Katie Ledecky ready to make her mark on Olympic swimming stage

Faster and stronger

Lochte’s jaw dropped when he watched perhaps the biggest surprise of the 2012 Olympics: then-15-year-old Ledecky cruising to victory in the women’s 800 free final, breaking Janet Evans’ 23-year-old U.S. record in the longest distance the women swim in the Games and coming within half a second of breaking the world record.

“Who the heck is this girl?” Lochte remembers thinking. “This girl is going to be unbelievable. I’ve just watched her every year since, every swim meet. She’s just been getting faster, stronger. This girl is doing respectable times for guys.”

Lochte, along with the rest of the world’s swimming community, has seen incredible feats out of Ledecky over the last four years: nine gold medals in the world championships in events ranging from the 200 free to the mile, and five gold medals in the Pan Pacific Championships in 2014. No silvers, no bronze. In every final of every international meet she’s ever swum, she’s won gold.

“Learning to swim, I always loved freestyle,” said Ledecky, whose mother, Mary Gen, swam collegiately at the University of New Mexico. “I could tell it was my best stroke. And I think with most swimmers, their favorite stroke is their best stroke. I always loved freestyle and just started swimming the longer and longer distances as I pushed myself into those age groups where you get to swim longer events.”

Since the London Games four years ago, Ledecky’s repertoire has expanded beyond just the distance events. She’s worked her way down, becoming a world-class swimmer in the 200 free and even someone who contended for an Olympic roster spot in the 100 in the trials.

“I knew I could continue to improve,” Ledecky said. “As we started going to those meets after London, I could tell that I was getting faster at some of the shorter events, and I made it a goal to make the 4x200 free relay in Barcelona at Worlds (in 2013) — and kind of exceeded my expectations and swam among the top 200 freestyle times in the country. It just kind of came on suddenly.

“Once I hit the international swimming stage, I kind of wanted to see if I could do more than just the 800. Obviously, the 400 would be the next step.”

And so on. Evans, who has become close with the Ledecky family in recent years, views Ledecky as a “a middle-distance swimmer who kind of hung on for the 800 and the mile.”

“She’s clearly that good,” said Evans, who won four gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 Olympics. “But her stroke and technique and power, I always thought middle (distance). She’s got that easy speed. It’s evident she could go down to the 100.

bbc