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[77], In July 2018, at the US National Swimming Championships, Ledecky qualified for the 2018 Pan Pacific Championships by finishing first in the 200-,[78] 400-, and 800-meter freestyle.[79]. Katie Ledecky is doing what Katie Ledecky does! the public address announcer shouted last month as she completed another convincing victory during the U.S. Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb. In the middle of a difficult practice, Sweetser noticed Ledecky staring at him. She wasnt great at skills or drills we would try and teach her. Nature versus nurture? She has an uncanny ability to remain herself, not flinch in the face of scrutiny and focus on the task at hand. When Bruce Gemmell took over as Ledeckys coach at the Nations Capital Swim Club in late 2012, his young charge had an Olympic gold medal, but couldnt do a pullup. Katie Ledecky hugs Erica Sullivan after winning the womens 1500 freestyle during the second wave of the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials on June 16 in Omaha, Neb. Its a remarkable combination, particularly for someone to be that dominant for so long, which takes so much commitment, while at the same time being so nice and polite and kind.. There are technical explanations: her aerobic system using oxygen with extraordinary efficiency, while her anaerobic system generates explosive bursts of energy. Two days later, she recorded a time of 1:54.88 en route to winning the 200-meter freestyle. This is really impressive. I think she loves the training more than she loves competing, Michael said. At the Pac-12 Championships in Federal Way, Washington, Ledecky earned Swimmer of the Meet honors with four American records as Stanford won its first conference title in four years. She won a fourth gold in her final individual event, the 800-meter freestyle. She had a smile that seemed bigger than her diminutive frame, swim cap pulled over her ears and enthusiastic post-race analyses captured on home movies. All of this feeds Ledeckys ability to do things in the pool that arent normal. Ledecky, who could reach only 21 inches a few years earlier, reached a personal-best 39 inches. Even elite womens swimmers at the Olympics arent able to pull off that kind of stroke.. Ledecky made her first splash in international swimming after her freshman year at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in . We dont talk about it. During her career, she has broken sixteen world records. She subsequently announced her withdrawal from the 1500 and 200-meter freestyle due to illness.[81]. Some of these things that might have come naturally and unconsciously when she was 16, now its conscious, Mark said. [90], On Thursday May 20, 2021, at the Longhorn Aquatics Elite Invite Ledecky won the long course 100 meter freestyle final by one one-hundredth of a second in a time of 53.82 with second place going to Simone Manuel. Is she tall for an elite swimmer? The traits, at least individually, arent uncommon in elite swimmers. Its a mindset that different to go out as fast as you can without being blatantly reckless.. [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. The world record margin for the 12 other individual events in the Olympic program is 0.44%. In the final, she joined Simone Manuel, Abbey Weitzeil, and Dana Vollmer and recorded a split of 52.79, helping the team earn a silver medal (behind Australia) with a time of 3:31.89, a new national record for the United States. Katie Ledecky isn't just an Olympian; she's one of the most gifted athletes in the world. Ledecky returned to competition three days later to swim the final of the women's 4x200-meter freestyle relay. Shes not afraid to fail. Katie Ledecky has no obvious physiological advantages as a swimmer. Or Gemmell calling other coaches for ideas on how to challenge this once-in-a-lifetime teenager doing crazy stuff in practice. Katie wants to win by the most massive margin possible, but I dont think she wants to break anyones soul like Michael Jordan did, Barbini said. Ledecky began the year by breaking her own world records in the 800- and 1500-meter freestyle at the 2014 Woodlands Swim Team Senior Invitational in June. Ledecky was a USA Olympic team member in 2012, 2016, and 2020, and holds the female record for most individual gold medals (14) and overall gold medals (19) at the World Aquatics Championships. [18], During the summer of 2012, she trained with the Nation's Capital Swim Club (formerly the Curl Burke Swim Club) under coach Yuri Suguiyama. (Photo: JIM SHORIN/isiphotos.com, Graphic: KATRINA LIOU/The Stanford Daily) By Inyoung Choi. 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. 3x U.S. Olympic Swimmer (2012, 2016, 2021) 7x Olympic Gold Medalist 19x World Champion Stanford grad #TeamTYR - Katie@teamwass.com. [57] Ledecky's final medal total (four golds, one silver) is the most decorated single-Olympics performance by a U.S. female athlete in terms of gold medals, topping Missy Franklin (2012; four golds, 1 bronze), Simone Biles (2016; four golds, 1 bronze), and Amy Van Dyken (1996; four golds). [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. [93], On the second day, June 14, 2021, Ledecky competed in the prelims of the 400 meter freestyle in the morning, swimming a 4:03.07, ranking 1st out of all prelims heats, and advancing to the final in the evening. [11][12][13][14] Ledecky's mother is of Irish descent. Ledecky, who has broken the 4-minute barrier in the distance 20 times, thought she had been faster. Is she tall for the average person? Despite being in season and swimming multiple events, Ledecky was able to first break the world record in the 1500-meter freestyle with a time of 15:34.23,[36] bettering her previous mark of 15:36.53. But she acknowledged having the same nerves as any other competitor at the trials and, in all sincerity, said she didnt take making the Tokyo Games for granted. She has an unnatural sense of what will happen in the pool call it swimming intelligence thats as impressive to witness as it is difficult to quantify. