Katie Ledecky: The Legendary Swimmer Who Doesn’t Want to Be Called One
Katie Ledecky is focused on staying calm and continuing to swim at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
At 27, she has made history with her recent record-breaking gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle event, but Katie prefers not to dwell on the numbers.
“I try not to think about history very much or any of that,” she shared with the Washington Post in an interview published on July 31 after winning her eighth gold medal. “But I know those names, those people that I’m up with. They’re swimmers that I looked up to when I first started swimming. It’s an honor to just be named among them.”
The names she mentions include fellow American Jenny Thompson—whom Katie has now tied with for the most gold medals won by a female swimmer—as well as Americans Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin, and Australian Emma McKeon, who, like Jenny and now Katie, all earned 12 Olympic medals in their careers.
Despite her seemingly effortless performance, the Stanford graduate emphasizes that there is more to her races than meets the eye.