Katie Ledecky, men’s medley showdown dot Pro Series swim meet; broadcast schedule

Katie Ledecky leads a host of Olympic and world champions entered in this week’s Pro Series meet in Westmont, Illinois, airing live on Peacock as swimmers prepare for June’s national championships.

Ledecky is entered in two of her primary events — the 400m and 800m freestyles — plus three events that she is not expected to race at nationals — the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 100m free.

The meet starts Wednesday with distance finals live on USASwimming.org at 6 p.m. ET (including Ledecky in the 800m free). Peacock airs live finals coverage on Thursday and Friday (400m free) at 7. Highlights air Saturday at 12 p.m. on CNBC, NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app.

The full entry list is here.

Ledecky enters ranked No. 1 in the world this year in the 800m free and No. 2 in the 400m free behind 16-year-old Canadian Summer McIntosh, who two weeks ago broke the world record. McIntosh is not entered in this week’s meet.

Ledecky is nearly five seconds faster than the next-best American in the 400m free in 2023. She is more than 13 seconds faster than the No. 2 American in the 800m free this year.

She is in line to again be the heavy favorite in both events at June’s nationals in Indianapolis, where the top two per individual event are in line to qualify for July’s world championships in Japan.

Ledecky could seek to replicate her worlds program from last year, when she won all of her events (400m, 800m and 1500m frees, plus 4x200m free relay). A question is whether she plans to race the 200m free this summer.

Last year, she won the 200m at nationals and ceded her spot in the event at worlds, citing in part the schedule that had the 200m free semifinals and 1500m free final in the same session at worlds. The schedule