Arena The most dominant athlete in the world today is not Lebron James, Michael Phelps, or Jordan Spieth

It's Katie mother****in' Ledecky...



At the Worlds championships in Kazan, Russia, which is considered the tune-up to Rio next year, she has dominated in freestyle events ranging from the 200 to the 1500, with nifty world records in the 800 and 1500. In the latter, she broke the WR by accident in a prelim, and then went on to beat her brand new record in the final. And just today, she lowered the 800 meter freestyle world record to 8:07, by nearly four seconds over her old record from last year, and in so doing became the first woman to go under 8:10 in this event. She is just 18 years old.

I know some of you are probably going "okay, why did you post this," but I've tagged it under "Arena" so it should be of at least some interest to people who consider themselves interested in sports. I also think people in general should just know about this all-around otherworldly athlete a little more, because she gets nowhere near the amount of attention she actually deserves.

On a sidenote, Michael Phelps is at U.S. Nationals this week in San Antonio, instead of in Kazan, due to his USA Swimming-mandated punishment for his DUI last year, but he looks like he's about to have his best meet since Beijing or Rome. Last night, he posted the world's fastest time in the 200 fly this year, a time that would've beat the champion in this event (Laszlo Cseh) at Worlds, and also a time that is only the third fastest ever. He is 30 years old (incidentally, so is Cseh).

 

Abby Wambach.

 

Phil "The Power" Taylor.

 

It's probably the nail polish.

 

You forgot to list Lionel Messi in your thread title.

 

Watched Ledecky swim the 800 m today. It's rare to see a swimmer dominate an event so thoroughly, maybe not so rare for the 800 and 1500, but beating your own world record by 4 seconds still seems huge. Except in the 200 m she's really only racing herself at this point.

Also the mixed 4x100 relay was a hoot. Fantastic effort from Missy Franklin to take the lead in the final 10 meters for a world record.

 

While I do think Ronda Rousy's the most dominant athlete around right now; as somebody who once had fantasies of swimming in the Olympics as a little girl, it's nice to see a very positive post about swimming, especially by a young woman in such a powerful manner.

 

Coruscant is a young woman?

 

Not unless there's something Cor's been keeping from us.

 

**** MMA. Although I'm not into sports generally, I have a special contempt for those where the object is to beat the **** out of another person until the referee calls it, they give up, or they succumb to serious brain injury. For our entertainment.

 

She wouldn't be the first.