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle (both long course and short course) as well as the former world record holder in the women's 400-meter freestyle (long course). But her career is also a two-way conversation. On the first day of competition, Ledecky won gold in the 800-meter freestyle with a championship-record time of 8:09.13, topping runner-up Ariarne Titmus of Australia by 7.94 seconds. Entering the water with a 2.88-second deficit, Ledecky swam the fourth-fastest relay split in history (1:53.84), nearly overtaking Australian Madeline Groves, who touched 0.25 seconds ahead of Ledecky to set a new championship and national record. A 58-foot-wide picture of Ledecky adorned the outside of the CHI Health Center in Omaha during the Olympic trials in 2016. Ledecky leaves some of the most experienced people in swimming grasping for the secret to her dominance. [54], Ledecky won a second gold in the 200-meter freestyle with a personal best of 1:53.73, beating Sarah Sjstrm by 0.35 seconds. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Ledecky qualified to swim in the final of the 800-meter freestyle by placing third overall in the heats with a time of 8:23.84. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. He good-naturedly described her competition-like intensity in practice as really annoying. Even years after the sessions, the words carry a mixture of awe and disbelief. Katie wants to win by the most massive margin possible, but I dont think she wants to break anyones soul like Michael Jordan did. 'In 2016 she was 16. [52], Ledecky's first event in the 2016 Summer Olympics was the 4100-meter freestyle relay, swimming the anchor leg for the United States in both the prelims and final. Ledecky has plenty, starting with the hip turn and core that provide much of her power. 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. In the team standings, Stanford beat runner-up California-Berkeley by 220 points, the largest margin of victory in 25 years. [34], Ledecky scored more points than any other swimmer to earn the FINA trophy for best female swimmer of the meet.[35]. God? No detail is too small. Theres no special sauce. [42] Ledecky lapped three competitors in the final and finished 27.33 seconds ahead of silver medalist Boyle. [30] In addition, she broke Janet Evans' American record of 8:16.22 that had stood since 1989. [101][102][103], In the morning of day three, Ledecky swam a 1:57.58 in the 200 meter freestyle prelims, ranking second fastest of all heats. The time: 55.66 seconds. 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. [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). Ledecky finished second in the 400-yard individual medley to Eastin, who lowered the record Ledecky set a month earlier at the Pac-12 Championships. 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. The Australian, who beat Ledecky to 400m freestyle gold on Monday, also took victory in Wednesday's 200m freestyle final, with Hong Kong's Siobhan Haughey in second and Canada's Penny Olesiak. 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 . Most of the time she didnt. At the 2013 US National Championships, Ledecky qualified to swim in four individual events and the 4200-meter freestyle relay at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, Spain, though she later dropped the 200-meter freestyle from her program. [123] This was Ledecky's first loss in an individual event at the Olympics. [53], Her first individual event was the 400-meter freestyle. The time that would be a career-making moment for almost any other swimmer surprised her. She won three individual gold medals at the 2013 World Championships,. She was also named the best female swimmer for 2013 by FINA Aquatics World magazine. In her first event, the 400-meter freestyle, Ledecky successfully defended her world title, finishing with a championship record time of 3:58.34. She has won seven Olympic gold medals and 19 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. The Americans (Simone Manuel, Ledecky, Melanie Margalis and Katie McLaughlin) set a new American record and swam under the existing world record with a time of 7:41.87, yet placed second to the Australian team (7:41.50). The goals were adjusted to pursue times that felt a little scary, a little unreasonable, more than a little exciting: 3:56 in the 400 freestyle and 8:05 in the 800 freestyle. "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 . 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. Yes. Shes kind of a freak athlete. She became the first woman to win four individual gold medals at a single Pan Pacific Championship. 