'How Kate Ziegler became the world's top distance swimmer' - the title is misleading and the article is very nuanced.

Kate Ziegler is elusive and even ghost-like. Articles about her are rarely written, media is tightly guarded, and photographs are practically non-existent. My site is searched constantly for information regarding her and in fact, she is one of the top ten most searched for swimmers. The articled linked to is nuanced in that will you know more about Kate Ziegler when your done with it?

This San Jose Mercury News is regarding her thoughts about the 1500m, her pleasure in being a non-celebrity, and a very witty observation or a dig at FINA by proxy regarding the silliness of not having the 1500 in the Olympics: "... Ziegler's signature event, the 1,500-meter freestyle, is not included in the Olympics because of old-fashioned stereotypes about women being too weak to swim the longest event in the pool. "They have the 10K open water race," Benecki said. "But the 1,500 is too long?" ..." [Link]

WHOA! It happened. Did you feel the earthquake when Kate Ziegler broke Janet Evans' 1500m record?

She blazed, she raged, she stormed it at the TYR Swim Meet of Champions. She didn't violate the record by a measly 9-hundreds-of-a-second nor did she break it by 9-tenths-of-a-second. She beat Janet Evans record of 15:52.10, a record that has stood since Kate Ziegler was a three-month-old baby, by 9-seconds-plus! Tonight the new record is 15:42.54.

This is overwhelmingly decisive. She is not just the best in the world but the best who ever was. This American girl will be unstoppable in Beijing. There is so much enthusiasm, technique and strength in this girl that I wonder how can a swimmer get more motivated than Kate Ziegler? I don't see how Laure Manaudou with all her media distractions and the sniping between France and Italy can.

Lane 9 news used phrases like: "finest performance in history", "vengenance","she attacked", and of course, "made history." Ultimately, this is a huge event. [Link]

Erik Vendt, 1500m specialist, has a blog

He also "owned" Michael Phelps in the 1500m free last weekend at the Eric Namesnik Memorial Gran Prix. Though the 1500m free is not Michael Phelps' event, Erik Vendt used just 3 seconds to remind him. Vendt: 15:31.29 - Phelps: 15 34.18.


Erik has a blog and a photo gallery. Here is a link to his blog: [Link]