US TENS thousands of people cheered, the bright lights of Lucas Oil Stadium shone on the pool that had taken over the football field in Indianapolis. Katie Ledecky touched the wall in first place, looked up at the screen where the results were displayed, and shook.
She took off her glasses and bobbed in the water before turning back to reach back to the wall.
Katie Ledecky with a DOMINANT 1500m free win in Indianapolis. 🔥
Katie Grimes will join him at this event in Paris.
đź“ş NBC & @peacock | #SwimTrials24 pic.twitter.com/CQklctFNxJ
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 20, 2024
Just then Katie Grimes, runner-up in the 1,500-meter freestyle, touched the wall. A full 20 seconds had passed between Ledecky’s finish at the US Olympic trials and Grimes’, and Ledecky had earned second place on the team for Paris, also officially taking the 19th fastest time in race history.
But he was not satisfied.
Moments later, with water dripping from his coat and his swim cap still over his head, Ledecky, 27, spoke to NBC’s Melissa Stark in an interview shown on the jumbotron.
“I would have liked it to have been a little faster, but I’ll take it,” Ledecky said flatly before perking up a bit. “I’ll be better in a few weeks.”
A few hours later, he didn’t seem too happy about his appearance. As he spoke to a room full of reporters, he called the race “a bit sloppy” and admitted he “wished it would have been faster.”
“I know I have more than the final result today,” Ledecky said.
He was only stating the facts when he said it could be faster. His time in the trials was more than 17 seconds slower than the world record (15:20.48) he set in 2018, and he knew exactly what he was capable of. his enemies too. That’s what made him the literal gold standard in this sport for more than ten years. Since his Olympic debut as a teenager in London in 2012, Ledecky has won everything, including 10 Olympic medals, seven gold.
Now as he enters the fourth Olympics of his career as one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, Ledecky looks to make even more history, and he continues to be driven by the idea of ​​making the impossible possible.
One more gold medal would tie Ledecky with Jenny Thompson for most by a female swimmer. With any three medals, she would become the most decorated American Olympic woman. And many believe that the record is just a formality for his legacy.
“He’s a stud, he’s the GOAT,” said Michael Phelps, legendary swimmer and the greatest Olympian in history, during the Tokyo Olympics. “She is the best female swimmer in the world.”
DO YOU HAVE LEDECKY accomplished in his career can only be described as staggering. Unimaginable, almost. Compared only to Phelps.
In addition to her 10 Olympic medals – the first of which came as a 15-year-old in the 800-meter freestyle in 2012 – she has won 21 world titles in four different individual races (200, 400, 800 and 1,500). -meter free) and two relays (4×100 and 4×200 free). After winning the 800 at the 2023 worlds, he became the only swimmer to win six world titles in the same event, breaking Phelps’ record for the most individual world swimming titles in history.
Ledecky has swam the fastest time in history 14 times during his career. He holds world records in the 800 and 1,500 meter freestyle races. And while he has 19 top times in the 1,500, he’s also been dominant in the 800, where he holds the top spot. 29 times in history. Somehow amazingly and unsurprisingly he has never lost a race in a major competition at either of those distances.
His dominance even inspired his closest opponents and rivals.
“He made a mark for me… The way he races I want to be like that,” Ariarne Titmus said on the Code Sports podcast earlier this year. The 23-year-old Australian swimmer beat Ledecky for gold in the 400 freestyle in Tokyo and finished behind him in the 800. If I didn’t have him to chase, I wouldn’t be an athlete because I want to break barriers like him.
As a relative unknown on the global stage, Ledecky showed that the spirit is not afraid in his Olympic debut in 2012. He has surprised even himself when he won the 800-meter free and became the Olympic team during the first senior national competition in the trials. He is the youngest of the 530-member American contingent for the Games, and posted the third-fastest time in the qualifying heats in London.
But even then he was supported by self-confidence. In her memoir “Just Add Water: My Swimming Life,” released in June, Ledecky said she had tried to imagine every possible scenario for the race before the finals, but could not envision anything but her winning.
“Given his record of success in the 800, I believe there is a good chance he will win this race,” Ledecky wrote. “Anything good or bad can happen – and isn’t that the beauty of competition day?
“From the room in the Olympic village, I sent an email to my parents who calmly expressed their confidence. I reminded them again that when you win a medal, the family can go down to the part where they just swim and throw flowers or take photos. My parents told me that when I writing this, he thinks I’ve lost my mind.”
