[138], Ledecky joined Claire Weinstein, Leah Smith, and Bella Sims on the U.S. 4x200 freestyle relay on day five. Four years later, she was a record holder and medal. I promise this isnt because Im getting my butt kicked.. The 800? [62] On the meet's final day, Ledecky joined Manuel, Neal, and Janet Hu to break the NCAA and American record in the 400-yard freestyle relay. It cant be easy to go train against Katie when you know youre going to get your head kicked in, said Keenan Robinson, Phelps longtime strength and conditioning coach. Its just her commitment and desire for getting better.. Ledecky concluded the meet with a win in the 800-meter freestyle, her fifth-straight title in the event across Olympics and World Championships. Ledecky's supremacy is not born of any freakish physiological gifts such as Phelps' enormous wingspan or double jointed ankles. She feels water better than anyone else has ever felt water, Barbini said. [25][26] Her third-place finish in the 400-meter freestyle was the fastest time ever swum by a 15- to 16-year-old American. [4], Ledecky began swimming at the age of six due to the influence of her older brother, Michael, and her mother, who swam for the University of New Mexico. Her physiology? But she shows gratitude and appreciation and keeps people coming back to get their heads kicked in.. Inside the 24-year-old Katie Ledecky's decision to leave Stanford and join elite training partners and a new coach in Anthony Nesty at the University of Florida, ahead of Paris 2024. Athlete. This is something really, really special.. Yes. She takes a little advantage by doing all these little things a little bit better and I think that all adds up to her being so much better than everybody else, Barbini said. [136], On the first day of competition, Ledecky won the 400-meter freestyle in a championship record 3:58.15, besting Canadian silver medalist Summer McIntosh by 1.24 seconds. She also swam in the 100-meter freestyle heats. She wasnt great at skills or drills we would try and teach her. Ledecky's time was the sixth-fastest ever (behind only her own performances) and over 7 seconds faster than her winning time at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In her international debut at the 2012 London Olympic Games as a 15-year-old, Ledecky unexpectedly won the gold medal in the women's 800-metre freestyle. Then it did. Dwyer topped out at 40 inches. [16] Her uncle Jon Ledecky is a businessman and a co-owner of the NHL team New York Islanders. [92] Because training facilities were closed during the pandemic, Ledecky and her colleague Simone Manuel trained for the Olympics in a 25-yard private pool in Atherton, in the backyard of masters swimmer Tod Spieker. [119] Ledecky began her racing in the prelims of the 400 meter freestyle, ranking first overall with her time of 4:00.45 and advancing to the final. At the Texas A&M Invitational in November 2017, Ledecky lowered her American and U.S. Open mark in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 15:03.31. Ledecky trailed Quadarella into the final wall. Her 400-meter split was 4:04.34, a personal best for Ledecky in that distance, and would have placed fifth in the individual 400-meter freestyle. Just over an hour later, Ledecky took third in the 200-meter freestyle (1:55.15), finishing behind Canada's Taylor Ruck (1:54.44) and Japan's Rikako Ikee (1:54.85). What transformed that girl who couldnt make it across the pool? Ledecky, who has broken the 4-minute barrier in the distance 20 times, thought she had been faster. But her career is also a two-way conversation. Because of her analytical approach to training, she knows almost exactly how the race is going to go, Sweetser said. Still recovering from illness, Ledecky qualified second the next day for the final of the 800-meter freestyle. 883 following. On the fourth day of the Olympic trials, for example, she won the 200 freestyle by a full body length after pulling away in the final 50 meters. It was two big kicks and bilateral breathing. An iron will? Years later, Gemmell read two items on Ledeckys goal card: break the world record in the 800 freestyle by the following summer and swim 8:10 in the event in Rio. Sims anchored the team to a championship record time of 7:41.45. Competing in both events is rare enough. He can count on one hand the number of times she was floored by a workout. Katie Ledecky, byname of Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky, (born March 17, 1997, Washington, D.C., U.S.), American swimmer who was one of the sport's dominant freestylers in the early 21st century, breaking numerous records. Swimming the anchor leg, Ledecky recorded a split of 1:55.64 and the Americans finished with an aggregate time of 7:45.37. Shes not doing it for the adulation, shes not doing it for the title of the worlds greatest swimmer, the coach said. Katie Ledecky's height is 6 feet tall and her body weight is 73 kilograms. The American . Katie Ledecky reacts after