Katie Ledecky swam what she called “a relaxed” world record in the otherwise grueling 1500m freestyle preliminaries at the World Swimming Championships in Kazan, Russia, on Monday.
The recent high school graduate without a driver’s license clocked 15:27.71 to break her record from 2014 by .65 of a second.
“To be honest, it did feel pretty easy,” Ledecky told media in Kazan. “I wasn’t kicking much. I think breaking that record is just a testament to the work I’ve put in and the shape that I’m in right now that I was able to do that.