Ledecky strikes chord with fans
One by one, swimmer Katie Ledecky handed her Olympic medals to Bryce Harper.
Four golds and one silver from the Rio Olympics sat in the hands of the reigning National League MVP.
As the Nationals star outfielder held the medals on his arms like a rack, Ledecky threw the ceremonial first pitch to reliever Shawn Kelley before the Baltimore Orioles beat Washington 10-8 on Wednesday night.
The pitch was a strike, right down the middle.
“I’ve swum in front of 14,000 people,” she said. “But I was nervous for this. Once the ball leaves your hand, you can’t really control it.”
Ledecky, a native of nearby Bethesda, Maryland, has thrown out the first pitch at Nationals Park before. That was in 2012 after she won the 800m freestyle at the London Olympics as a 15-year-old.
“I think I’ve gotten stronger and a lot’s happened in four years,” she said.
“I’ve been to a couple world championships, more international meets, another Olympics, I’ve gone through high school, I’m heading out to college.”
Ledecky has become more dominant, too.
She tied gymnast Simone Biles as the most decorated US female athlete in Rio, falling just short of Michael Phelps for the most medals among Americans.
Before Ledecky’s ceremonial pitch, a tribute played on the video board featuring a clip of her world record-shattering victory in the 800m freestyle, which she won by more than 11 seconds.
The 19-year-old met several Nationals before the game, including Harper, whom she called one of her favorites.
They didn’t give her any tips on the first pitch, which she said she practiced on Tuesday, but they were curious about her five medals.
“They all wanted to see how heavy they were and things like that,” Ledecky said. “They are pretty heavy. It was kind of a different feeling for me to have them be a fan of me when I’ve been a huge fan of theirs for a couple years.”
Ledecky got a warm reception on the field 20 minutes before the start of the game and a rousing standing ovation when she was shown on the video board before the fifth inning. Fans cheered and broke out in chants of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
She said her accomplishments in Rio are “slowly but surely” sinking in, only days after the closing ceremony.
“I expect it’ ll sink in as we move forward the next couple weeks,” Ledecky said.
“Once I get back in the pool and start working toward my next goals, I know you just kind of have to put everything you’ve done behind you and start working toward the next thing.”
For now, the next thing is college. Ledecky will be a freshman at Stanford in the fall and plans to take some time off before starting school.
Before she finds out who her roommate is, Ledecky’s mind is already on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.
“It’ ll probably be the longest break I’ ll take in the next four years,” she said. “It’s just nice to be out of the water a little bit and get recharged for the next four years.”