competing in the womens 800-meter freestyle final during the U.S. Olympic trials at CHI Health Center on June 19 in Omaha, Neb. Katie Ledecky, left, finishes the womens 400-meter freestyle final far ahead of silver medal winner Leah Smith, right, during the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on July 23, 2017. Most of the time she didnt. [11][12][13][14] Ledecky's mother is of Irish descent. Even if they are fit and strong like a football player, they cannot swim fast if they do not have the skill to catch the water, Takagi wrote in an email. [65] In the meet's final event, Ledecky joined Manuel, Neal, and Hu to swim the second leg of Stanford's 400-yard freestyle relay. Katie Ledecky isn't just an Olympian; she's one of the most gifted athletes in the world. General swimmers tend to think that if they can just get their arms around faster and kick their legs faster, they can swim faster. Ledecky competes against herself (1:59) U.S. Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky talks to Hannah Storm about how she got started swimming, how she set goals for herself when she was young and how the . Joined with Mallory Comerford, Kelsi Worrell, and Simone Manuel, Ledecky recorded a split of 53.83, helping the team win gold with a time of 3:31.72, a new national record for the United States. Dinner. The top 11 times. While every distance swimmer grinds through thousands of monotonous yards each week, these sessions are somehow different for Ledecky. Experts single out the way Ledeckys palm wraps about the water and pulls it back. She keeps logbooks chronicling most of her practices dating to 2011. [47] Twenty-nine minutes later, Ledecky qualified 6th in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:56.76. The Untold Truth Of Katie Ledecky. Shes always trying to maximize her performance so theres nothing left in the tank. 578K followers. Andrew Gemmell, the coachs son who competed at the London Olympics in the 1,500 freestyle, trained with Ledecky in the two years leading up to Rio. In between London and Rio, Ledecky quietly became the world's most dominant swimmer no longer just a distance specialist. Ledecky's winning time was over six seconds quicker than American teammate and silver medalist Cierra Runge. At the 2020 Olympic Games, Ledecky also emerged as the most decorated U.S. female athlete and became the first American female swimmer to win an individual event in three straight Olympiads. The words were matter-of-fact, delivered without a trace of pretense. Katie Ledecky owns her time. At the Olympic trials last month, Greg Meehan, Ledeckys coach who leads the Stanford womens swimming program and the womens Olympic team, asked for a prediction. More recently, in the 1,500 at the Olympic trials, again, except . At the 2016 United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, Ledecky won the 200-, 400- and 800-meter freestyles to qualify for her second Olympic team. The biggest question when she knifes through the water usually isnt whether shes going to touch the wall first, but how many body lengths shell be in front of the second-place finisher. At the 2015 World Aquatics Championships in Kazan, Russia, Ledecky won five gold medals and broke three world records. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She was just doing what Jon was saying.. But the time was almost five seconds off Ledeckys world record set in Rio. [104] Two events later, she swam a 15:43.10 in the 1500 meter freestyle prelims, ranking as the fastest swimmer of prelims heat, advancing to the final, and setting a new Championship Record over four seconds faster than the previous record she set in 2013. Shes not doing some special strength program that nobody else knows about. Swimming the third leg, Ledecky passed Australia and Canada to take the lead with the third-fastest split in history (1:53.67). Not a drop of milk spilled. Shes not afraid to fail. And Katie's got tiny feet, too. She won the first-ever women's 1500 . [91], As part of the NBC evening telecast for day one of the 2020 USA Swimming Olympic Trials (postponed to June 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), Ledecky was featured in an interview discussing Stanford University's commencement, finishing her college degree, and training for the Olympic Trials. Shes kind of a freak athlete. Thats why Bruce Gemmell quips that Ledecky would be content to race in a cardboard box. The traits, at least individually, arent uncommon in elite swimmers. It worked. The next morning, Ledecky struggled through her preliminary heat of the 1500-meter freestyle despite qualifying first for the event's final. Trust me, Gemmell said. She qualified in the heats with an Olympic record, 8:12.86, and set a world record in the finals of 8:04.79, over 11 seconds faster than the silver medalist, Jazmin Carlin. Ledecky provided the US with an early lead, swimming the first leg in a personal best of 1:56.32. Her Czech-born paternal grandfather Jaromr