Olympian Katie Ledecky Has Become a Swimming Legend—But Don’t Tell Her That
Katie Ledecky is just trying to keep calm and swim on at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
While the 27-year-old has cemented her place in history—her most recent gold-medal winning time in the 1,500-meter freestyle set a new Olympic record—Katie isn’t looking to get bogged down in the statistics.
“I try not to think about history very much or any of that,” she told the Washington Post in an interview published July 31, following her eighth gold medal win. “But I know those names, those people that I’m up with. They’re swimmers that I looked up to when I first started swimming. It’s an honor to just be named among them.”
The names in question include fellow American Jenny Thompson—who Katie has now tied with for the most gold medals won by a female swimmer—as well as Americans Dara Torres and Natalie Coughlin and Australian Emma McKeon who, like Jenny and now Katie, all earned 12 Olympic medals throughout their careers.
But despite the fact the Stanford alum makes her races look effortless, she says there’s more that goes into it than meets the eye.
“It’s not easy,” she said of competing in the Olympics. “It doesn’t get any easier. I do try to enjoy it each year. There’s different perspective that I have different years and different challenges that you face each year in training and as you get older.”
She is therefore focused on enjoying each win. “It’s never easy to win a gold medal,” she added, “so just trying to soak in every moment of it.”
Yet with her finish time of 15:30:02 in the 1,5000-meter freestyle—which, we should mention, measures out to just under a mile—Katie does make it look easy, finishing a whopping 10 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher and setting a new Olympic record by five seconds.
An Olympic record she herself previously set in Tokyo.
And Katie’s 2024 Paris Olympics journey—her fourth time competing in the Games—isn’t even over. She has two more opportunities to secure herself a medal, during the 4x200 freestyle relay August 1 and in her final event, the 800-meter freestyle, on August 3.
If she were to win either event, Katie would officially become the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history—just don’t remind her.
For more history-making moments at the 2024 Games in Paris, keep reading.
Marchand Mania was at an all-time high during the men's 200m breaststroke final, when the French swimmer set an Olympic record of 2:05.85. The impressive time snagged Marchand his third gold medal at the Paris Games.
By winning a gold medal in K1, the canoeist became the first Australian athlete to win four consecutive Olympic medals in the same event—having taken home bronze at Tokyo 2020 and at Rio de Janeiro 2016, as well as silver in London 2012.
Her C1 gold medal victory three days later made her the most-decorated Olympic slalom paddler in the world.
The Chinese swimmer set a new world record in men's 100m freestyle with a gold medal-worthy time of 46.40 seconds, a full four tenths from his previous record.
With an Olympic record-breaking time of 15:30.02 in the women's 1500m freestyle, the American swimmer won her 12th medal—her eighth gold—and matched the record for most Olympic medals won by a U.S. woman.
She now also owns the 20 fastest women's 1500m freestyle times in history.
After braving the Seine, as well as streets of Paris on bike and foot, the Olympian claimed France's first gold medal in triathlon with a time of 1:54:55.
Once an aspiring Olympic gymnast, the sports shooter notched Guatemala's first-ever gold medal when she scored 45 points in the women's trap event.
The Brazilian surfer set a new Olympic record—and went viral with this photo—when he came out of a huge barrel wave with a 9.90, the highest single-wave score in the sport since surfing made its debut at 2020 Tokyo Games.
With his golden win in the men's park final, this BMX rider from Argentina rode his way into the history books by scoring the country's first individual medal in the sport of cycling.
In addition, his medal was Argentina's first in the 2024 Paris Olympics and the nation's first gold in any sport since 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
She really is the GOAT! Biles became the most decorated U.S. Olympic gymnast in history after winning her eighth medal—her fifth gold—at the women's gymnastics team all-around final.
But Biles wasn't the only gymnast who made history at the women's all-around final: Angela Andreoli, Alice D'Amato, Manila Esposito, Elisa Iorio, Giorgia Villa nabbed Team Italy its first medal in the event since 1928 with their silver win.
Rebeca Andrade, Jade Barbosa, Lorrane Oliveira, Flavia Saraiva and Julia Soares also made history on the podium, winning a bronze for Team Brazil's first-ever medal in women's gymnastics team all-around.
Just three days into the Paris Games, the sharpshooter entered the history books as the first Indian athlete to win multiple medals in a single edition of the Olympics since the nation gained independence in 1947.
She notched a bronze in the women's 10m air pistol—making her the first female shooter from India to win a medal at any Olympics—before landing another bronze alongside teammate Sarabjot Singh in the 10m air rifle, the country's first-ever shooting team medal.
With eight seconds left on the clock, Alex Sedrick caught a pass and scored as time ran out, leading to a conversion that resulted in a 14-12 game against Australia.
The dramatic victory gave the Women's Eagles a bronze, Team USA's first-ever Olympic medal in the rugby.
The Olympian made history as the first Romanian man to win a gold medal for swimming when he took home the top prize in the 200m freestyle event.
Just call it an American victory story! In scoring a bronze on July 29, the Team USA swimmer became the first man to win a 100m backstroke medal in three consecutive Olympics since 1972.
The prize was the latest addition to his already-impressive medal collection, which includes a bronze from Tokyo 2020 and a gold from the Rio de Janeiro Games 2016 for the same event.
The Australian swimmer set an Olympic record with a time of 1:53.27 in women’s 200m freestyle, beating out defending champ and teammate Ariarne Titmus for the gold.
No other gymnast except Simone Biles has ever performed a double layout with a half-twist—a difficult move aptly dubbed "Biles I"—at the Olympics until Heron came along.
The Panamanian athlete successfully landed it while competing against the stunt's namesake during the gymnastics qualifier.
Team Canada scored its first gold medal in judo thanks to Deguchi, who defeated Republic of Korea's Huh Mimi in a heated July 29 match.
In her first-ever Summer Games, the American swimmer broke the Olympic record in the 100m butterfly semifinal with a time of 55.38 seconds.
South Sudan—the youngest country in the world—made its Olympics debut on July 28, with their men's basketball team playing against Puerto Rico.
The South Sudan Bright Stars won their first-ever Olympic game with a final score of 90-79.
The sharpshooter made Olympic history as the world's first and only athlete to compete in 10 consecutive Summer Games when she pulled the trigger at the women's 10m air pistol qualifers on July 27.
The three-time medalist made her Olympic debut back at 1988 Seoul.
For the first time in Olympic history, Jordan was represented in men's gymnastic when Abu Al-Soud competed on the pommel horse. He finished with a score of 12.466 during the qualification round.
Syria also saw its first male gymnast compete in the Olympics during the Paris Summer Games, with Najjar raising the bar in the all-around event.
Stephen Nedoroscik, Frederick Richard, Brody Malone, Paul Juda and Asher Hong won Team USA's first medal in men's gymnastics in 16 years, earning a bronze.
The basketball player made history as the first Black flagbearer for Greece during the Opening Ceremony.
The track and field star, who turned 16 in January, "etched his name" in history, according to Team USA, when he became the youngest male athlete to make 4x400m relay squad.
As for the youngest athlete in any sport to make Team USA? That'll be Rivera, who turned 16 just weeks before she was selected to join the women's gymnastics team.
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