Only 19 and hungry for more
THE tears rolling down Bruce Gemmell’s face in the wee hours of Saturday were four years in the making, and you couldn’t possibly understand their genesis if you hadn’t been there for the ride – if you hadn’t seen the daily 5am workouts, the 64 000m-a-week of laser-focused training and the countless race-pace sets that left Katie Ledecky on the verge of vomiting one moment, but ready for more the next.
She is a Lamborghini, a machine of pure and awe-inspiring power that asks nothing more than to be pushed to go as fast as it can.
Late on Friday night, Gemmell’s lease came up. Two things were understood as he handed over the keys: he would not have another like Ledecky, and he was better off for having had the experience.
“What more can you ask for?” Gemmell, Ledecky’s coach since 2012, said, stifling sobs. “She’s certainly made me expand what I thought was possible, and my challenge was to figure out what she needed to do to get there.”
Ledecky got there, at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, with a dominant performance – four golds, one silver, and two world record victories by unheard-of margins of 4.77 and 11.38 seconds.
“The best swim that’s ever been done,” Bob Bowman, the US men’s head coach and long-time coach to Michael Phelps, said of Ledecky’s 400m freestyle world record.
Ledecky, at 19 the youngest member of the US Olympic swimming team, as she was four years ago in London, spent last Saturday on a media victory tour.
She flew home to Bethesda, Maryland, on Tuesday and will be heading to Stanford University in the next week to begin her first year.
“I’m excited about the next chapter and what the future can hold,” she said.
In 2013, when she and Gemmell sat down after the 2013 World Championships to talk about their goals for Rio, they settled on three: a 3:56-something in the 400m freestyle, a sub-8:05 time in the 800m and a victory in the 200m.
She hit every one, and when the 800m was over, she and Gemmell hugged, each sobbing into the other’s shoulder.
Greg Meehan, the US women’s assistant coach and Stanford women’s coach, has been handed the keys to the Lamborghini.
He recruited Ledecky with a pitch about the university’s swimming programme, Ivy-level academic standards and the opportunities for even a legendary athlete to blend into campus life.
“She’s probably the most decorated athlete to walk on to a campus,” he said. “But I think Stanford offers the opportunity for Katie to be herself. It’s the reason Chelsea Clinton and Tiger Woods chose Stanford.”
But the unspoken truth is that the four years leading to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics present challenges and potential pitfalls for Ledecky.
“I want more,” Ledecky said on Saturday. “I want to compete at this level. I still want to win the medals. I’m as motivated as ever, if not more.”
The past four years went by with Ledecky in the protective bubble of her Bethesda home and her parents. She finished high school in May last year and took a gap year to focus on her training. She does not yet have her driver’s licence.
She says she has not given serious thought to turning professional immediately, to cash in on her marketing potential.
“I’m only 19. I want to represent only myself and my coach and my family and my teammates.”
Meehan has been shadowing Gemmell for much of the past two years, in preparation for this week’s handover.
“It was important to make sure I had a relationship with Bruce – because I can easily pick up the phone and ask him for advice.”
Gemmell acknowledges his biggest concern for Ledecky’s growth as a swimmer is that she will no longer be training with men. He began doing this with her long ago, when it became apparent there were no women who could push her in practice.
“Greg will figure it out,” Gemmell said. “But that’s what has challenged her. That’s what has driven her.”
Asked how confident he was that Ledecky could be better in four years, Gemmell said: “Better? Does that mean her times are faster? I’m not sure it does.”
What if Ledecky switched to the 100m freestyle and won Olympic gold medals?
“I don’t think that would be better. I have a hard time defining ‘better’. I don’t know. Maybe it’s Greg’s problem.” – The Washington Post