OMAHA, Neb. – Katie Ledecky knows her opening performance in an Olympic trials that is expected to be as much a coronation as a competition wasn’t very good.
“I felt like I would be faster than that,” she said Tuesday night about her 400 freestyle victory a day earlier. “I was just surprised by that time.”
Ledecky, the most decorated woman in swimming history, qualified for her third Olympic team, but her winning time of 4:01.27 was nearly five seconds slower than her world record of 3:56.46 set at the 2016 Rio Olympics. It also was well behind the 3:56.