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. [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. Some said it would never happen. She has an elder brother. Its a remarkable combination, particularly for someone to be that dominant for so long, which takes so much commitment, while at the same time being so nice and polite and kind., Matt Barbini, USA Swimmings national team performance director. Barbini noticed the mix of intensity and care thats as much a part of Ledecky as the blazing times. [97][98][99][100] This accomplishment was highlighted by various news outlets including NBC Sports, Newsweek, and USA Today. Winning both? General swimmers tend to think that if they can just get their arms around faster and kick their legs faster, they can swim faster. [64] On the meet's final day, Ledecky set an NCAA record in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:06.90) en route to a championship record in the 1650-yard freestyle (15:07.70), defeating runner-up Smith by 21.19 seconds and lapping all other competitors. Four years later, she was a record holder and medal. At the NCAA Championships in Indianapolis, Ledecky helped lead Stanford to its first team title since 1998. [47] Twenty-nine minutes later, Ledecky qualified 6th in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:56.76. [76], Ledecky signed her first sponsorship deal with TYR Sport, Inc. on June 8, 2018. The stroke thats propelled Ledecky to record after record is connected to another legend. Before Ledecky, Sommers had never trained a swimmer, so he approached her like other athletes reliant on overhead motion, focusing on core strength, shoulder stability, injury prevention, plus explosiveness in short distances. David Marsh, an assistant on the team who served as the womens coach in 2016, recalled coaches gathering when Ledecky swam. Stanford earned its second team title in as many years. They swam identical workouts. Katie Ledekcy won two golds and two silvers at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Not a drop of milk spilled. Swimming the anchor leg, Ledecky erased a 1.2-second deficit going into the final leg of the race, passing Australia's Melanie Schlanger with a 1:54.36 split over the final 200 meters. If any single item is responsible for her transformation, the grueling sessions away from television cameras and autograph-seeking fans might be it. At 6 feet, the second-time Olympian is not extraordinarily tall compared with her peers. Katie Ledecky reacts after winning her heat in the Womens 200 Freestyle during the second wave of the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials on June 15 in Omaha, Neb. [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 just doing it better than everybody else.. Is it her training? [27] At 15 years, 4 months, and 10 days, she was the youngest American participant at the 2012 Olympic Games.[28]. She got her degree instead", "What's Next For Super Olympian Katie Ledecky? Born in Maryland in 1997, Katie Ledecky began swimming competitively at age six. Trust me, Gemmell said. Ledecky's winning time was over six seconds quicker than American teammate and silver medalist Cierra Runge. 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). He thought the she was sizing him up as another opponent to defeat. He describes them as holy cannoli swims that would leave almost anyone elses jaw on the floor. The top 11 times. Maybe the explanation is unknowable. A week after she obliterated the 1500m short-course record, Katie Ledecky broke another - this time in the 800m as she stormed to victory at the FINA World Cup in Indianapolis.. Midway through the 25-meter journeys at the Palisades Swim and Tennis Club in Cabin John, Md., shed grab a lane line and catch her breath like so many other 6-year-olds figuring out how to swim. However, elite swimmers focus on how to generate propulsion more efficiently.. 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. Yuri Suguiyama, her first coach, watched Phelps break Australian Ian Thorpes world record in the 200 freestyle during the world championships in Melbourne. During a stint at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo., in early 2016, Conor Dwyer, a two-time Olympian, engaged in a friendly contest with Ledecky jumping onto flat surfaces at increasing heights. That continued when Ledecky arrived at Stanford as a freshman in 2016. (RNS) Katie Ledecky has no obvious physiological advantages as a swimmer. And perhaps thats the greatest mystery of all. She has the 24 fastest swims of all time. Sometimes she faded. [107], On day 4, June 16, she won both the 200m and 1500m freestyle finals in the evening. 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. But Ledecky doesnt just beat records, she transforms them. At the National Championships, she finished first in the 400-, 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, and second in the 200-meter freestyle. But Katie Ledecky would rather study it at Stanford once the Rio Games are in the past. Some of the boys said, Jon, get her out of our lanes. We want to know what transformed that girl who couldnt make it across the pool? Ledecky's swim was the seventh-fastest performance in history. Other than standing 6 feet tall, a couple of inches above the average height for female swimming finalists at the Rio Games, she could blend into a crowd outside of the pool. On the third day, Ledecky defeated Titmus wire-to-wire in the 400-meter freestyle.