GOING FOR GOLDS
Ledecky has chance to make Olympic medal history in pool
U.S. swimmer Katie Ledecky is chasing Olympic history in Tokyo: Set to compete in five events, with a chance to collect more gold medals than any female athlete in history.
Yet the three-time Olympian, a pool prodigy who captured her first gold medal at age 15 in the 2012 London Games, returns amid whispers about her prospects after posting slower than expected times at the U.S. team trials in June.
“I felt like I would be faster than that,” she acknowledged after qualifying at the Omaha trials. “I was a lot more nervous than I expected to be. I just wanted to get the race over with and get to that wall and punch my ticket.”
Adding to the intrigue: 20-year-old Ariarne Titmus of Australia, a challenger known as “The Terminator” and current holder of the second-fastest 200M and 400M freestyle times ever.
Fellow U.S. Olympic swimming great Michael Phelps remains in his old teammate’s corner, flatly describing Ledecky as “the greatest female swimmer of our time.” And a sweep of her events would preserve his assessment in Olympic history, with Ledecky surpassing Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina and her nine golds collected between 1956-1964.
The Maryland-born Ledecky burst into prominence nine years ago with her gold medal-winning effort in the 800M. Four years later at the Rio Games, while still the youngest member of the U.S. swim team, she set another world record in the 800M — one of two turned in by the dominant Ledecky as she won four golds and a silver.
If Ledecky was the kid back in 2012, she’s now a veteran presence and role model for younger teammates. Teen-aged Olympian Katie Grimes was a 6-year-old kid when Ledecky made her Olympic debut. And teammate Phoebe Bacon, who first met Ledecky as a pre-schooler in Maryland, was inspired to try the sport after watching the Olympian’s 2012 gold medal race.
“It’s kind of like deja vu from the other side for me,” said Ledecky, the only U.S. swimmer to qualify in four individual events at the Tokyo Games. She’s one of the old hands on a U.S. swim team with 15 first-time Olympians, including 11 teens.
For Ledecky, that means her duties this year include offering support for the youngsters who won’t have their families cheering live due to a pandemic ban on Olympic spectators.
The Olympic veteran launched her career at age 6, joining her brother Michael on a summer league swim team. While at Stanford University, Ledecky became an eight-time individual NCAA champion and earned two more team titles.
She was honored by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the female athlete of the 2016
Games and again a year later with the Honda Cup as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the year.
Ledecky will swim the 200, 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles along with the 4x200 relay. She’ll be the favorite to defend her 800 title and win the 1,500 — a new event at this year’s games, and one where Ledecky already owns the world record.
The U.S. veteran faces her biggest challenges in the 200M and 400M freestyle races, where a pair of potential showdowns with Titmus loom. Despite the Aussie swimmer’s impressive past performances in both, the numbers don’t mean much to Ledecky.
“I don’t think we have to get too caught up in what times people are going here versus anywhere else in the world right now,” she said after the U.S. trials.
“I have big goals for myself, and those goals are the ones that matter,” she added. “I stay focused on those, and I don’t let any outside kind of expectations enter my mind.”