Take the 400 freestyle final at the trials. Experts single out the way Ledeckys palm wraps about the water and pulls it back. Yes. Sometimes that happens. 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. But the more coaches and trainers and competitors grasp for answers, the more the reality comes into focus. Is she tall for the average person? The American . 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.. The quiet 15-year-old usually kept up with the men, who noticed fearlessness and poise that belied her youth. And theyre ultimately suggestions straining to answer a larger question. [84] Readers of The London Evening Standard voted Ledecky the International Sportswoman of the Decade. [47] Twenty-nine minutes later, Ledecky qualified 6th in the 200-meter freestyle with a time of 1:56.76. Trust me. 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. Katie wants to win by the most massive margin possible, but I dont think she wants to break anyones soul like Michael Jordan did. Her world records came in the 400- and 1500-meter freestyles, with times of 3:58.37 and 15:28.36, respectively. 578k Followers, 883 Following, 422 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Katie Ledecky (@katieledecky) katieledecky. Ledecky recorded a split of 52.64 in the heats. However, elite swimmers focus on how to generate propulsion more efficiently.. 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. In Budapest, Ledecky broke the World Aquatics Championships' all-time female gold medal record, winning five golds and one silver to bring her career title total to 14. Thats why Bruce Gemmell quips that Ledecky would be content to race in a cardboard box. In her third, and first relay event of her international career, the 4200-meter freestyle, Ledecky and teammates Shannon Vreeland, Karlee Bispo, and Missy Franklin won gold in 7:45.14. We want to know what transformed that girl who couldnt make it across the pool? Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, convincing victory during the U.S. Olympic swimming trials, U.S. swimming trials bring some clarity for athletes after a year of uncertainty, Skateboard phenom Nyjah Huston, a rising Olympic star, blends in on SoCal streets, Elliott: Allyson Felixs desire to win gold on the Olympic stage continues to shine bright, Mikaela Shiffrin wins gold in giant slalom for seventh world title, Bass chief of staff says hell avoid Olympics issues for a year. I dont think she had a clue how fast she was going. There are technical explanations: her aerobic system using oxygen with extraordinary efficiency, while her anaerobic system generates explosive bursts of energy. She took silver in her first race of the Games, and then missed out on medaling in the 200 . Shes doing what everybody else does. So did Phelps asymmetrical stroke thats known as galloping or loping and is common among high-level men. [68] Later that evening, Ledecky swam the third leg of the 4100-meter freestyle. [132][133] Additionally, Ledecky signed on to be a volunteer swim coach for the Florida Gators. Competing in both events is rare enough. About 18 months before the London Olympics, Suguiyama suggested that Ledecky adopt the gallop. [32] The hard-fought race saw Ledecky overcome Dane Lotte Friis in the final few hundred meters after losing the lead at the 300-meter mark and included a final 50 split of 29.47. The next day, Ledecky anchored the United States team of Allison Schmitt, Leah Smith, and Katie McLaughlin in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. 3x U.S. Olympic Swimmer (2012, 2016, 2021) 7x Olympic Gold Medalist 19x World Champion Stanford grad #TeamTYR - Katie@teamwass.com. Sims anchored the team to a championship record time of 7:41.45. [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. In the 1650-yard freestyle, Ledecky re-set her NCAA record in the 1000-yard free with a split of 9:05.89 en route to winning by more than 28 seconds. She has recognition of these things in the middle of a race and can make an adjustment. During the summers prior to 2012, she swam for Palisades Swim Team in Cabin John, Maryland. I promise this isnt because Im getting my butt kicked.. She wasnt a great puller. The swim was the fifth-fastest in history and earned Ledecky the 28 fastest times in the distance. The stroke thats propelled Ledecky to record after record is connected to another legend. Ledecky breaking an arm in fourth grade, but jumping back into the pool with a cast. 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. In the evening session, Ledecky faced a tough double with the 1500-meter freestyle final and the semi-finals of the 200-meter freestyle shortly after. He thought the she was sizing him up as another opponent to defeat. 'Gallop' or a 'giddy-up' Once the swimmers emerge from below the surface and. But she addressed it and moved forward. At year's end, Ledecky was named the World Swimmer of the Year and American Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine. In the team standings, Stanford beat runner-up California-Berkeley by 220 points, the largest margin of victory in 25 years. Shes not doing some special strength program that nobody else knows about. Huske won the race and set an American record in the event. On the final day of competition, she reset her world record in the 800-meter freestyle, clocking a time of 8:06.68. At 6 feet, the second-time Olympian is not extraordinarily tall compared with her peers. She was just doing what Jon was saying.. Not a drop of milk spilled. At just 19 years old, Katie Ledecky is the most dominant swimmer in the world. Born in Maryland in 1997, Katie Ledecky began swimming competitively at age six. [27] At 15 years, 4 months, and 10 days, she was the youngest American participant at the 2012 Olympic Games.[28]. 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., Lee Sommers, an athletic trainer in Bethesda, Md., who helped prepare Ledecky for Rio. [86], Ledecky began 2020 at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Des Moines, Iowa, where she won the 200-, 400- and 1500-meter freestyle races. Yuri Suguiyama, her first coach, watched Phelps break Australian Ian Thorpes world record in the 200 freestyle during the world championships in Melbourne. [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. Some of these things that might have come naturally and unconsciously when she was 16, now its conscious, Mark said. With three individual titles, Ledecky became the first swimmer to win the 200, 400 and 800 m freestyle at the same Olympics since Debbie Meyer did so in 1968 in Mexico City. Ledecky's swim was the seventh-fastest performance in history. During the 201617 NCAA season, Ledecky set 12 NCAA records and nine American records while swimming as a freshman for Stanford University. [109][111] She swam a 1:55.11 in the 200 meter freestyle. [17] During her high-school