-My next guest is fresh off her historic appearance
at the Tokyo Olympics where she won her sixth
individual gold medal in swimming.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Katie Ledecky.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-♪ Katie Ledecky ♪
♪ Do it for the win ♪
♪ Her gold medal ♪
♪ 'Cause she knows how to swim ♪
♪ Katie Ledecky ♪
♪ Sure as you can see ♪
♪ After the Olympics there's time for a trophy ♪
♪ Yeah! ♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-That's the applause you deserve, absolutely.
Well, thank you so much for coming on.
Look at these medals. -Yeah.
-Oh, my goodness. What does it --
What does it feel like 'cause now this is, what? 10?
-Yeah. Yeah. It's heavy. -Yeah.
-So I think I need to give you one.
You wanna wear one? -Oh, I don't know.
Are you sure? Are you sure? -What do you guys think? Yeah?
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yeah. -This is amazing.
Wow. It is heavy. -It's heavy.
-Wait, but what -- this is like --
can I do this? -See, that's what we had
to do in Tokyo.
We had to present the medals to ourselves.
So you're getting the full experience.
-This feels like I was in the Olympics.
This is unbelievable. I've never done this before.
This is...
[ Cheers and applause ]
Oh, my god. This is unbelievable.
-Mm-hmm. -Now, what...
Out of all the medals you've won do you have a favorite one?
-I really like these.
The front is always the same.
There's the event on the edge all the time so.
Let's see which event you won, Jimmy.
-Where is that? Can you see that?
-You won the 800 meter freestyle.
-Do you have a close-up?
[ Cheers and applause ]
-I didn't know that that's... [ speaks indistinctly ]
I was wondering.
And then, what this side is different.
Was this side always the same? -That side's always the same.
Then the back Tokyo puts their own little spin on it
so they put Tokyo 2020.
-Holy moley. -There you go.
-This is an honor to hold this. Thank you so much.
It's an honor to have you here.
What was it like when you were there, I mean,
no spectators, no family allowed to come support you.
What was it like? -It was a little different.
I'm lucky in that I had my family there in 2012 and 2016
so I had that experience. -Sure.
-But we missed an audience like this, but...
-Of course. -My teammates were in the stands
cheering, the ones that weren't racing each session.
And they really brought some good energy so.
It didn't feel as weird as I expected.
-Online, I don't know if you even look at what people say
about you but everyone's calling you the GOAT of, yeah.
Is it odd to be called that?
-A little, I mean, there are so many great swimmers
throughout the years.
Of course Michael Phelps is the GOAT
and I'm just honored to carry on the legacy
of really great female swimmers in the US
I don't know. Thanks.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Speaking of Michael Phelps. -Yes.
-I have a photo here, this is a picture of 9-year-old
Katie Ledecky with Michael Phelps.
Take a look at this. Do you see this?
How cute is that? And did you -- he's just signing a --
was that a poster? Was he in a band or something?
-Yeah, it was at a swim clinic so I had actually met him
and gotten his autograph three years prior,
but I had to go to swim clinic and get it again, I guess.
-Really? -And, uh...
He's been such a great friend over the years.
Six years after that photo, I was on an Olympic team
with him in London.
He gave me a high-five right before my race,
which made me flash back to those moments and --
-That's amazing.
-He was there in Tokyo supporting us
and cheering us on which was great.
-I also heard that you were a big fan of Bruce Springsteen.
-Mm-hmm. -And I have another photo.
This is you and Bruce.
Now what gold medal did he win? I don't remember this.
-Oh, that would've been either the 20 --
-Just rocking? Yeah. -Yeah, from Rio.
-Did you see his daughter? -Yes.
She won a silver medal in Tokyo.
And it's funny because when I showed him my medals
he said, you know, my daughter she's an equestrian
and it was really cool because he was obviously
very proud of his daughter and I know that she had
Olympic potential so we really followed her over
the last several years.
And it was really cool to watch her win a silver medal.
I mean, she's the boss. -She won the freaking medal.
-Yeah! -Congratulations.
[ Cheers and applause ]
That's amazing.
Okay, I want to ask you a question that
I don't know if I've seen you asked this before,
but as a parent, I want to know, can you eat before
you go in the pool?
Or do you have to wait 30 minutes
or is that real or -- let's get to it.
I want a real fact here.
-I might have some parents coming after me for this, but...
-Wow!
-I think we can debunk the myth. You can eat before you swim.
Not -- I wouldn't recommend you go out and have a huge pizza
with your daughters before you go for a swim.
But I mean, I eat granola bars before I swim within,
I don't know, five or 10 minutes before I race.
-I just hope my dad is watching 'cause this is...
-I drank a chocolate milk right after I swim.
I sometimes have two races.
In Tokyo, I had two races about an hour apart
and I was eating and drinking and my second race
was the 1,500 free so I had to have something in my stomach to
get me through a 15 1/2-minute race.
-I can't even tell you what an honor it is
to have you on the show and for representing
our country.
You're so cool and an amazing athlete.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Please come back, will you? -Thank you, yeah.
-There you are right there, Olympic champion,
Katie Ledecky, everybody.