Olympian Katie Ledecky has demonstrated her prowess at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and continues
to prove that she's one of the greatest swimmers of all time.
From her early start in the sport to her future plans, here is the untold truth of Katie Ledecky.
Winning gold at the Olympics is a big deal, but even knowing that Katie Ledecky has won
six gold medals at the Games doesn't provide a complete picture of just how good she truly
is.
Over the years, she's actually racked up 15 gold and three silver medals at the world
championships, to be precise.
Ledecky also holds three world swimming records in the 400-meter and 800-meter events, as
well as in the 1500-meter events.
In fact, the outlet noted that, in 2018, she broke her own record for the 1,500-meter freestyle,
shaving five seconds off her score.
No one in the history of female swimming has won as many awards as Ledecky.
Fellow Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington told The Florida Times-Union,
"She is rare, and I doubt we'll see anyone like her for a long time."
"I felt really confident going into that and it's just amazing."
Katie Ledecky's track record is impressive, so much so that some people over the years
have been skeptical that she could have accomplished all of her impressive feats on her own.
Her record-breaking times have drawn accusations of steroid use, even though there's no proof
of it.
In 2016, ESPN reported that Ledecky had gone through dozens of different doping control
measures, not only in the U.S. but also at international competitions, never failing
a single test.
Ledecky has held her head up in the midst of all the suspicion, but that doesn't mean
it hasn't bothered her.
Not only is she adamant that she doesn't use any banned substances, but she's also not
thrilled with how people who are caught doping are treated.
Ledecky told ESPN,
"It's annoying and frustrating when you see athletes that do dope and sometimes they're
not punished harshly enough [...] It has never crossed my mind to dope.
It's not who I am."
A supportive family isn't necessary for success, but it does help, and Katie Ledecky is particularly
blessed.
The Olympian comes from a close-knit family who has her back no matter what.
She told The Stanford Daily,
"I'm lucky to have a family that loves me whether I swim really well or swim poorly,
or don't swim at all."
Ledecky shares an especially close relationship with her big brother, Michael.
He made it clear that he sees her as a sister, first and foremost, rather than as an internationally-famous
athlete, when he told Vogue,
"She's extraordinarily ordinary in some respects [...] I mean, the way she carries herself,
the way she goes about things — there’s no drama or anything like that.
She’s just always very dialed-in."
Ledecky, for her part, credits her brother's work ethic as an inspiration, and told Vogue,
"I've always looked up to my brother, for how hard he works [...] I started swimming
with him, and we had a lot of fun."
A lot of parents put their kids in swimming lessons just in case they ever find themselves
in the deep end of a pool, caught in a riptide, or shipwrecked.
In those situations, swimming can save your life, something that Katie Ledecky's mother
knows all too well.
Ledecky was enrolled in swimming lessons because her mother, Mary, had been put into lessons
as a child after her older sister nearly drowned, according to ESPN.
As a result, learning the life-saving skill turned into a family tradition.
The outlet noted that Ledecky's mother excelled at the sport and went on to join the swim
team at the University of New Mexico, and was a nationally-ranked swimmer whose freestyle
skills qualified her for nationals three times.
Once she had kids of her own, she decided to put both of them into swimming lessons
as well.
Both Ledecky and her brother, Michael, proved to be talented at the sport.
While Michael didn't go on to be an Olympian, he did swim throughout high school.
Clearly, swimming genes run strong in the Ledecky family.
The world has known for years that Katie Ledecky is a powerhouse in the pool, but what many
don't realize is that swimming isn't the only sport in which her skills reign supreme.
In her younger years, before she decided to pursue a future in swimming, she played other
sports, including basketball and soccer.
However, Ledecky eventually realized that she needed to focus her skills on her true
passion.
She told Bethesda Magazine,
"When I was 9 or 10.
That’s when I started dropping other sports.
[...] I started going to swimming over basketball or soccer.
But it wasn’t like a conscious decision, like, 'Let’s quit basketball, let’s quit
soccer, let’s just do swimming.'
I just started leaning toward swimming and focusing more on my swimming."
An injury, however, is what really cemented Ledecky's decision to prioritize swimming
over other sports.
After she broke her arm in gym class she realized future injuries could impact her future in
swimming, and told ESPN,
"That's kind of when I started thinking, 'I really like swimming.
I'm going to not risk playing other sports.'"
Katie Ledecky works hard to accomplish her goals, but she's not what you would call a
perfectionist.
In fact, she takes a very healthy approach to training and competition, acknowledging
that failure is not only a part of life but also something to learn from.
She trains hard but recognizes that, as she explained to Forbes,
"[E]ven the bad days have something good that comes out of them."
It's a philosophy passed on to her from her coaches, as Ledecky told Forbes,
"One thing my coaches say is that I fail spectacularly in practice — and that’s something that
I actually work toward."
Winning Olympic gold at 15 and becoming one of the most famous swimmers of all time would
have been enough to turn Katie Ledecky into a celebrity, but her down-to-earth, wholesome
demeanor has also made her an exceptional role model for millions of people all over
the world.
While this might be daunting to some who find themselves in such a position, Ledecky has
taken it in her stride.