swimming career, Ledecky twice set the American and US Open record in the 500-yard freestyle, and she twice set the national high-school record in the 200-yard freestyle. They were called watch times.. Nature versus nurture? In the 1500-meter freestyle, Ledecky broke her own world record in a time of 15:25.48. The swimmer wowed the world in 2012 when she competed in her first Olympics at just 15 and won a gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle competition. She has an uncanny ability to remain herself, not flinch in the face of scrutiny and focus on the task at hand. [130] Ledecky won her second gold medal of the Olympics and her seventh of all time in the 800-meter freestyle. The five-time Olympic gold medalist owns world records in the 400-, 800-, and 1,500-meter freestyles. Were offering L.A. Times subscribers first access to our best journalism. Do not let it pass over you., Subscribers get early access to this story. [123] This was Ledecky's first loss in an individual event at the Olympics. [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. Are you willing to push yourself beyond all comprehension or are you not? Nagle said. Four years later, she left Rio de Janeiro as the most decorated female athlete of the 2016 Olympic Games, with four gold medals, one silver medal, and two world records. [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. [53], Her first individual event was the 400-meter freestyle. Gemmell warned other men in the training camp to be ready for Ledecky to beat them. There were many times where she was walking up for practice and I think, Thats the best female athlete in the world? Id just kind of chuckle to myself because theres nothing that said that.. [97][98][99][100] This accomplishment was highlighted by various news outlets including NBC Sports, Newsweek, and USA Today. [66], Following the season, Ledecky became the first freshman in 35 years to receive the Honda Cup, which recognizes the nation's top female collegiate athlete.[67]. Stanford earned its second team title in as many years. Ledecky qualified in the heats with a time of 3:58.71, an Olympic record. 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. 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. How fast would Torri Huske, the 18-year-old phenom headed to Stanford this fall, swim in the 100 butterfly final? It worked. With her pair of swims in the 800-meter freestyle, Ledecky took control of the top 11 fastest times in the event's history. Is she tall for an elite swimmer? [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. Swimming the third leg, Ledecky passed Australia and Canada to take the lead with the third-fastest split in history (1:53.67). That night, Ledecky lowered the record again, setting the first world record ever at the new Gold Coast Aquatic Center with a time of 3:58.37. 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. [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. No. When she started working with Gemmell in 2012, she could not . She keeps logbooks chronicling most of her practices dating to 2011. Thats amazing.. [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. [58] Ledecky was also the 2nd most decorated Olympian at the 2016 games behind Michael Phelps (5 golds, 1 silver).[59]. Visit latimes.com/olympics now and throughout the Games for the latest Olympic news and analysis. At the 2017 US National Championships, the qualifying meet for the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, Ledecky won the 200-, 400-, and 800-meter freestyle and earned a spot on six events. On the meet's third day, Ledecky's 20th birthday, Ledecky recorded a personal-best time of 1:40.36 in the 200-yard freestyle to edge Manuel and tie Louisville sophomore Mallory Comerford for the title. 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. READ: Katie Ledecky wins by 21 seconds in her first race for a year Having taken a year-long break from competitions amid the pandemic, Ledecky has recently returned to racing and showed few. Allyson Felix is determined to make the U.S. Olympic track and field team for the upcoming Tokyo Games as she looks to add to her legacy in the sport. An iron will? She won the first-ever women's 1500 . Barbini noticed the mix of intensity and care thats as much a part of Ledecky as the blazing times. 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. She set the record in the event nine months later in 8:13.36. After a year of uncertainty brought on by postponement of the Tokyo Olympics, top U.S. swimmers are ready for some familiarity at the U.S. swim trials. 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. Ledecky was also named Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 2017 and 2022, international female Champion of Champions by L'quipe in 2014 and 2017, United States Olympic Committee Female Athlete of the Year in 2013, 2016 and 2017, Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation in 2017, and the ESPY Best Female Athlete in 2022. But the time was almost five seconds off Ledeckys world record set in Rio. Dwyer topped out at 40 inches. 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. She was swimming like most classic female distance swimmers, Suguiyama later told the American Swimming Coaches Assn. 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. She broke the existing mark by five seconds. Her physiology? [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. Ledecky's split was the fastest of all swimmers in the relay finals. The stories pile up. 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. At 6 feet, the second-time Olympian is not extraordinarily tall compared with her peers. A combination of protein (like chicken, steak, or salmon) and a carb (like rice, vegetable, or pasta) rounds out her day. She achieved this result less than an hour after swimming the 1500-meter freestyle final. The history-making has become so common, so many would-be competitors left so far behind, that expectations, just like the pictures, are larger than life. Sports, however, bring a desire for answers, for numbers, for specifics, especially for someone whose accomplishments almost have become disorienting. At the 750-meter mark, Ledecky was 3.42 seconds ahead of Mireia Belmonte Garca, and 0.31 seconds under world record pace. And Katie's got tiny feet, too. The words were matter-of-fact, delivered without a trace of pretense. 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 . Ledecky provided the US with an early lead, swimming the first leg in a personal best of 1:56.32. The top 11 times. She became the first woman to win four individual gold medals at a single Pan Pacific Championship. She doesnt have Phelps attention-grabbing build that included an 80-inch wingspan and size-14 feet that seemed to double as flippers.
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