[80]. On July 1, Ledecky broke Janet Evans's 28-year-old national championship record in the morning preliminary heats of the 800-meter freestyle (8:10.91) before placing seventh that evening in the 100-meter freestyle (53.99). Before she entered the pool, the United States was trailing both Australia and China, but she swam a time of 1:53.76 to finish the race 0.4 seconds behind the Chinese swimmer Li Bingjie and ahead of Australia, who were the favorites coming into the competition. Gemmell warned other men in the training camp to be ready for Ledecky to beat them. [89], Ledecky began 2021 at the TYR Pro Swim Series at San Antonio, Texas. Ledeckys world records in the 800 freestyle and 1,500 freestyle are 1.95% faster than the second-best women. Ledecky won easily in 4 minutes 1.27 seconds, the 43rd-fastest swim ever by a woman. Or perhaps the answer is more basic. The 400? Ledecky provided the US with an early lead, swimming the first leg in a personal best of 1:56.32. Shes not doing some special strength program that nobody else knows about. 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. Twelve of the top 14 times. A lot of people have the tendency to want to protect themselves in their training, Sweetser said. She has recognition of these things in the middle of a race and can make an adjustment. This is something really, really special.. 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]. [51] At the conclusion of the week, Ledecky was named the female swimmer of the meet. How fast would Torri Huske, the 18-year-old phenom headed to Stanford this fall, swim in the 100 butterfly final? Unlike her other races, it was not an easy win for Ledecky, which featured the likes of Missy Franklin and Federica Pellegrini. She broke the existing mark by five seconds. Shes not doing it for the adulation, shes not doing it for the title of the worlds greatest swimmer, the coach said. [63] The next day, she lowered her own record in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:24.06, beating the second-fastest performer of all-time, Leah Smith, by nearly five seconds. Huske won the race and set an American record in the event. Her physiology? 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. She doesnt have a central governor like most athletes do, that mind-to-muscle idea that I need to shut down right now. Theres nothing you can throw at her that she cant convince herself that she can do.. Her time of 7:57.42 surpassed Mireia Belmonte's mark from 2013.[142]. The collision of hand and water is one piece of a complex, fast-paced puzzle in which the grab and breathing and body rotation and head position and kick and proper body alignment and arms cutting into the pool at the precise angle must work in concert. A combination of protein (like chicken, steak, or salmon) and a carb (like rice, vegetable, or pasta) rounds out her day. Thats not new. She was just doing what Jon was saying.. No. [132][133] Additionally, Ledecky signed on to be a volunteer swim coach for the Florida Gators. [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. She won 10 Olympic medals, 7 of which were gold. She won the 200-, 400-, 800- and 1500-meter freestyle races. [129] She finished the final in 15:37.34, but her record from the prelim round still holds. Instead, Ledecky has a gift that defies measurement. 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. 'Gallop' or a 'giddy-up' Once the swimmers emerge from below the surface and. At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Ledecky won two gold medals and two silver medals, making her the most decorated U.S. female athlete for a second straight Summer Olympics. [44] Ledecky was also named the female swimmer of the meet. Following Suguiyama's departure to coach for the University of California, Berkeley, she continued to train with the Nation's Capital Swim Club under coach Bruce Gemmell through the 2016 Olympics. When reminiscing about her pre-teen years in the pool, she told an athletic trainer that she cared more about perfecting her stroke than about winning. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. 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). She feels water better than anyone else has ever felt water, Barbini said. Shes just doing it better than everybody else., Bruce Gemmell, Katie Ledeckys coach at the Nations Capital Swim Club, Some of this immunity to pressure comes from her knack to set goals, internalize them, then turn them into reality. [108][109][110] Ledecky swam a 15:40.50 in the 1500 meter freestyle, lowering her Championship Record from the day before and becoming the first winner of the women's 1500 meter freestyle at the US Olympic Trials. 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. Katie just dives in headfirst and really forces you to get the most out of practice. In her second event, Ledecky won gold in the 1500-meter freestyle in a world record time of 15:36.53, breaking the record held by compatriot Kate Ziegler by six seconds. OMAHA As she prepared for her first Olympics nine years ago, a 15-year-old Katie Ledecky carried hopes and dreams into the London Games. Swimming the third leg, Ledecky passed Australia and Canada to take the lead with the third-fastest split in history (1:53.67). [111] Ledecky won the 200 meter and 1500 meter freestyle finals in a time span of about 70 minutes as well as collecting her medal at the 200 meter freestyle medal ceremony and eating a snack. She keeps logbooks chronicling most of her practices dating to 2011. [141], The following week at the World Cup's Indianapolis stop, Ledecky broke the world record in the 800m short course freestyle. 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. The Untold Truth Of Katie Ledecky. [87] Ledecky withdrew from the 800-meter freestyle race due to illness. Ledecky won freestyle golds as a 16-year-old in the 2013 World Championships in the 400m, 800m, 1,500m and the 4x200m, following her first place in the 800m in London 2012.
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