In the final, Ledecky took an early lead, leaving broadcast commentators doubting her ability to pace herself, and ultimately won the gold medal by more than four seconds.
This was the second fastest time in the race at the time.
A good start introduction to a global audience, Ledecky has become Katie Ledecky, known by sports fans in the world. Apart from medals and records, it is his ability to consistently perform at the highest level that sets him apart. In a sport where 27 is considered old — the average age of an Olympic swimmer in Tokyo is 21 — Ledecky continues to push herself and the boundaries of what she can do.
And part of that comes from a willingness to change in order to challenge ourselves. He has worked with a different coach during each Olympic cycle – no matter how successful he has been.
After his four-medal performance in Tokyo, Ledecky announced he was leaving Stanford, where he was an eight-time NCAA champion, to join the Gator Swim Club at the University of Florida. The move allowed him to train under head coach Anthony Nesty and alongside some of the best swimmers in the country, including Bobby Finke, the men’s Olympic gold medalist in the 800 and 1,500 freestyle, and Caeleb Dressel, the seven-time Olympic gold medalist. .
With little competition in the women’s distance races, and even less during her training sessions at Stanford, working every day next to someone like Finke has made her better. According to Nesty, who is also the US men’s Olympic head coach, he has thrived in the environment.
“I think I enjoy it more every day than competing,” Nesty said during a press conference from the Olympic training camp earlier this month. “That’s how his career has been solid since day one, where he broke first. I can tell he wants to swim forever because he loves it so much, and to do it at this level for so long. It takes a special person.”
In an interview with CBS News’ “Sunday Morning” last month, Nesty added that training with men gives her an extra incentive. “He might not say it, but if he beats the boys, I think he’s happy,” he said.
Whatever the motivation, Ledecky’s training continues to put him in a league of his own. In addition to winning the 1,500, Ledecky also convincingly won the 200, 400 and 800 at the trials. He has opted out of competing in the 200 meters in Paris as an individual to focus on the longer distances, but will compete in the relay. Ledecky said he was thrilled to make his fourth Olympic team — something that was unbelievable as a kid — when he spoke to reporters in Indianapolis.
“The impossible is what motivates me every day to go to the pool.”
Katie Ledecky
When asked if it was difficult to stay focused on her goals or to stay excited about the process over the years of her swimming career, Ledecky didn’t hesitate.
“I actually don’t think so. I think it’s kind of the opposite for me,” Ledecky said. “I feel like this every year. I think it’s a testament to the people around me, the people who have been around me my whole career in (my hometown) Bethesda, Maryland, and out at Stanford, now in Florida, just a great community that makes me excited about sports, great friends that push me every day, coaches that believe in me and push me to keep reaching bigger and bigger goals.
Ledecky is now just a few days away from potentially etching his name times in the record books. If she wins the 800, she will become the second woman in Olympic history, and the first in the pool, to win an individual event gold medal in four consecutive Olympics.
She has four chances to medal and could pass former Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina for the most gold medals won by a female Olympian if she wins three golds. He will also become only the second Olympian to win 10 or more gold medals – joining only Phelps.
But it won’t be easy. Titmus, a gold medalist in the 200 and 400, remains his most formidable opponent. Titmus can challenge Ledecky in the 400 and 800, and has the second-fastest time in the world in the 800 this season behind Ledecky. And while Ledecky remains the overwhelming favorite in the two longer distances, others such as Li Bingjie and Simona Quadarella could surprise.
Katie Ledecky does what Katie Ledecky does. 🙌
She cruised to victory in the women’s 200m freestyle final!
đź“ş NBC & @peacock | #SwimTrials24 pic.twitter.com/zUprToT38B
– NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) June 18, 2024
But Ledecky never backed down. In fact, that’s what got him here. Back in Indianapolis, he swam in the 200-meter freestyle, although no one expected him to compete in the individual races at the Games.
Tied for the lead with Clare Weinstein at the 150 meter mark, Ledecky found another gear down the stretch. As he had done so many times before, he jumped into the wall, beating Weinstein by a second.
This time, when he saw the jumbotron after the race, he couldn’t help but smile.
“The more distant the goal seems to be when I find it, the better,” Ledecky wrote in his book. “If, when I say the goal out loud to the coach, it doesn’t work – that’s when I know I’m on the right track.
“The impossible is what motivates me every day to go to the pool. It is very satisfying, so epically rewarding, when you start chipping away at the idealistic goal. The steps to be taken.”
