And with that, we can kiss goodbye all long course World Records from before the super-suit era of 2008 and 2009: Katie Ledecky has broken the all-time mark in the women’s 1500 free with a 15:36.53. The old mark of 15:42.54 was set by fellow American, and fellow D.C. Metroplex native, Kate Ziegler, who was a 15:42.54 in 2007 at a meet in Mission Viejo, California.

That record-breaking swim is an absolute destruction; on average, she bettered Ziegler by two-tenths of a second per 50, every 50. She wasn’t the only one under the old mark either. Denmark’s Lotte Friis had a valiant swim of her own, going 15:38.88 to improve Ziegler’s record by four seconds. Friis and Ledecky split time in the lead of this race, and though Friis led most of it, Ledecky really crushed her coming off of the last turn.

Note: for those wondering, Ledecky is two days older than the other World Record breaker at this meet, Ruta Meilutyte. Both turn 17 in March.

Friis broke the old European Record of 15:44.93 held by Italy’s Alessia Filippi from 2009. And again, in 3rd, New Zealand’s Lauren Boyle was a 15:44.71, which is the 4th-fastest swim in history, but still left her six seconds away from even a silver. Boyle became the first Oceanic swimmer under 16 minutes, breaking Melissa Gorman’s 2010 record of 16:01.53 in the event. This is only the 5th Oceanic record (in long course and short course combined) owned by someone other than the Australians.

Ziegler’s record was the oldest on the books in long course, with the new title going to Michael Phelps’ 4:03.8 in the 400 IM from the 2008 Olympics (incidentally, only three records from 2008 even are still around in long course).

There’s still one World Record older in short course meters, and that’s Grant Hackett’s indomitable 14:10.10 in the 1500 SCM freestyle from 2001.

Let’s do some comparative splits (you’ve gotta see this).

In the comparative splits column, GREEN shows when Ledecky made up ground on Ziegler’s splits. RED shows when Ledecky lost ground on Ziegler’s splits.

Ziegler Ledecky Friis Old WR New WR Cumulative Difference #2 time in history 50 meters 29.23 28.14 28.39 100 meters 31.26 30.61 -1.74 30.76 150 meters 31.60 30.58 -2.76 30.49 200 meters 31.37 30.72 -3.41 31.07 250 meters 31.71 31.16 -3.96 30.87 300 meters 31.57 31.76 -3.77 31.28 350 meters 31.60 31.50 -3.87 31.14 400 meters 31.53 31.42 -3.98 31.26 450 meters 31.54 31.31 -4.21 31.2 500 meters 31.60 31.50 -4.31 31.51 550 meters 31.79 31.33 -4.77 31.13 600 meters 31.68 31.36 -5.09 31.58 650 meters 31.59 31.47 -5.21 31.46 700 meters 31.56 31.43 -5.34 31.84 750 meters 31.43 31.53 -5.24 31.33 800 meters 31.51 31.51 -5.24 31.85 850 meters 31.34 31.62 -4.96 31.57 900 meters 31.51 31.53 -4.94 31.74 950 meters 31.65 31.88 -4.71 31.56 1000 meters 31.67 31.30 -5.08 31.58 1050 meters 31.45 31.60 -4.93 31.48 1100 meters 31.51 31.65 -4.79 31.76 1150 meters 31.72 31.62 -4.89 31.48 1200 meters 31.75 31.74 -4.90 31.78 1250 meters 31.38 31.48 -4.80 31.56 1300 meters 31.99 31.73 -5.06 31.87 1350 meters 31.59 31.34 -5.31 31.38 1400 meters 31.72 31.24 -5.79 31.62 1450 meters 31.42 31.00 -6.21 31.59 1500 meters 29.27 29.47 -6.01 30.75

Ziegler’s splitting was more consistent than Ledecky, especially through the middle part of the race, but it was sort of a scenario of 4 steps forward, one step back for Ledecky. In a head-to-head sense, she wont 19 50’s as compared to Ziegler’s splits, and lost 9, but the ones she won she won big.