Ledecky arrived in New York City on September 8, 1947, as a student,[10] later becoming an economist, and married an Ashkenazi Jewish woman named Berta Ruth Greenwald (Ledecky's paternal grandmother) in Brooklyn on December 30, 1956, and through her Ledecky has relatives who were killed in the Holocaust in Europe. [87] Ledecky withdrew from the 800-meter freestyle race due to illness. Barbini noticed the mix of intensity and care thats as much a part of Ledecky as the blazing times. Theres a decades worth of underwater video too. Katie Ledecky was born on March 17, 1997 in Washington, D.C. (via Britannica).One of her most memorable childhood moments was captured on camera, and she shared it with her Twitter followers in . [23], At the 2012 United States Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska (her first senior national competition), Ledecky made the Olympic team by placing first in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 8:19.78, which was over two seconds ahead of second-place finisher Kate Ziegler. [20], In December 2020, she completed the required courses for a bachelor of arts in psychology and minor in political science from Stanford University, [21][22] and graduated in June 2021. Ledecky made her debut as a professional swimmer on May 16, 2018, at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Indianapolis, Indiana, where she beat her old world record in the 1500-meter freestyle, setting a new world record of 15:20.48. Turned out a bigger foe lurked behind him: the pace clock. In the final, Ledecky swam to an early lead before Italian swimmer Simona Quadarella took over midway through the race. With the victory, Ledecky became the first swimmer, male or female, to win five consecutive world championship titles in an individual event. Maybe the history Ledecky is making is as remarkable as how shes doing it. Or Mark finding Ledecky eating alone in the dining hall at the London Olympics the day of her 800 freestyle final, appearing as calm as a seasoned veteran. Instead, Ledecky has a gift that defies measurement. Ledecky's fastest time in the 400 freestyle is the world record time, 3:56.46, set in her gold medal-winning performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky (born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive swimmer. [76], Ledecky signed her first sponsorship deal with TYR Sport, Inc. on June 8, 2018. [141], The following week at the World Cup's Indianapolis stop, Ledecky broke the world record in the 800m short course freestyle. Ledecky sometimes texts her mother, Mary Gen, or brother, Michael, after a particularly good set. On the meet's first day, she recorded the team's fastest split to lower the 800-yard freestyle relay record to 6:45.91 with Manuel, Neal, and Eastin. [130] Ledecky won her second gold medal of the Olympics and her seventh of all time in the 800-meter freestyle. In the 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky set her third world record of the year by breaking Federica Pellegrini's 2009 world record of 3:59.15 with a time of 3:58.86. Her wins came in the 200-, 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyles and the 4200-meter freestyle. Shes not doing some special strength program that nobody else knows about. [88] Ledecky did not compete at any other events during 2020. Or perhaps the answer is more basic. Sports, however, bring a desire for answers, for numbers, for specifics, especially for someone whose accomplishments almost have become disorienting. Unlike her other races, it was not an easy win for Ledecky, which featured the likes of Missy Franklin and Federica Pellegrini. Nature versus nurture? Ledecky was the defending Olympic champion and world-record holder. She became the first swimmer to win a distance event three times in a row, as well as the youngest and oldest person to win the 800 free (at age 15 in 2012 and age 24 in 2021). Her six individual gold medals are the most of any female Olympic swimmer and female US Olympian, and the second-most of all Olympic swimmers behind Michael Phelps. In a video posted on social media last summer, Ledecky placed a glass of chocolate milk on her head, then swam the length of the pool. In her fourth and last event, the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky won gold in a world record of 8:13.86, bettering Rebecca Adlington's world record of 8:14.10. [105][106] Later the same day in the evening semifinals for the 200 meter freestyle, Ledecky finished first with a time of 1:55.83. In her first event in Barcelona, the 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky became a world champion for the first time by winning in 3:59.82, setting a new American record and becoming the second-fastest performer of all time in the event.