Ledecky told The Stanford Daily,
"I take great responsibility to use [my platform] in the right ways, with the right people,
and for the right people."
Ledecky's many accolades include being named one of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential
People" in 2016 and making it on to AP's list of top female athletes of the 2010s.
Ledecky has some important advice for young people who look up to her, as she told The
Guardian,
"Education is really important, so I remind kids to read a lot, study hard, do your work."
Many people were skeptical when Katie Ledecky announced her decision to go to college.
As ESPN pointed out, she was potentially giving up millions of dollars by going to school
instead of turning pro, but that didn't bother her.
So, Ledecky started classes at Stanford University in 2016 after competing in her second Olympics.
She told the outlet when she was 19,
"I want to go to college, get my education and swim in college.
I'm not concerned about money at this point.
I enjoy representing my team, my country, my family, myself.
I don't think at my age I need to represent something more than that."
Attending college and putting off going pro so she could remain eligible to swim on a
college team had always been Ledecky's plan.
Per ESPN, she did swim for Stanford for a couple of years, although she turned pro after
the 2017-2018 season.
The political science and psychology major graduated from Stanford in 2020.
No one could blame Katie Ledecky for feeling like she was under constant pressure, especially
after being thrust into the spotlight at such a young age.
Yet, miraculously, her fame and goals don't induce panic in her.
The key to avoiding feeling pressure is planning, as Ledecky told Vogue,
"People always ask, 'Don’t you feel the pressure?'
[...] And I really don’t feel it.
I’ve just always set goals."
"Come on, no pressure?"
"No."
When it comes to setting those goals, Ledecky isn't afraid to go big.
In fact, her advice is to shoot for the moon.
She told Today,
"Set goals that, when you set them, you think they're impossible.
But then every day you can work towards them, and anything is possible so keep working hard
and follow your dreams."
Katie Ledecky has a strong support system and is goal-oriented, both of which have helped
her accomplish extraordinary feats at a young age.
But those aren't the only things keeping her rooted.
From an early age, Ledecky was grounded in her Catholic faith, and this faith was only
reinforced by attending Catholic schools.
As she told the Catholic Standard,
"My Catholic faith is very important to me.
It always has been and it always will be.
It is part of who I am and I feel comfortable practicing my faith."
Ledecky noted that her faith has been a strong presence in her competitive career.
In fact, prayer is another thing that helps her keep stress at bay, as she told the National
Catholic Register,
"More than anything, praying just helps me to concentrate and let go of things that don't
matter in that moment."
Katie Ledecky is serious about training and refuses to let anything get in her way.
When the 2020 Summer Olympics were moved to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the
athlete found herself quarantined far away from her family and without access to training
facilities because of lockdowns.
While some athletes may have been tempted to take some time off from training, or perhaps
not train quite so hard, Ledecky rose to the challenge.
She trained in the backyard pool of Tod Spieker, a former college All-American swimmer she
met through one of her coaches.
Ledecky trained alongside Team USA member Simone Manuel, and told the New York Post,
"We thought it was going to be a very temporary thing, maybe a couple of days.
We ended up staying for three months."
Professional athletes often retire young, as their strenuous lifestyle takes a toll.
In fact, swimming every day has various effects on the body.
SwimmerPro notes that the average swimmer peaks in their early 20s, although there have
been instances of Olympians competing in their 30s and 40s.
Will Katie Ledecky be one of them?
While it seems like she's been in the public eye forever, don't forget that she was only
15 when she made her Olympic debut in 2012, so she's still quite young.
Given Ledecky's substantial talent and determination, it seems likely that she will defy the odds
and compete for years to come.
Ledecky herself certainly has no plans of retiring.
She told NBC of her Olympic goals,
"I'm going to continue to swim beyond 2020, hopefully to at least 2024 and maybe beyond
to 2028."
While Ledecky will be 31 in 2028, there's no reason she won't be able to compete.
Michael Phelps also competed in his first Olympics at the age of 15 and continued until
age 31.
Then there's Dara Torres who, at 41, made history as the oldest swimmer to ever compete
in the Olympics.
For now, though, we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds for Ledecky.
While Katie Ledecky may not have any immediate plans to retire, it's certain that she will
retire one day.
While swimming has been a huge part of her life, she does have a lot of plans for her
future.
Don't forget that she's a Stanford alum.
She also hopes to rack up more degrees, although she's unsure what she wants to pursue just
yet.
As she told The Washington Post, she has a lot of interests and is considering continuing
her education in business or law school someday.
Whatever Ledecky does after she leaves competitive swimming, we're sure it will be impressive.
Her family has a long history of academic and professional success.
Her maternal grandfather was a World War II combat surgeon, while her paternal grandfather
held a doctorate in mathematics.
Ledecky's mother is a former hospital administrator, while her father is an attorney who graduated
from Harvard and Yale Law.
With that kind of academic history, it was clear to the family that Ledecky wasn't going
to skip college for the sake of pursuing pro sports.
Ledecky's dad told ESPN,
"The way our parents believe in education, it was a no-brainer Katie wasn't going to
turn professional."
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