Stanford's incoming swimming superstar upsets newly-pro Katie Ledecky
Pan-Pacs is the most important swim meet of 2018. Taylor Ruck of Canada is the new young tall versatile superstar but has yet to enter college. She'll be at Stanford this fall. On Thursday night Ruck upset Katie Ledecky of Stanford in Pan-Pacs at Ledecky's most vulnerable distance, 200 meters. Rikako Ikee of Japan is another brilliant newcomer. She finished second with Ledecky third. To be fair to Ledecky, she won the 800 meters earlier in the day so fatigue could have been a factor.
I realize swimming is not high profile other than the Olympics, but for anyone interested the Olympic Channel is covering this meet for the next three days. It is also replayed later on NBCSN. In a few hours at 6 AM Eastern on Friday the coverage will feature a highly anticipated showdown in the women's 100 meter backstroke between new world record holder Kathleen Baker of the United States and prior record holder Kylie Masse of Canada. The women's 100 meter freestyle is expected to be very tight between Olympic gold medalist Simone Manuel of the United States and brilliant yet erratic Cate Campbell of Australia, who recorded the fastest 100 meter relay split ever last night in Australia's mixed medley relay victory.
