Katie Ledecky swims to honors
Katie Ledecky got her start in swimming because she just wanted to make friends. Her brother was eager to join a team at a pool near their house, and as a 6-year-old she tagged along.
By summer’s end, the Ledecky siblings had made 100 friends ranging in age from 6 to 18. Some of them remain good friends with Katie, who went on to become the world’s best swimmer in the post-Michael Phelps era.
She earned five golds and a silver at this year’s world championships in Budapest, maintaining the upward trajectory she established as a surprise gold medalist at the 2012 London Olympics.
Her dominant performance in Hungary earned Ledecky the honor of Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.
In balloting by U.S. editors and news directors announced Tuesday, Ledecky received 351 points, edging out Serena Williams with 343. Williams won the Australian Open for her Open era-record 23rd Grand Slam tennis title. Olympic track star Allyson Felix finished third in the voting, with 248 points.
Last year, Ledecky was second to gymnast Simone Biles in the balloting.
The AP Male Athlete of the Year will be announced today.
Ledecky is the eighth female swimmer to win and the first since Amy Van Dyken in 1996. Among the others is 1969 winner Debbie Meyer. At last year’s Rio de Janeiro Games, Ledecky equaled Meyer’s feat of sweeping the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles in a single Olympics.
“It’s a really great history of women swimmers and freestylers,” Ledecky said of the AP honor roll. “I really look up to a lot of those women.”
She is the first active college athlete to win since UConn basketball player Rebecca Lobo in 1995.
Ledecky is a sophomore at Stanford, still debating whether to major in psychology or political science, and enjoying life in the dorms, where she lives with five other swimmers.
“Just being in the college environment has kind of added another layer of fun,” she said. “Being with teammates and working toward NCAA championships and having that team goal, that’s another thing that is fun.”
Ledecky heads to Colorado Springs, Colo., for high-altitude training with her Stanford team this week. Her focus is on the collegiate season through the NCAAs in March.
In moving cross-country from her home in Bethesda, Md., to attend college in California, Ledecky left behind longtime coach Bruce Gemmell. But like some of those old summer league teammates, Ledecky has stayed in touch. She trains with Gemmell when she returns to visit her family.
She was a star to them in 2012 but a little-known 15-year-old to the rest of the world when she won the 800-meter freestyle in American-record time in London.
In 2013, Ledecky won four golds at the worlds in Barcelona, setting a pair of world records.