Los Angeles: Twelve years on from her stunning victory in the 800m freestyle at the London Olympics, Katie Ledecky is heading to her fourth straight Games in Paris, aiming to extend her stunning run of sustained excellence.
The American freestyle great, whose talent Michael Phelps mentor Bob Bowman once called “otherworldly,” brings a level-headed attitude that doesn’t hide a fierce competitiveness as she bids to add to her stash of 10 Olympic medals — seven of them gold.
She’s only the ninth American swimmer to qualify for at least four Olympic teams, and hearing Ledecky tell it, competing on her sport’s biggest stage and the backbreaking work it takes to make it happen never gets old.
“I think it’s a bit the other way around for me,” says Ledecky. “I feel like I enjoy it more and more every year.
“I think it’s a testament to the people that I have around me, the people that I’ve had around me my whole career in Bethesda, Maryland, and Stanford, now in Florida, just great communities that I’m excited about. sport – great teammates who push me every day, great coaches who believe in me and push me to keep reaching bigger and bigger goals.”
Ledecky has dominated long-distance freestyle swimming for more than ten years.
She was just 15 when she won the 800 meters at the London Games. She repeated it four years later in Rio, when her 800m triumph was part of a four-gold haul that included the 200m and 400m free.
At the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, Ledecka captured her third straight 800m free gold and won the 1500m free, the first time she was added to the Olympic women’s program.
But she was relegated to silver in the 400m free in Tokyo and will be tested right out of the gate in the Paris race with Australia’s Ariarne Titmus and Canadian teenager Summer McIntosh, who briefly held the world record last year. – favored over the American.
McIntosh also handed Ledecka her first defeat in an 800m final since 2010 at a February meet in Florida.
“I care a lot about the 800 and 1500, and then the 400 is a great race,” said Ledecky. “I want to be right there and the same with the (4x200m) relay.”
Ledecka said the addition of the 1,500m to the women’s Olympic program changed her training focus somewhat, making the 200m freestyle more of a stretch and prompting her to drop the 200m individual medley.
It’s the kind of adjustment she seems to have made without a hitch, as she’s moved through the age group and college ranks and now to her Florida training base with coach Anthony Nesty — who won Suriname’s pioneering Olympic gold in butterfly in 1988.
“It’s definitely been a learning process and it’s changed as I’ve gotten older,” says Ledecky.
“I learned different things about myself, about my training, about nutrition, about my recovery, about all those things that come into play.”
Ledecky’s longevity means she now competes with a host of young rivals she herself inspired.
“I don’t think I’d really be here if it wasn’t for her,” says U.S. Olympian Erin Gemmel, who dressed up as Ledecka for Halloween in 2013 and is now likely to join her in the 4x200m freestyle relay in Paris.
Ledecká did not imagine it when she started swimming as a six-year-old.
“As a little boy, I didn’t even dream of getting to the Olympics,” says Ledecky. “After London, I wanted to get back to that level, to prove that I’m not just a one-hit wonder, but at the same time I reminded myself that anything more than that is just the icing on the cake, the icing on top — because I never thought that I’ll make it to one Olympics.”