Olympic gold medallist Katie Ledecky claimed her third title on Saturday at the US Swimming Championships with a dominant victory in the 1500m freestyle.
On the final night of competition, the 16-year-old flirted with the world record through the first half of the women’s 1500m free before finishing with a world-leading time of 15min 47.15 sec.
Throughout the race, it was Ledecky against the clock. Chloe Sutton was the runner-up in 16:07.75.
“I just wanted to do my own thing and see how fast I could go,” Ledecky said of her approach to the event, which isn’t raced by women at the Olympics. “I blanked out pretty badly on that swim.
“I don’t even remember what I was thinking about — just keep going, get into a rhythm in my breathing, sort of let the sounds of the water and the crowd take over from there.”
The performance was the fourth-fastest all-time, a meet record and a personal best for the high school student from Bethesda, Maryland, who won the 800m free at the London Games.
Ledecky is now eligible for five events at the World Championships in Barcelona, July 18 to August 4. She won the 800m free on Tuesday and finished first in Friday’s 400m freestyle.
Joining Ledecky as triple winners were Ryan Lochte and Connor Jaeger.
Lochte won the 200m individual medley in 1:55.44 — the fastest clocking of 2013.