I would like to start off this article with an apology to my friends and family who encountered my behavior during the 2016 Olympic Swimming Trials.
From 6:30-8:30 pm, my nose would practically be touching the TV screen as my athletic heroes bumped elbows and raced beside each other. In a daze of second hand adrenaline, I would shout out facts about the basics and complexities of swimming to whichever passerby were near. I may have been asked by my boyfriend to stop tagging him in clips of my favorite races (almost all of them) on Facebook.
But championship season is the one time a year I relish in my swimming roots. The lifeguards at summer camp endearingly/embarrassingly only called me "Fishie" from ages 4-11, due to my innate enthusiasm and skill during swim lessons. Fast forward; this winter marks my 7th year swimming competitively as a slightly sub par- but highly persistent- member of club teams and my high school varsity team.
In every pool, names such as Phelps, Lochte, Coughlin, and Franklin would be used as vocabulary to describe swimmers, but one name that was never tossed around was Katie Ledecky. Part of the reason was her age; she was only 15 during her last Olympics (2 years older than me) and too young to be known during most of my childhood swim career, but most of the reason my teammates and I were never compared to Ledecky is that she is incomparable.
Katie has been in a league of her own since her breakout performance in the 2012 Olympics, lapping some of the best swimmers in the world and smashing their records to shambles- then beating her own up to five times since then. Most of my swim babble these past few weeks have been centered around Katie and her immense success at trials (again, sincerest apologies to those who have been force-fed my Katie crazy). This list gathers my girl crush into a more concise format, so any young swimmer or avid follower can understand the significance of Ledecky's career and how it effects any other swimmer who follows in her footsteps.
1. She has broken 11 world records (don't even starting counting her American and meet records).
Since her first world record in the 800m at the 2012 Olympics, Katie has set records in the 400m, 800m, and 1500m freestyles and has broken them all numerous times. She has lowered the previous world record in the 1500m freestyle by over 11 seconds, making it untouchable to any runner-ups.
2. The "untouchable to any runner-ups" thing is a very real thing.
She has 15 medals in international championship meets - no silver or bronze, only gold. Not to mention the 7 medals (once again, all gold) she won by herself during just one World Aquatics Championship (setting a record for most medals won at that meet, of course.)
3. She sweeps the pool in freestyle.
Ledecky began her career swimming long distance events, specializing in the 1500m and 800m freestyle (for non-swimmers: your local lap pool is probably 25m, an Olympic-sized pool is 50m). In recent years, she has also begun swimming the 400m and even the 200m, considered short distance events to pro swimmers like Ledecky. Training for sprinting and long distance events is completely different physically and psychologically, and training for both simultaneously often counteracts the nature of the other. It is extremely rare that national-level swimmers are able to compete and excel at such a wide range of distances, which is why Ledecky's versatility once again sets her in a league of her own.
4. Even Phelps has to watch out for her.
Katie's biggest splash (pun intended) in the media came last year when she swam the exact same time as Michael Phelps, both swimming 4 minutes, 2.67 seconds for the 400m during preliminaries. In other words, the best swimmer of all time was 0.01 seconds away from being beaten by an 18-year-old girl. Katie is also the first female swimmer in history to qualify for TWO men's Olympic trials events, astoundingly under the 1500m freestyle cut by over 21 seconds.
5. It's no fluke she "swims like a man."
She literally trains like one. While most female swimmers glide through the water, Katie gallops. Since her core strength is better than most female athletes, her body imitates men like Phelps. She capitalizes on her core by alternating arm strokes to be short, long, long, short, allowing her to bound through the water. She also spends hours each day perfecting her technique at Nation's Capitol Swim Club, a team notorious for cranking out pros.
6. She still has most of her career ahead of her.
Even though she's earned more titles already than an average pro swimmer earns in a lifetime, Ledecky is still only 19. She will most likely have another decade to keep advancing and expanding as a swimmer; she will reach lengths that are untouchable even to her current self. Future swimmers will need to train harder, quicker, and creatively if they want to eventually crack Katie's legacy. They have to find their own unique advantages and work towards a larger goal, or else Katie Ledecky will never be a name thrown for comparison on the pool deck. Aspiring pros have to use Katie's secrets to their advantage, or else the pool will remain unchanged for decades. Without a doubt, Ledecky will go down as one of the best swimmers in history, but the challenge for the swim world now is: who can top that?
