Katie Ledecky swims another historic 1500m freestyle time, extends 15-year win streak

Katie Ledecky won the 1500m freestyle by 77 seconds to extend a 15-year, 40-plus-meet win streak in the event to start the Fort Lauderdale Open on Wednesday. Ledecky clocked 15 minutes, 25. 62 seconds — the fifth-fastest time in history, giving her the top 13 times ever — at the same pool where she broke the 800m free world record a year ago.

Ledecky, 29, lapped every swimmer in her heat Wednesday, facing a field with nobody else older than 17. Her closest pursuer was 15-year-old Sydney Hardy, who touched in 16:42. 76.

Ledecky has won two Olympic gold medals, six world titles and more than 40 consecutive finals in the 1500m free (long course) — 46 by my hand count of USA Swimming's database — since her last defeat in the event at the July 2010 Potomac Valley Championships in her native Maryland. Ledecky, then 13, was defeated by Kaitlin Pawlowicz, then 17. “(Ledecky) was leading and her cap came off,” Pawlowicz said in 2016, according to Yahoo Sports .

The Fort Lauderdale Open, which runs through Saturday, is headlined by Ledecky, plus the world's other top swimmers — Canadian Summer McIntosh and Frenchman Leon Marchand. A full entry list is here . At this same pool last May, Ledecky broke her own world record in the 800m freestyle (8:04.