Tessa “Tess” Cieplucha captured an astonishing victory over swimming icon Katie Ledecky in the 400m individual medley at the 2024 TYR Pro Swim Series. After clinching two golds on day 1 (1500m free) and day 2 (400m free) respectively, Ledecky’s 400m IM time was bested by her Canadian counterpart on day 3 of the series. 

While it was hard to comprehend how the US swimmer lost to a Canadian on home turf, it was actually Cieplucha who had the home advantage. In fact, while Tess Cieplucha may be swimming for the Canadian team in international contests, she is well acquainted with Tennessee waters.

Tess Cieplucha turns the tables on Katie Ledecky on day 3

SwimSwam Live announced the results of the day three swimming event via a tweet on X. The tweet carried the caption, “Knoxville Women’s 400 IM Podium: (1) Tess Cieplucha (TNAQ) — 4:41.54. (2) Katie Ledecky (GSC) — 4:44.82. (3) Lea Polonsky (UN) — 4:47.58.”

While Cieplucha clocked, 4:41.54 in her medley, Katie Ledecky, who is known for leaving her opponents way behind in races, got defeated by a whopping margin of 3.28 seconds. Tess Cieplucha successfully stopped the momentum of Ledecky, who was on a hot winning streak with two gold medals in the event.

Cieplucha is an up-and-coming swimming sensation who steadily improved her performance. Cieplucha captured the SEC swimmer of the year title before finishing college and competing for Canada. Though Cieplucha trounced Ledecky in the medley, the 7x Olympic gold medalist is looking forward to try her swimming strokes in different avenues this year.

Branching out and trying different things in the Olympic year

Katie Ledecky is an Olympic champion who specializes in the freestyle swimming stroke. Moreover, with seven Olympic gold medals, she has a decorated swimming vocation. However, she participated in the individual medley to try things out this year.

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Ledecky has bagged two gold medals at the Knoxville event so far, out of which, her 1500m freestyle win added another fastest global finish. Speaking about entering the Olympic year, Ledecky mentioned that the preparation that goes in every year and every contest is different. She has more experience to leverage in every race. As the Paris Olympics stand just 6 months away, will Katie Ledecky add more gold medals to her Olympic tally?

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