metre world champion. She will be 19 in Rio in 2016 and, barring disaster, looks certain to dominate the women's distance ranks and be one of the superstars of the biggest show of all.
Even Phelps, who won his first individual title since his short-lived retirement with victory in the 100-metre butterfly, remains in awe of Ledecky, a softly spoken, Christian teenager who approaches major meets with the relaxed ease of a day in the classroom.
"She's a stud and watching her swim, it's remarkable," Phelps said. "That's her third or fourth world record in the past three or four months. She's very talented, she works hard and it shows."
Not since the great Janet Evans has a female swimmer held world records in the 400 metre, 800 metre and 1500 metre, the holy trinity of distance events. Given the rapid improvement Ledecky has shown, there appears no challenger on the horizon. The ease in which she throttled a quality Pan Pacs field in the 400 metre was electrifying.
"It's a great feeling. It never really gets old," Ledecky said this week. "I have some long-term goals. We're not quite there yet, but we'll get there."
Even the driving rain that has persisted for the opening three days of the meet failed to ruffle her feathers.
"It was beautiful out there tonight. I'm not really affected by the rain or anything," she said. "There's no rain under water, so it doesn't really bother me."
Missy Franklin was the darling of the pool in London but has struggled with a back injury all week on the Gold Coast, ensuring she swam well below her best, which was good enough to win six golds at last year's world titles in Barcelona and four golds in a stunning Olympic debut in 2012.
She will have to share that honour with Ledecky in Rio as America looks destined to continue its domination of the Olympic pool.