[31]. I think I do a pretty good job of sticking to those and not seeing what kinds of medal counts or times that people are throwing out about what I could accomplish if everything goes perfectly.. Oh, man, this is not exactly what we thought, he said. Her face was red. (Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post) At . [50] Earlier in the meet, she set world-leading times in the 200- and 400-meter freestyles and a U.S.-leading time in the 100-meter freestyle. The victories, the records, the head-shaking performances in which her only competition is the clock, are so frequent that they seem as routine as her unassuming comments after each race with history. You just watch the force that she pulls with and its way, way different., Laguna Beachs Nyjah Huston brings a fierce commitment to training to a rebellious sport, making the skateboarder a star to watch in the Tokyo Olympics. [24] In Omaha, Ledecky also placed third in the 400-meter freestyle (4:05.00) and ninth in the 200-meter freestyle (1:58.66). At the National Championships, she finished first in the 400-, 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, and second in the 200-meter freestyle. On the fourth day of competition, Ledecky tied for silver in the 200-meter freestyle (with Emma McKeon), finishing behind Federica Pellegrini with a time of 1:55.18. "Katie Ledecky is the student that takes 20 credits a semester at Harvard and gets a 4.0 every semester -- and nobody likes that person," said Elizabeth Beisel, a 2012 Olympic silver and bronze . Her gold was the first international medal of her career, earning her the 2012 Best Female Performance of the Year and Breakout Performer of the Year at the Golden Goggle Awards. She reset her American, NCAA, and U.S. Open records in the 800-yard freestyle relay, 500-yard freestyle, and 400-yard freestyle relay and won a meet-best five race titles overall. She has an uncanny ability to remain herself, not flinch in the face of scrutiny and focus on the task at hand. Thats whats allowing her to get such a good grab of the water and have such good force generation per stroke.. The team lowered its previous record with a time of 3:07.61, securing a 526.5366 decision over runner-up California-Berkeley, the largest championship margin of victory since 2003. This is a completely different kind of race, 30 laps of endurance that is part of the womens Olympic program in Tokyo for the first time. What I found over time what she was great at, though, was her desire to get better. Shes swimming in full dude territory, he said. At 6 feet, the second-time Olympian is not extraordinarily tall compared with her peers. The questions pile up too. How fast would Torri Huske, the 18-year-old phenom headed to Stanford this fall, swim in the 100 butterfly final? The girl couldnt make it across the pool. Im willing to bet she has a V02 max thats better than anybody else on the face of the earth, Robinson said, referring to the maximum amount of oxygen a person uses while exercising. The next day, Ledecky anchored the United States team of Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, and Katie McLaughlin in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. At 6 feet, the second-time Olympian is not extraordinarily tall compared with her peers. When she started working with Gemmell in 2012, she could not . David Marsh, an assistant on the team who served as the womens coach in 2016, recalled coaches gathering when Ledecky swam. Ledecky's swim was the seventh-fastest performance in history. She certainly is.. [124][125] In the same prelims session as the 1500 meter freestyle, Ledecky ranked first in the 200 meter freestyle with a time of 1:55.28 and advanced to the event's semifinals. At the 2013 World Championships, Ledecky won gold in the 400-, 800-, and 1500-meter freestyle, and in the 4200-meter freestyle relay, and set two world records. At the 2019 World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, Ledecky battled illness and withdrew from two events before winning her fourth-straight World Championship title in the 800-meter freestyle. She also took bronze in the 200-meter freestyle and silver in the 4x200-meter freestyle. Ledecky made her first splash in international swimming after her freshman year at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in . During their next training session, he recalled, she said, Weve got to get our 40. She did. When Titmus first turned up to training with Boxall she was 16 seconds off Ledecky in the 400m, but slowly started to chip away and after a year she had halved the gap. [73], A week following Stanford's championship win, Ledecky announced at the National Press Club that she will forego her final two seasons of NCAA eligibility in order to accept professional endorsement and sponsorship opportunities. On the first day of the meet, Ledecky anchored the 800-yard freestyle relay with a 1:40.28 split to break the NCAA, American, and U.S. Open record in the 800-yard freestyle relay with Lia Neal, Katie Drabot, and Ella Eastin. [135] Ledecky earned FINA's female swimmer of the meet trophy for a third time.
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